The first reference to bridge, can be traced to a public sermon published by Bishop Latimer un-England. Through successive centuries, prototype forms of whist were played under the names as Triumph, Trump, Ruff, Slamm, whisk and whist.

Whist was popular till the middle of 17th century, but the first book devoted to whist appeared in 1742. The first game of duplicate bridge was played in London in 1875. The first duplicate match was played in Glasgow, Scotland in 1988.

Bridge had come on the scene in 1890. In 1891, the first book on the organization of tournament play was published, written by JOHN T MITCHELL. In 1892, Henry L Berrey published the first privately printed Laws of Bridge. Portland Club in London started playing bridge in 1894.

There are claims and evidence of bridge being played in Russia-Turkish was of 1877-78. Another claim says Britch was popular in 1879 in Constantinople.

An important change from whist was the exposure of one hand- dealers partner –the dummy. This soon gave way to an auction bridge.

The next major change was perhaps the development of a game known as PLAFOND in 1918 and even earlier. Whist, bridge,auction and Plafond all grew.

In 1925, Harold Vanderbilt perfected a new form of the game which he called Contract bridge. He included vulnerability concept and premiums for slams bid and made. In 1928, the first national championship was held in New York with Vanderbilt cup as prize. Scoring tables developed by Vanderbilt were adopted.

The first recognized world bridge championships were held in 1935.

The world Bridge Federation was formed in 1958 in Oslo, Norway with delegates from Europe, USA and North America being the founder members. The first team Olympiad was played in 1960.