The event is contested for the Reisinger Trophy. It is a six-session open team-of-four event scored by board-a-match with two qualifying sessions, two semifinal sessions and two final sessions. It was contested as a four-session championship until 1966. The event began in 1929 as the North American Open Team Championship and the prize was the Chicago Trophy, donated by the Auction Bridge Club of Chicago. The Chicago Trophy was replaced in 1965 by the Reisinger Memorial Trophy, donated by the Greater New York Bridge Association in memory of Curt H. Reisinger. Reisinger, from New York City, was a principal patron of contract bridge and the AmericanContract Bridge League in the early years of both; he was a great-grandson of Anheuser and a grandson of Busch, co-founders of the brewery from which he inherited great wealth. That wealth enabled him to become a stalwart financial supporter of the game, as well as a noted philanthropist on a larger scale.
Winners
Board-a-match scoring generates many ties in the standings for each session and several ties after three days play. The Vanderbilt Cup was inaugurated one year before the Chicago Trophy and contested at board-a-match scoring that year, with a tie result. As the Chicago or the Reisinger since then, there have been six ties for first place including a 3-way tie in 1947 and a 4-way in 1984. Numerous champion teams have defended their titles successfully without change in personnel. The four-person 1937 and 1938 champions added B. Jay Becker in 1939 and won again; one foursome including Becker won in 1942 and 1943, another won in 1953 and 1954—and 1956. For the Reisinger Trophy since 1966, there have been intact repeats in 1975, 1979 with a tie, 1994–95, 1999, 2005, 2011, and 2013. The one intact three-year winner, from 1993 to 1995, was Nick Nickell's professional team: Nickell, Richard Freeman, Bob Hamman, Bobby Wolff, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell. It also won four Spingolds from 1993 to 1996 intact and the 1995 world championshipBermuda Bowl representing the United States. After one personnel change, Nickell was a double winner again in 2004–05, and a winner in 2008–09 across one change owing to death.
