Jérôme Rombaut in Team France at the next European Bridge Team Championships held in Budapest

François Combescure – Thomas Bessis – Frédéric Volcker – Jean-Christophe Quantin – Cédric Lorenzini – Jérôme Rombaut

Jérôme Rombaut, one of the creators of Funbridge who is also in charge of the development of Argine (i.e. the AI playing with you), qualified for the French Open Team with his partner François Combescure after selection rounds which took place at the headquarters of the French Bridge Federation (FFB) in late April.

France Team is made up of:

• Cédric Lorenzini, 26 years old
• Frédéric Volcker, 32 years old
• Thomas Bessis, 32 years old
• Jérôme Rombaut, 42 years old
• François Combescure, 49 years old
• Jean-Christophe Quantin, 49 years old
• Captain: Lionel Sebbane, 42 years old

The players listed above will thus take part in the European Bridge Team Championships that will be held in Budapest, Hungary, from the 16^th to the 26^th of June 2016.

It is worth noting that France Team is made up of the top 5 players in the FFB rankings!

The top Expert Points and Performance Points* holders in the national rankings are Jérôme Rombaut and Cédric Lorenzini respectively.

On paper the team looks great but will they be able to reach the podium?

Over the last 30 years, the results of France Team at European Championships have been far from stellar. Indeed, the last title won by the French dates back to 1983 in Germany. At that time half of the players of the current team were not yet born! Subsequently, they recorded their best result in 1995 in Portugal where they finished second.

You can find the list of the 37 teams currently registered for the event below. By way of comparison, 23 teams will face each other in the Women’s and Seniors Championships, which will therefore be played over a shorter period of time and start a few days after the Open Series.

Team rosters are available here: list of participants

	Austria		Georgia		Portugal
	Belarus		Germany		Romania
	Belgium		Greece		Russia
	Bulgaria		Hungary		Scotland
	Croatia		Iceland		Serbia
	Cyprus		Ireland		Spain
	Czech Republic		Israel		Sweden
	Denmark		Italy		Switzerland
	England		Latvia		Turkey
	Estonia		Monaco		Ukraine
	Faroe Islands		Netherlands		Wales
	Finland		Norway
	France		Poland

Finally, we should also see France Team playing at the World Bridge Teams Championships to be held in Lyon in 2017.

Below is the list of the favourites who are expected to secure one of the first 6 qualifying places:

	Germany		England
	France		Netherlands
	Israel		Italy
	Monaco		Norway
	Poland		Sweden

*“Points d’Expert” and “Points de Performance” in French.