I’ve been a long-time reader of predictions, prophecies and tabloid news articles throughout history that tells us what the writer and a handful of experts imagine the world will look like in ten or twenty years. It’s fascinating to see what people thought the world might have looked like based on their perception at the time – and of course, there are some prophecies that got things eerily correct, perhaps by sheer chance.

As a thought, and perhaps a regular annual one from now on, I’d like to make a handful of my own predictions for the game of bridge. For now, let’s look at a few things I think we might see within the game this year – and of course, let’s talk again in about a year’s time to see if any of this was on point.

Inactive Players Returning Back to Bridge

A lot of players have left the game of bridge over the years, or just stopped playing when they moved or their bridge partners moved away: Sometimes life just gets in the way and one pastime takes the place of another.

Over the past few months, I’ve seen an increase in the amount of players who used to play bridge reviving their interest and coming back to the game.

In 2020, I believe the amount of returning players will continue to increase, many of them introduced to online bridge on BBO by their younger family members.

With this, we might also see the return of certain classic and regional conventions we haven’t seen in a while.

Bridge Challenges Rising Up

There’s a certain charm in card and game challenges: One team or player challenging another to a friendly game. It’s an ancient art – and I like to think that bridge challenges are going to see a huge increase in 2020.

The game is seeing more younger players, more returning players and more players from other card and board games: What this means for the game is that more people are up for a good classic challenge than ever before.

Of course, the advent of streaming also means that we’ll see many of these games on platforms like Twitch and YouTube than ever before.

Going Up…

Bridge is getting more mentions in mainstream media and TV shows: This means that regular people are hearing about bridge, learning about bridge and getting to play bridge. Most myths about bridge have gone far out the window in the past decade: It’s buzzing as much as in the heydays of bridge – and for 2020, this means an increase in membership numbers predicted for bridge organizations and clubs.

More Bridge Memes

With the increase of bridge players and increasing mentions of bridge everywhere on the internet, there’s a predicted increase in the amount of bridge memes in the cards. I predict that we’re going to see partnership, card and bridge memes go up this year: We can even turn this into a self-fulfilling prophecy by putting in some effort on social media to give bridge a push. Have you created or shared a bridge meme yet? Now might be the best time to start.

Bridge in Space

I’ve written about bridge and cards played in space before, and I’m hoping – and partially predicting – that 2020 might be the year we see it happen. (And by God, I’ll keep pushing for it until it does…). In the days of modern convenience, we can link up with astronauts on the International Space Station for a quick Skype call to back home – and we can certainly use the same technology for a never-before-seen bridge game between players on Earth and players in space.

Bridge: The Animated TV Show or Graphic Novel

Why hasn’t there been a bridge TV show in the style of classic anime card duels – and why can’t 2020 be the year that we see it?

I’m hoping that whoever has the resources puts this one into motion and links up with a studio (yes, even a small one) to bring us an animated web show that showcases a fictionalized world of bridge. Episodes can be short, and I’ll even bite if it’s in graphic novel form. What do you think?