Vienna Ready for European Youth
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Junior BLReview July-December 1998 No. 6 Editor: Panos Gerontopoulos VIENNA READY FOR EUROPEAN YOUTH Everything is ready in VIENNA for the 16th Euro- that many of the open worlds talents start their PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES pean Youth Championships which get under careers by shining in Junior bridge competitions. AUSTRIA way on Thursday 16 July 1998 at the magnificent It is expected that, when the curtain falls on Sunday BELARUS Wiener Rathaus (Vienna City Hall). 26 July, not only Europes best young players will CROATIA For the following 10 days, Vienna will be the centre be known, but another example will have been set CZECH REPUBLIC of interest of European bridge, as it is well known of good ethics and proper conduct. DENMARK FINLAND The Championships consist of two World Junior Team Championship. last year. In the Schools, the situation series: the Juniors (for players born This is a competition between teams is very unclear, but Germany will try to FRANCE in 1973 or later) and the Schools (for representing the seven geographical retain the title they won in 1996 GERMANY players born in 1978 or later). Both zones of the World Bridge Federation. strongly challenged by Great Britain, GREAT BRITAIN series are open to all member coun- Europe takes part with the first four France, Italy, Israel, Poland and the GREECE tries of the European Bridge League. teams of the Junior series. Scandinavians. Each country may participate in the HUNGARY At the time of writing, 24 European The Championships programme, ar- Championships represented by its ICELAND countries had entered their teams in ranged by the Austrian organizers, is national team in either or both series. the Junior series, while 12 did so in not restricted to bridge, but includes a ISRAEL The format of the Championships is a the Schools series. number of social functions and a won- ITALY simple round robin in each series, The battle for the European crown is derful daily visit to Viennese cultural NETHERLANDS which brings each team face to face always unpredictable when it comes to and recreational attractions. NORWAY with every other team. Matches are young players. Talent may develop so played over 20 boards. It is revealing of the importance gov- POLAND fast in a 2-year interval that any fore- erning bodies attach to Junior bridge Participating teams have a European telling is close to pure guess. that the tournament will be attended PORTUGAL title and a prestigious trophy at stake: However, all countries who have per- by such top-level personalities as the RUSSIA the David Pigot Cup, awarded to the formed well in the past will be com- President of the World Bridge Feder- SPAIN first team of the Junior series, and the peting in Vienna. In the Juniors, the ation José Damiani and the President SWEDEN José Damiani Trophy, given to the of the European Bridge League Bill field is inevitably dominated by TURKEY winner of the Schools series. Norway, the reigning European Jun- Pencharz. Technically, as well as from In addition, the Junior series acts as ior champions, and Denmark who the point of view of personnel, the UKRAINE Europes qualifier for next years won the World Junior Championship tournament will be second to none. YUGOSLAVIA JUNIOR TRIATHLON IN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS For the first time ever, a Junior event has been ment will also count separately, with prizes and attractive as possible to young players. Juniors included in the programme of the World rankings for the top competitors. The Junior can take advantage of very cheap student Championships, held every even-numbered Triathlon is a transnational event in the sense accommodation arranged by the organizers. non-leap year. that teammates and partners may represent There will be no entry fee for the Triathlon ses- The Junior Triathlon consists of a teams compe- different countries. sions, while Juniors who wish to stay on and tition, followed by a pairs tournament and an The Junior Triathlon will take place in Lille, play in the World Open Pairs will only be individual event. The winner of the competition France, from Monday to Friday, August 24-28. charged half the entry fees. will be the player who has scored better in all The World Bridge Federation has taken every Entries to the Junior Triathlon are made exclu- three events combined. However, each tourna- possible measure to make the tournament as sively through the National Federations. 2 EBL Junior Review July-December 1998 INTERNATIONAL YOUTH FESTIVAL 98 NO PROBLEM FOR NORWAY down and after twenty minutes the his year, the 6th Hero initial hesitation had vanished. That T International Youth is what I like: good eaters. Bridge Festival was held in s-Hertogenbosch, The Nether- Jan Rijnaarts, the local organizer, lands, January 4-12, mainly spon- managed to find 22 co-sponsors to sored by Hero. cover expenses, besides Hero, the main sponsor. Practically, the The event started as a four-day teams had no financial obligations tournament in 1992 with 7 teams since, instead of paying entry fees, competing, but it has now grown to they were given 1,000 Dutch an eight-day event with as many as Guilders for their travel expenses! 21 junior teams taking part. Also, at the beginning the tournament The main tournament was a 4-day involved European teams only, but round robin, followed by semifi- this year USA, Canada and nals, final and 3rd place playoff for Indonesia were added to provide a the top four teams, and a Swiss more global character. tournament for the rest. Playing conditions in s-Hertogenboschs Winners NORWAY: Christer KRISTOFFERSEN, Boye BROGELAND, Øyvind SAUR, The technical standard of the tour- Hogenschool were excellent. nament is quite high but what real- Thomas CHARLSEN, npc Sten BJERTNES and their guest parents ly strikes is how the whole event is Norway had no difficulty to win the organized. competition. Christer KRISTOFFER- FINAL 1st SEMIFINAL SEN, Boye BROGELAND, Øyvind NORWAY 121 NORWAY 69 The Juniors stay in the homes of SAUR and Thomas CHARLSEN - the NETHERLANDS A 40 IRELAND 22 local bridge players, called guest nucleus of the team which won the parents. The event starts with a 1996 Junior European and was sec- 3rd PLACE PLAYOFF 2nd SEMIFINAL welcome tournament in which ond in the 1997 World Junior IRELAND 61 NETHERLANDS A 59 both juniors and the guest parents Championships - won easily the PORTUGAL 114 PORTUGAL 38 take part. After the end of the ses- round robin, their semifinal ROUND ROBIN sion every guest parent picks up his against Ireland and the final 1 NORWAY 401 12 FINLAND 323 juniors and takes them to what is against Netherlands A. Portugal 2 IRELAND 360 13 POLAND 307 going to be home for both during came third, beating Ireland in the 3 NETHERLANDS A 358 14 GERMANY 299 the coming week. How is it like playoff. when they arrive? One guest parent 4 PORTUGAL 356 15 SWEDEN 296 talked about it: Norway is the only team that has 5 ICELAND 348 16 TURKEY 293 won the event twice; the other win- 6 RUSSIA 348 17 CANADA 281 I told them that they had two ners being Germany (1993), 7 GREAT BRITAIN 343 18 GREECE 261 loaves of bread, brown and white, Denmark (1994), Russia (1996) 8 AUSTRIA 341 19 NETHERLANDS B 247 some croissants, sausage-sandwich- and Italy (1997). 9 USA 334 20 HUNGARY 245 es, cheese, ham eggs, orange juice, 10 CZECH REPUBLIC 333 21 INDONESIA 229 milk and fruit. The youngsters sat Thanassis Matziaris 11 ITALY 325 EUROPEAN JUNIORS READY FOR CAMP IN AMERICA Some 20 European Juniors, experienced in August 1998. About 100 Juniors are expected to have contributed tremendously in the populariza- Bridge Camps, from more than a dozen coun- participate, including the European delegation. tion of bridge among young people. The idea tries, are getting ready for taking part in the Following Florida 96, this is the second time was later exported to the world, and Camps held Junior Camp organized this summer by the that European Juniors are subsidized by the EBL in Europe in odd-numbered years now attract American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). in order to help in the development of the Camp participants from five continents. The ACBL orga- nizes Camps in even-numbered years, right after idea across the Atlantic. The Camp will be held in St. Johns Northwestern the North American Nationals, with increasing Military Academy, Delafield, Wisconsin, 3-9 Since their introduction in 1976, Junior Camps appeal to American and Canadian youngsters. July-December 1998 EBL Junior Review 3 POLISH JUNIORS WIN PRE-OLYMPIC EVENT Under the patronage of the EBL and the Polish Olympic Committee, the Polish Bridge Union (PBU) organized a Pre-Olympic tourna- ment for young players in Warsaw, May 1-3. The patronage allowed the official use of the five Olympic circles for the first time in a bridge tourna- ment. This helped PBU to obtain important sponsors, including ZUS (Polands main state insurance company), the Energy Bank and the 4-start Forum Hotel, where the event took place under excellent accommodation conditions. 12 Junior teams took part in the 2- Pre-Olympic winners POLAND: Eliza Janczewska (not available), Jacek Piontke, day event, including the national Tomasz Pilch, Tomasz Przyjemski, Krzysztof Warzocha, Marcin Zaremba teams of the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Russia and several Polish teams. SUMMER JUNIOR CAMP IN ENGLAND After a round robin, Poland II beat Denmark in one semifinal and The English Bridge Union (EBU) organizes a Summer Former Junior internationals Jon Cooke, Danny Russia prevailed over Mazovia Bridge Camp for young people aged 14-24.