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"In Velingrad is the best bridge-tournament in Bulgaria" - may be a compliment to the hosts, but such assessments were heard from the participants at the closing of the five-day contested race.
The third bridge-tournament "Velingrad 2002" took place in Kamena BLC from 24 to 28 April. The organizer of the now traditional event is the local bridge-club. The sponsors "Athletic", "Petrofer", "Delta Plus", "Beev Gas", restaurant "Chinarite", hotel "Zdravets" helped for the record in Bulgarian scale.
In total, over 150 bridgers from all geographical areas of the country took part in the five separate tournaments. Appear for the first time and a team from Belitsa. The Velingrad tournament solidified its glory that attracted by the big cash prizes, here come the real masters who compete on a European and global scale. The presence of this year's Republican champions Trendafilov - Karaivanov, of established names such as Vl. Filkov, Isporski, Drumev, Tanev, Kavlakov, Dobrodolski, Ikov, Al Shati and others. They prove it. The new generation in the face of Mihov, Nanev, Ivanova and others. demonstrates a lot of drive and ambition.
The brijors from Velingrad showed that they have taken a step forward by ranking among the winners for the first time this year. In the big team tournament "Athletic" team BC "Velingrad" (Yordan Baev, Ivan Baev, Borislav Trichkov, Stefan Trichkov) took second place in the final "S". In the small team tournament "Delta plus" team "DIMKAM" (Methods Valkov, Dimo Dimov, G. Shterev, P. Panev) are seventh and won a prize from the "happy loser" scheme. Valkov - Dimov were convincing in the doubles tournament "Petrofer", where they won second place in the final C. Thus, they proved that their participation in the final of the Rubican championship in February was not the result of a happy accident.
To a large extent, the tournament confirmed the opinion that at the moment in Bulgaria serious bridge is mainly played in Sofia and Varna. Unlike previous years, however, there were no dominant pairs and teams, it was a colorful ranking - apparently the forces are more aligned. Here are the names of the winners:
Individual tournament "Tempo Newspaper": Veselin Velichkov, Ilko Popov, Todor Kostadinov
Double tournament "Kamena": Marinovski - Tsekov, Dobrodolski - Ikov, Aronov - Peychev
Team tournament "Delta plus": "Bridge plus" Sofia - Varna (Y. Karaivanov, Stamatov, K. Karaivanov, Trendafilov), GIB - Burgas, "Robin Hood"
"Petrofer" double tournament: Mihov - Nanev, Stamatov - Karaivanov, Kavlakov - Gunev
Athletic team tournament: Lukoil Burgas (Denev, Bulanov, Radev, Popov), Bridge Plus, Levski Sofia
The Cups, a work of Georgi Nikolov, and the awards of the winners were presented personally by the mayor of the municipality, Dr. Tsvetan Dafov, who thanked the organizers and invited the bridgers next year to a tournament in Velingrad.
Members of Bridge-club "Velingrad" chaired by Yordan Baev put a huge effort in the preparation and conduct of the tournament. Much for the good race made and referee three Dimitar Georgiev, Asen Zlatkov, Zheko Zhekov.
Along with the well-deserved high marks for the race, an unpleasant incident occurred: a Mercedes car of one of the participants was stolen from the central parking lot in front of Zdravec in broad daylight. It is a pity, but while efforts are being made to build the image of Velingrad as a resort, such cases work exactly in the opposite direction.
The third bridge-tournament "Velingrad 2002" set a very high bar in terms of both organization and prize fund, and last but not least - of mastery. For the first time in the final of the big team tournament, the European knock-out system (which falls, stops playing) was introduced. For next year, there are already new ideas to make sports bridge even more attractive and dynamic.
Tempo