The World Mixed Teams Championship is a bridge competition for teams of mixed pairs. At every table, two teams are always represented by a mixed pair, one man and one woman.
The Mixed Teams event was held in conjunction with the first and fourth World Pair Olympiads in 1962 and 1974.[1] (Other World Pair Olympiads included a Mixed Pairs event.)[citation needed] One Mixed Teams event was conducted in a Team Olympiad year, 1972.[NB 1]
It was revived in 1996 as World Transnational Mixed Teams Championship. The revived event has been held every leap year as a secondary component of the World Team Olympiad and its successor meet, the World Mind Sports Games.[2]
With the Olympiad, the Mixed Teams has started after the latter's qualifying stage has been concluded. Teams that failed to qualify in the main event as well as new teams may enter. Each team must comprise at least two men and two women. The maximum number of team members is six. During play each pair must consist of one woman and one man. It is not necessary that all team members be from the same country – hence the transnational. A series of Swiss matches leads to the qualification of the top four teams for knockout semifinals and finals.
The World Mixed Swiss Teams is another world championship series for mixed teams, now conducted in non-leap even years as part of the World Bridge Series. Both now permit transnational entries. The difference is between KO and Swiss format. The leap years event is a knockout for 16 teams that survive preliminary play while is a Swiss.[3] (All teams play several short matches every day throughout the contest, never facing the any team for a second time.)
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