IN THIS ISSUE

Ën Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

n Tournament round-up . . 2

n 1998 EEuurrooppeeaann MMiixxeeddCChhaammppiioonnsshhiippss to be held inAachen, Germany, March 28-April 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

n Letter from the President 4

n DDaanniieellaa vvoonn AArrnniimm: inter-view with the 1997 EuropeanLadies Pairs champion. . . . 5

n IIttaallyy retains European Opentitle, while GGrreeaatt BBrriittaaiinn winsLadies series at 1997 EEuurrooppeeaannCChhaammppiioonnsshhiippss . . . . . . . 6-7

n Interview with NNuunnoo MMaattooss,President of the PortugueseBridge Federation . . . . . . . 8

n Golden moments for PPoollaannddand FFrraannccee at the 1997 EEuurroo--ppeeaann PPaaiirrss CChhaammppiioonnsshhiippss,held in The Hague, The Nether-lands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

n Master Points. . . . . . . 10

n AAuukkeenn--vvoonn AArrnniimm retainLadies Pairs crown . . . . . 11

n Ladies Committee . . . 11

n Competition Calendar. 12

Review

ITALY RETAINS EUROPEAN TITLEGREAT BRITAIN

WINSWOMEN SERIES

ITALY scored its second successive vic-tory at the GENERALI European TeamChampionships, held in MontecatiniTerme of the victorious country, 14-28June 1997.Competing among 35 nations who tookpart in the record-braking tournament,ITALY went ahead after round 7 andnever left this comfortable position.

The silver medal was won by POLANDwhile the bronze went to NORWAY.These three teams have qualified to rep-resent Europe in the 1997 World ZonalChampionship - the Bermuda Bowl -which is scheduled to be held in Tunisiain October, together with the fourth andfifth ranked teams, DENMARK andFRANCE.

Sixteen years after theirlast similar success,GREAT BRITAIN won theEuropean Ladies Teamstitle, finishing ahead ofthe 24-nation field at the1997 GENERALIEuropean Teams.Second place went toFRANCE and third toISRAEL. These teams willbe joined by fourth-placed GERMANY andThe NETHERLANDS whofinished fifth, in trying todefend the WorldWomen�s title in Tunisia,and keep the Venice Cupin Europe. The reigningchampions are GER-MANY.

PAIRS CHAMPIONSHIPS

GERMANY KEEPS EUROPEAN LADIES PAIRS TITLE- SWEDEN WINS WORLD JUNIOR PAIRS

Sabine Auken and Daniela von Arnim of Germany succeededin winning the European Ladies Pairs title for the second time in arow. The 6th event of the series took place in Montecatini Terme,just before the start of the Womens� team series. This year�sevent was supported by GENERALI, and attracted the record entryof 148 pairs from 17 countries. Golin-Olivieri of the host countryand Cohen-Zuccarelli of France took the other medals.The 2nd World Junior Pairs Championship, held in SportiliaSports Academy, Italy, July 11-13, 1997, was won by StefanSolbrand and Olle Wademark of Sweden who ended up on topof a field comprising 156 pairs from 27 countries and five WBFzones. Mette Drøgemüller of Denmark and Sebastian Reim ofGermany finished second, followed by Norway�s Boye Brogelandand Trond Hantveit.

In the first half of 1997,the EBL was fortunateenough to score a numberof undeniable successes.

The European PairsChampionships, held inMarch in The Hague, wasa test case of what theEBL can do without PHILIPMORRIS, the traditionalsponsor of the tourna-ment. Entries were high,and so was the organiza-tion, thanks to the supportof the Dutch BridgeFederation.

The biennial EuropeanTeams and Ladies Pairswere held in Italy�sMontecatini Terme, inJune. Again, the successwas obvious: a recordentry of 36 nations, awonderful organizationdue to GENERALI and theItalian Federation�sresources, and a lovelylocation according to thetaste of Giuseppe Verdiand many bridge players.

A little later, the EBL orga-nized the World JuniorPairs and Camp whichattracted more youngplayers than ever beforeand offered unforgettablemoments high on Italy�sApennines mountains.

All seems well, therefore -but it will be well if wecan safeguard our pros-perity despite the lack ofsponsors, and withoutsacrificing (on the con-trary, expanding) our ser-vices to the member coun-tries - especially thosewho mostly need it.

The EBL will soon be dis-cussing in detail questionsabout the future ofEuropean bridge. Perhapswe should all start think-ing of the right answers.

The Forbo-Krommenie InternationalThe 55tthh FFoorrbboo--KKrroommmmeenniiee IInn--tteerrnnaattiioonnaall BBrriiddggee TToouurrnnaammeenntttook place at the Schevenin-gen Kurhaus, The Hague, TheNetherlands, 21-23 February1997.It seems that this event is tay-lor-made for IIttaallyy. Followinglast year�s success, this timethey were not content winningthe Nations� Cup by a margin,but they also finished at thetop of the International Teamscompetition, ahead of Mah-mood and France. The Italianteam comprised NNoorrbbeerrttooBBoocccchhii, AAnnddrreeaa BBuurraattttii, MMaassssii--

mmoo LLaannzzaarroottttii and AAllffrreeddoo VVeerr--ssaaccee - all European champi-ons - with Giancarlo Berna-sconi as npc.

One more event was organizedon the sidelines: the Friend-ship Cup open to politicians,the Parliamentary Press andbusiness friends of the Forbo-Krommenie company.

The Cup was won by KKaawwuurr--PPaanneelleewwaann of Indonesia. TheParliamentary Press team beatthe politicians 55-46, whilethe best journalist pair wereHeyman-Harren with 57.79%.

Mind Sports OlympiadThe 11sstt MMiinndd SSppoorrttss OOllyymmppiiaaddwill take place at the RoyalFestival Hall, London, GreatBritain, 18-24 August 1997.The Olympiad comprises tour-naments for more than 30 dif-ferent games and mental skills,including chess, draughts, go,Othello. scrabble, backgam-mon, mastermind, etc. - and, ofcourse, bridge.There will be four bbrriiddggee tourna-ments at the Olympiad, with£9,500 of prize money, medalsfor the best adults and juniors,and English Bridge UnionMaster Points awarded to thewinners.A pairs tournament will run fromMonday to Thursday, August18-21, with over £5,000 ofprize money.

There will also be three one-daytournaments, each with a totalprize money of £1,400: SwissPairs, Friday 22 August; SwissTeams, Saturday 23; and Teamson Sunday 24 August (2-ses-sion event).

The Mind Sports Olympiad issupported by Skandia, the fian-cial services and insurancegiant, thanks to whom a totalprize fund of £100,000 hasbeen raised.

The Olympiad is open to every-one. EEnnttrriieess should be address-ed to: Mind Sports Olympiad,P.O.Box 13388, London NW32ZF, Great Britain.

( +44-171-485 9146,2 +44-171-482 0672,7 DavidL@intrsrch.demon.co.uk

1999 European Championshipsto be held in Turkey

The 44th GENERALI European Teams Championshipswill be held in Izmir, Turkey.The EBL Executive Committee accepted a proposal bythe Turkish Bridge Federation and preparations arealready underway for organizing the League�s top com-petition at an International Convention Center in Izmir, 3-17 July 1999.

5th

EURO

PEAN

MIX

ED C

HAM

PION

SHIP

S EUROCONGRESS, AACHEN, GERMANY28 MARCH

- 3 APRIL 1998

PRIZE MONEY:1st PAIR - SF 5,000 / 1st TEAM - SF 10,000

LETTER FROMTHE PRESIDENT

Bill Pencharz

I have just returned homefrom the 43rd GENER-ALI European Bridge

Championships which tookplace in Montecatini Termeduring the last two weeks ofJune. The championshipswere hosted with great styleand panache by the Federa-zione Italiana Gioco Bridge(FIGB).

The English word for Giocois sport, of course. Fouryears ago the Italian Feder-ation added the word Giocoto its name to mark the beliefthat Bridge is indeed a sport.

And the 552 Boards playedover ten days in the LadiesSeries was a feat of similarproportions.

Truly, Bridge is a sport. Amind sport, and a greatsport.

All great sports need theirChampions; their heroes andheroines; their role models;

The Italian Bridge Federationis affiliated to the ItalianOlympic Committee (CONI)and is permitted to use thefive linked Olympic rings aspart of its Logo.

In the Open Series of the43rd GENERALI EuropeanBridge Championships eachteam played 34 matches of24 boards; a total of 816boards. The concentration,the self discipline, the men-tal and the physical effort ofthe par ticipants over thefortnight of the Champion-ships was truly remarkable.

their stars. Stars bring glam-our, excitement and enhanc-ed competition to a sport.Stars wax and wane and wecan all follow the successes(and failures) of our favour-ites.

The European Bridge Leaguehas introduced two innova-tions so that the stars of theBridge firmament can shinemore brightly and be seenmore clearly.

First, the Butler Scoring ofall Pairs competing in theEuropean Teams Champion-ships has been extended tothe Ladies Series. The run-ning scores were reportedeach day in the Daily Bulletinand the leading three Pairs inboth the Open and theLadies Series have beeninvited to represent the EBLin the 2nd MARLBORO ChinaCup which will be held inChina at the beginning ofSeptember. The names ofthe leading pairs, with the

statistics of the perform-ance, are set out on pages6-7 of this issue.

Second, using the EBLMaster Points System as itsbase, we have introduced acurrent Ranking List ofEuropean Bridge Players.The Ranling List is based onEBL Master Points won overthe last four years, with

Sabine Auken joins EBL Executive CommitteeKielbasinski & Oliveira re-elected - Johannsson retires

those won four years agodepreciated by 75%, thosewon two years ago by 50%and those won one year agoby 25%. The list will be up-dated on a regular basis andconsequently in order tostay in The Ranking a playerwill have to participate regu-larly and achieve high finish-ing positions frequently. TheSecretary of the EBL MasterPoints Committee, Paul Ma-ris, has devised the RankingList and has updated it fol-lowing the 43rd GENERALIEuropean Bridge Cham-pionships. The up-to-datelist will be published in thenext edition of the EBL Re-view.

To all of you - from thebrightest of stars to us meremortals - I send my bestwishes.

At the meetings of the EBL Congress in Montecatini, SabineAuken of Germany was elected member of the ExecutiveCommittee of the League for four years.Mrs Auken filled the position left vacant after the retirementof Helgi Johannsson of Iceland. Mr Johannsson was elect-ed in 1993, but did not seek re-election at the end of his 4-year term.

At the same meetings, Radoslaw Kielbasinski of Poland andJosé Soares de Oliveira of Portugal sought re-election at theend of their 2-year term as members of the ExecutiveCommittee - and both were re-elected by the Congress toserve further 4-year terms.The EBL Congress meets regularly every two years, duringthe European Teams Championships.

Daniela, congratulations on thewonderful achievement of you &Sabine Auken in retaining your title asGENERALI European Ladies Pairschampions. Please tell us somethingabout yourself.

I have two sisters. My father worked in GermanTV as a cameraman, and when I was fivemonths old, he was sent to Hong Kong. Thefamily was there five years, and I learnedEnglish and a little Chinese! We returned toGermany in 1969, and since then I have livedmostly near Wiesbaden.

How did you learn bridge?My mother played bridge at a club. My fatheralso played though just at home. When I was 15years old I learned and partnered my mother atthe local club.

What about your education?I went to Mainz University to study chemistry,but did not like it, and switched to Frankfurt tostudy Computer Information Systems. I was astudent until 1993!

When did your international bridgecareer begin?

In 1985 I partnered Pony Nehmert in the EECteams in Bordeaux with Sabine Auken & AnnaMoller as team-mates, and we won the bronzemedal. In the same year Sabine & I won theGerman Junior Championship, and we played

� 1964: Born 10th Julyin Munich

� 1985: EEC Teams,bronze medal

� 1989: European LadiesTeam Champion

� 1991: European LadiesTeam silver medal

� 1993: Venice Cupsilver medal

� 1995: Venice CupChampion, EuropeanLadies Pairs Champion

� 1997: European LadiesPairs Champion

your main successes since then?In 1987 I was on the German team in theBrighton Europeans. We came about sixth, andin the 1988 Olympiad did not qualify for theknockouts. However, the same German teamwon the Europeans in Turku in 1989, beating theNetherlands. When both went to Perth for theVenice Cup, the Netherlands had their revenge,knocking us out in the semi-finals, and we thenlost the play-off by 3 imps to Canada.

In 1991 we came second in the Killarney Euro-peans. In Yokohama, in the Venice Cup, we lostto Austria in the quarter-finals by 6 imps. Wewon every set except one, where we lost almosta hundred imps! We also lost in the semi-finalsof the 1992 Olympiad to Great Britain, and againwe lost the play-off, this time to France.

In 1993 in Menton at the Europeans I becamefriendly with a member of the German Openteam, Klaus Reps. The Ladies just qualified infourth place for the Venice Cup and we went toSantiago with Klaus as captain for the first time.We won the silver medal losing to the USA in thefinal.

1995 was our big year. At the Vilamoura Euro-peans Sabine & I won the Ladies Pairs and theteam took silver. We went to Beijing with Repsas captain and won the Venice Cup. We beatFrance in the semi-final easily. In the finalagainst the USA we were actually down goinginto the last set, but won this big to becomeworld champions. Klaus at the age of 25became the youngest person to captain a worldchampion team. We married the following year.

In the 1996 Olympiad in Rhodes we lost toCanada in the quarter-final. In MontecatiniSabine & I retained the Ladies Pairs title, and theteam came fourth, so we qualify for Tunisia.

What is your job?I got a job with a bridge-player, Georg Nippgen,in Karlsruhe. I do software development in thefield of Company Consultants.

If you had a magic wand, what wouldyou change about bridge?

If bridge had the coverage in the media of tennisor golf, I could give up my job and become full-time bridge � and have some real holidays!

Patrick Jourdain

INTE

RVIE

WW

ITH

DANIELAVON

ARNIMtogether the followingyear in Miami wherewe came 7th in theLadies Pairs. We havebeen bridge partnersever since.

What are

TThe Federazione Italiana Gioco Bridge played host to the 43rd GENERALI European BridgeChampionships, held from 14 to 28 June 1997.

The venue was located in the heart of Tuscany, in the spa town of Montecatini, a favourite ofVerdi, who came often to relax and take the cures.

ITALY RETAINS OPEN TITLE

1 ITALY 674.52 POLAND 653.53 NORWAY 6504 DENMARK 6305 FRANCE 6166 NETHERLANDS 6107 GREAT BRITAIN 609.58 SWEDEN 605.59 SPAIN 600

10 ICELAND 599.511 GREECE 565.512 RUSSIA 554.513 BELGIUM 550.514 IRELAND 545.515 FINLAND 537.516 HUNGARY 53117 LEBANON 53018 GERMANY 51219 TURKEY 510.520 BULGARIA 50721 AUSTRIA 50222 ISRAEL 50223 CROATIA 49024 PORTUGAL 46625 YUGOSLAVIA 46326 ROMANIA 45127 UKRAINE 449.528 ESTONIA 44929 CZECH REP. 44530 SAN MARINO 442.531 SWITZERLAND 44032 BELARUS 436.533 LIECHTENSTEIN 42534 SLOVENIA 361.535 LITHUANIA 339

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The competitors, who re-presented 36 countries,were in close proximity tothe renowned attractions ofFlorence, Pisa, Sienna andLucca.

A record number of thirty-five countries contested theOpen series. Remarkably,only seven, Italy, France,Great Britain, Poland, Swe-den, Austria and Hungaryhave won this Champion-ship which started in 1932in Scheveningen, the Neth-erlands.

Many of the worlds out-standing players were taking

par t, but no team couldmatch the skills of the hostnation, Italy. They took thelead after seven rounds andwere never headed, going onto record their four teenthvictory.

It was a second succes-sive triumph for AndreaBuratti, Massimo Lanzarot-ti, Lorenzo Lauria, AlfredoVersace and npc CarloMosca and a first for theircolleagues Norberto Bocchiand Giorgio Duboin.

The silver medals went toPoland, the bronze to Nor-way. These three teams

The Championships on InternetAs has become the norm, the event was reported in depth,

not only by the Daily Bulletin, but also by the outstanding WorldBridge Federation site, which is located at www.bridge.gr. Soquickly did they update their pages that they received an e-mailmessage from bridge mad Iceland confirming that they hadbeaten the local media in providing the results! The WBF siteinformation was mirrored on a number of other sites worldwide.

The event was also reported daily at the FIGB site in Italian,while the Dutch firm Bridge Plaza (www.bridgeplaza.com) car-ried the Vugraph match shortly after it was played.

BRITAIN WINS WOMEN

1 GREAT BRITAIN 4342 FRANCE 4223 ISRAEL 419.54 GERMANY 4035 NETHERLANDS 4016 ITALY 3967 AUSTRIA 3928 POLAND 3899 SWEDEN 379.5

10 SPAIN 37911 CZECH REP. 36112 BELGIUM 34613 SWITZERLAND 32914 RUSSIA 314.515 HUNGARY 309.516 ICELAND 303.517 GREECE 295.518 FINLAND 292.519 DENMARK 290.520 MONACO 28521 PORTUGAL 28122 IRELAND 26823 CROATIA 255.524 TURKEY 230

LADIES SERIES

FRANCEWINS

EUROPEANSENIORS

The second EuropeanSeniors Teams Champion-ship was contested for thesecond time, following itssuccessful introduction inVillamoura, Portugal, in1995.

Transnational teams arepermitted to compete butthe title was captured bya powerful French squad,Pierre Adad, MauriceAujaleu, Claude Delmou-ly and Jean Marc Roudi-nesco, which would nothave been disgraced hadit represented France inthe Open series.

have qualified to representEurope in the Bermuda Bowlin Hammamet, Tunisia inOctober, together with thesides finishing fourth andfifth, Denmark and France.

The last named, the reign-ing Olympic Champions,appeared to have forfeitedtheir chance to add theWorld title to their collectionwhen they could only defeatthe new European Cham-pions, Italy, 16-14 in the lastround. They needed GreatBritain to inflict a heavydefeat on the Netherlands.

The sporting nature of thecontest and the camaraderiebetween the players wasillustrated when it becameclear that Great Britain hadscored a decisive victoryand Paul Chemla promptlyembraced the Hacketttwins.

A French official told theBritish players, 'Now Trafal-gar and Waterloo are forgiv-en!'

Twenty-four teams con-tested the Ladies series andby a remarkable coinci-dence, again only sevencountries have tasted the

cup of victory, namely,Austria, Denmark, France,Great Britain, Italy, Swedenand Germany.

Great Britain swept tovictory, their twelfth in alland the first since 1981.

Nicola Smith and SandraLandy were winning for thefourth time, Pat Davies forthe second, whilst MicheleHandley, Liz McGowan andHeather Dhondy were cele-brating a first European title.

Second place went toFrance and Israel was third.

The holders, Germany,and the Netherlands jointhese three in Europe's pur-suit of the Venice Cup.

During the Champion-ships, Andrzej Orlow, thePresident of the PolishBridge Union and Dr Ernst-Otto Renth, the President ofthe German Bridge Federa-tion signed a bridge relatedagreement between the twocountries in the presence ofthe EBL President, BillPencharz.

It provides for broad co-operation between the twocountries and is the firstsuch agreement to be recog-nised by the governments ofboth countries.

In both the major teamchampionships, the perfor-mance of each pair wasmonitored using the Butlermethod of scoring.

The running totals werereported in the Daily Bulletinand the leading three Pairs inboth the Open and theLadies Series have beeninvited to represent the EBLin the 2nd MARLBOROChina Cup, which will beheld in China at the begin-ning of September.

The invited pairs from theOpen series are Italy�s Burat-ti & Lanzarotti, Poland's Bali-cki & Zmudzinski and Den-mark's Blakset & Christian-sen.

In the Ladies, the inviteesare from France, Saul &Bessis, from Germany, vonArnim & Auken, and fromGreat Britain, Landy &Handley.

A magnificent closing cer-emony and medal presenta-tion brought the Champion-ships to a close. Everyonevowed to meet again in twoyears time in Izmir, whenTurkey will be the hosts.

Mark Horton

Nuno, thePortuguese BridgeFederation is one ofthe smallerFederations inEurope, but it hasachieved some verybig things. Please tellus something aboutthem.

In 1993 we hosted the Euro-pean Union Championshipsin Montechoro.

The President at the time,José Soares de Oliveira,was most successful in find-ing sponsors. This gave usthe confidence to apply tohost the main EuropeanChampionships in Vilamourain 1995. In between we or-ganized the UniversityChampionships in Lisbon.

How did you raisethe finance for suchundertakings?

We obtained grants from thegovernment in two areas:Sports & Tourism; as well assponsorship from severalcommercial bodies. Thiswas more than enough tocover our obligations at theChampionships.

I have enjoyedattending yourAnnual Congress inEstoril. Please tell ussomething about thestructure of theFederation.

We have just over a thou-sand members, identifiedindividually, from a popula-tion of 10 million. The mem-bers belong to 39 affiliatedclubs grouped into sevenregions.

We have a Board electedevery four years by themembers. We have a quar-terly magazine for membersand a small office inside aLisbon Bridge Club.

N U N OMATOSLater this year, with a grantfrom the government, we areexpecting to move into ourown Headquarters. We haveone full-time employee,Cristina João, who does theadministrative work. Shehas a part-time assistantwho does the book-keeping

and helps with national tour-naments.

How is bridgeteaching in Portugal?

We have a list of approvedteachers. Some of thesehave a special licence

agreed with the Ministry ofEducation to teach bridge inschools for up to two hoursper week. We already have17 schools in the scheme.

Next year we launch aSchools Team Champion-ship to join the existingSchool Pairs event.

Has Portugal had anymajor success ininternational bridge?

We had a silver medal in theJunior Europeans and fifthplace in the European Open,but this seems a long timeago.

Please tell ussomething aboutyourself.

I became President in April1996 after José Soares deOliveira was elected to theEBL Executive Committee.

My job is in data communi-cations. I am a board mem-ber of Telepac, a companyranked in the top 150 inPortugal. It is owned byPortuguese Telecom.

I am a single man and mymain hobbies other thanbridge are tennis and thecinema.

I have represented Portugalin the Europeans in Elsinore,and I have won the Portu-guese National Pairs twice.

Nano, we hear thatyou are organising amajor Congress nextJune to coincide withthe World Expositionto be held in Lisbon.We look forward tobeing there. Thankyou for your time.

Interview withthe President of the

Portuguese Bridge Federationby Patrick Jourdain

ÍÌÊË

1 Kierznowski - Lukaszewicz POL2 Quantin - Abecassis FRA3 Fredin - Lindkvist SWE4 Gotard - Holowksi GER5 Mari - Levy FRA6 van Cleeff - Jansma NTH7 Abate - Morelli ITA8 Romanski - Kowalski POL9 Cronier - Willard FRA

10 Gierulski - Henclik POL11 Oltmans - Oltmans NTH12 Nahmias - Bitran FRA

1 Cohen -- Renoux FRA2 Humburg - Mattson GER3 Riise - Salterod NOR4 Hall - Lind SWE5 Gwis - Polek POL6 Nowak - Stobiecki POL7 Serf - Tintner FRA8 Sanglier - Delmouly FRA9 Dan - Masur ISR

10 Katz - Rand ISR11 Golick - Golick ISR12 van Bezouw - Laas NTHO

PEN

SENIORS

Ë

GOLDEN MOMENTS FOR POLAND AND FRANCET he outstanding organiza-

tional skills of theNetherlands Bridge Fed-

eration were very much in evi-dence at the 9th EuropeanOpen Pairs Championship andthe 4th Seniors Pairs Cham-pionship which both took placein The Hague.They had the advantage of beingable to stage the event in an out-standing venue, The Hague'sCongress centre.Historians and students of liter-ature were quick to point outthat the centre was located onJohan de Witte laan, namedafter a famous Dutchman whowas featured in the well knownAlexander Dumas novel TheBlack Tulip.In the field of technology, thehosts excelled themselves, sup-plying state-of-the-art equip-ment for the scoring team andthe people working to sendnews of the tournament round

the world via the Internet, nowan integral and essential serviceat all major bridge events.After three days of qualifying inboth events, the fields weredivided, with the leading 112pairs playing a three sessionsemi-final from which the top40 pairs qualified for the final. Arepecharge system allowed fourlucky pairs to fight their wayback into the final, so the fieldchasing glory comprised 44pairs. It was a major surprisethat their number did not includethe reigning champions,Poland's Piotr Gawrys &Kryzstof Lasocki. An unfortu-nate illness saw their score inthe first session of the semi-final plummet to an almostunbelievable 33.96%, and therewas no way back. Those whodid make it had three sessionsof all play all, in which to staketheir claim for the gold medals.The final featured barometer

scoring, where all the playersplay the same boards at thesame time. This enables thescoring team to produce an upto the minute result table at theend of each round, enablingevery pair to see it's exact posi-tion all the way through - and ifnecessary change their tacticsaccordingly. It also enables thespectators to concentrate on theleading pairs, although with noviewgraph in operation it wasstanding room only at everytable.After two sessions where theplayers jockeyed for position,the Open event witnessed oneof the most fluctuating andexciting final sessions in the his-tory of these Championships. Itwas like a horse race where thewinner comes through on therails at the very last moment.For a time it looked as if theFrench pair, Quantin-Abecassis,who won in 1991 and 1993,would capture the title for the

third time, but in a photo-finishthey were pipped at the post bythe previously unheralded Polishpairing of Roman Kierznowski& Krzysztof Lukaszewicz. Thirdplace went to Sweden's PeterFredin & Magnus Lindkvist.There was similar drama in theSeniors event where the longtime leaders, Germany's GoranMattson & Hans Humburg wereovertaken by the French WomenNadine Cohen & Marie-FranceRenoux, who thus achieved thedistinction of being the firstwomen to capture a EuropeanPairs Championship (other thanwomen's pairs.)It is a remarkable fact that sincethe inception of the Open Cham-pionships in 1976, the winnershave come exclusively from justtwo countries, France & Poland.Will this tradition be maintainedin 1999?

Mark Horton

1997 EUROPEAN PAIRS CHAMPIONSHIPS

POINTSM

ASTE

R TOP HOLDERS / OPEN1 Paul CHEMLA 1129 G FRA2 Michel PERRON 1005 G FRA3 Piotr GAWRYS 981 G POL4 Hervé MOUIEL 904 G FRA5 Anton MAAS 869 G NTH6 Alain LÉVY 847 G FRA7 Cezary BALICKI 836 G POL8 Jens AUKEN 832 L DEN9 Krzysztof MARTENS 809 G POL

10 Adam ZMUDZINSKI 803 G POL11 Michel LEBEL 802 G FRA12 Christian MARI 723 G FRA13 Jan FUCIK 714 G AUT14 Per Olof SUNDELIN 711 G SWE15 Marcin LESNIEWSKI 699 G POL16 Franz TERRANEO 663 G AUT17 Tommy GULLBERG 642 G SWE-- Krzysztof LASOCKI 642 G POL

19 Hans GÖTHE 622 G SWE20 Anders MORATH 608 G SWE21 Marek SZYMANOWSKI 604 G POL22 Heinrich BERGER 593 G AUT23 Wolfgang MEINL 591 G AUT24 Dennis KOCH 588 L DEN25 Lars BLAKSET 570 L DEN26 Lorenzo LAURIA 566 G ITA27 Kurt FEICHTINGER 564 G AUT-- Philippe SOULET 564 G FRA

29 Henri SZWARC 558 G FRA30 Jacek ROMANSKI 554 G POL31 Berry WESTRA 551 G NTH32 Sven-Olov FLODQVIST 546 G SWE33 Tony FORRESTER 543 G GBR34 Tor HELNESS 542 L NOR35 Jón BALDURSSON 539 G ICE36 Tomasz PRZYBORA 536 G POL37 Helmut HÄUSLER 531 L GER38 Apolinary KOWALSKI 528 G POL39 J-C. QUANTIN 518 G FRA40 Björn FALLENIUS 509 G SWE41 Peter SCHALTZ 508 L DEN42 Geir HELGEMO 506 L NOR43 Steen MØLLER 504 L DEN44 David BIRMAN 503 L ISR45 Enri LEUFKENS 498 L NTH46 Fritz KUBAK 495 L AUT-- Peter SPLETTSTÖSSER 495 L GER

48 Piotr TUSZYNSKI 475 L POL49 Adalsteinn JÖRGENSEN 471 L ICE50 André MULDER 470 L NTH

1 Bep VRIEND 850 G NTH2 Marijke van der PAS 719 G NTH3 Sabine AUKEN 629 G GER4 Elly SCHIPPERS 604 G NTH5 Sylvie WILLARD 583 G FRA6 Sandra LANDY 576 G GBR7 Daniela von ARNIM 557 G GER8 Nicola SMITH 541 G GBR9 Maria ERHART 536 G AUT-- Véronique BESSIS 536 G FRA

11 Sally BROCK 479 G GBR12 Gabriele BAMBERGER 451 G AUT13 Claude BLOUQUIT 446 G FRA14 Karin CAESAR 444 G GER15 Marianne MÖGEL 436 G GER16 Beate NEHMERT 433 G GER17 Bénédicte CRONIER 424 G FRA18 Catherine SAUL 421 G FRA19 Pat DAVIES 414 G GBR20 Marisa d'ANDREA 412 G ITA21 Ginette CHEVALLEY 409 G FRA22 Carla ARNOLDS 403 G NTH23 Danielle GAVIARD 396 G FRA24 Elisabeth DELOR 384 G FRA25 Luciana CAPODANNO 368 G ITA-- Waltraud VOGT 368 G GER

27 Charlotte PALMUND 362 G DEN28 Colette LISE 359 G FRA29 Dorthe SCHALTZ 355 G DEN

ll New EBL Master Points regula-tions are being worked out and willsoon come into effect.

ll In particular, a European RankingList will be maintained based onMaster Points won over the last fouryears, depreciated by a percentagedepending on the date the pointswere won.

ll Paul Maris of the Netherlands isthe EBL Master Points Secretary.NCBOs are encouraged to contacthim for any matter regarding MasterPoints, the EBL scheme of awards,etc.

TOP HOLDERS / WOMEN

Ch.P. MarisKarveel 46-27NL-8242 VG LelystadThe Netherlands

( 31-320-242 5732 31-30-271 14827 m.a.maris-veldhuis

@id.dlo.nl

30 Terry WEIGKRICHT 339 G AUT31 Bettina KALKERUP 289 L DEN32 Doris FISCHER 281 L AUT33 Migri ZUR-ALBU 271 L ISR34 Andrea RAUSCHEID 260 L GER35 Gabriella OLIVIERI 254 L ITA36 Danièle AVON 245 L FRA37 Nadine COHEN 240 L FRA-- Ruth PORAT-LEVIT 240 L ISR

39 Fabienne PIGEAUD 237 L FRA 40 Kareen SCHROEDER 235 L GER41 Jet PASMAN 228 L NTH42 Valérie POLET 223 M BEL43 Ellen BAKKER 220 L NTH44 Ine GIELKENS 218 L NTH45 Elizabeth McGOWAN 214 L GBR46 Kirsten MØLLER 209 L DEN47 Carla GIANARDI 206 L ITA48 Catherine GUILLAUMIN 205 L FRA49 Anneke SIMONS 204 L NTH50 Britt-Marie ÖDLUND 202 L SWE51 Monica CUZZI 199 L ITA52 Enrichetta GUT 198 L ITA53 Anna VALENTI 193 L ITA54 Pia ANDERSSON 187 L SWE55 Marisa BIANCHI 186 L ITA56 Sandra PENFOLD 179 M GBR

Lists correct as at 1 April 1997

SSaabbiinnee AAuukkeenn & DDaanniieellaa vvoonn AArrnniimm, representing Germany retained the LadiesPairs Championship. They defended the title they had captured two years agoin Vilamoura. It confirmed their status as the worlds leading women's pair. Therunners-up were Italy's CCrriissttiinnaa GGoolliinn & GGaabbrriieellllaa OOlliivviieerrii, whilst the bronzemedals went to France in the shape of NNaaddiinnee CCoohheenn & HHeelleennee ZZuuccccaarreellllii.

1997 EUROPEAN LADIES PAIRS FINAL1 AUKEN von ARNIM GER 1207.52 Golin Olivieri ITA 1180.93 Cohen Zuccarelli FRA 1178.94 Azzimonti Gentili ITA 1171.65 Rosetta de Lucchi ITA 1156.36 Vriend van der Pas NTH 1152.07 Caesar Nehmert GER 1143.98 Marczona Kasa HUN 1141.49 Barber Barness ISR 1134.6

10 Rigney Dowling IRE 1131.011 Vanuzzi Caspani ITA 1128.012 Gromova Volina RUS 1103.013 Driessens Polet BEL 1093.314 Macieszcszak Siwek POL 1091.815 Das Blouquit FRA 1088.716 Penfold Teshome GBR 1076.917 Banaszkiewicz Krogulsska POL 1074.218 Stathacopoulou Karamanli GRE 1066.519 Hirchenaut Allouche FRA 1062.820 Vellutini Masotti ITA 1057.321 Pasman Simons NTH 1053.722 Svobodova Pokorna CZE 1051.923 Forti Buratti ITA 1051.924 De Serafini Dei Poli ITA 1040.125 Erdeova Bajelova CZE 1023.426 Rovera Gianardi ITA 1015.027 Viotto Faller ITA 975.628 Aysen Gul TUR 974.8

AUKEN-VON ARNIM RETAIN EUROPEAN LADIES PAIRS CROWN

I am very pleased to be able to report on the great suc-cess of our venture with GENERALI Insurance, whichmeant that we were able to contact individually all thelady bridge players in many European Countries, sendingthem a letter about our activities and giving them theopportunity to learn more about the work that we do. Iwish to thank the countries that co-operated so whole-heartedly in this venture, because without all the workthat they did we would not have succeeded. GENERALIInsurance sponsored us in this venture and I am delight-ed to have the opportunity to thank them publicly for theirgenerosity and assistance.

Ladies Bridge in Europe is gaining momentum, with morewomen joining the game and playing in our events. Ihope that by the time you read this you already know thatwe held a very successful Ladies Pairs Championship inMontecatini, followed, of course, by the Ladies TeamsChampionship.

Our next venture is in 1998 when we plan to organise aLadies Jamboree in Budapest. The programme will, ofcourse, be quite different to that of the first Jamboreeheld in Hungary. Full details of this wonderful holiday ofbridge will be available soon, and if you would like themsent to you, please contact your NCBO or write to AnnaGudge, Secretary to the Ladies Committee, at The OldRailway Station, Long Melford, Sudbury, Suffolk C0109HN, Great Britain.

I would like to thank the many of you who have supportedour efforts in the past, and look forward to receiving yourfuture co-operation.

From

Anna Maria Torlontano2nd Vice President EBLChairman, EBL Ladies Cmte

EBL ReviewPublicizing your eventsEBL Review, published bian-nually, is the official medium ofthe European Bridge League.

It is distributed free of chargeto all National Contract BridgeOrganizations, Bridge Clubs,Tournament Directors, Journal-ists, Bridge Teachers and Offi-cials of the 43 EBL membercountries.

All correspondence should beaddressed to:

EBL ReviewP. Gerontopoulos, Editor154 Patission Street,GR-112 57 Athens,Greece.

2 30-1-861 37407 review@bridge.gr

The European Bridge League provides the best media for advertisingyour tournaments.The EBL Competition Calendar, published annually, contains con-cise information for some 100 tournaments organized acrossEurope. 4,000 copies are distributed, free of charge, to all NCBOsand the Press, reaching hundreds of bridge clubs and thousands ofindividuals interested in international events.EBL Review, is published twice a year and provides global informa-tion about what is happening in the world of bridge. It has a circula-tion of 10,000 and is also distributed free of charge to all NCBOs,administrators, teachers and the Press.

11-13 2nd World JuniorPairs Championship / SantaSofia, Italy

14-22 2nd World JuniorCamp / Santa Sofia, Italy

24-31 White Nights Inter-national Bridge Festival / St.Petersburg, Russia

3-9 29th InternationalBridge Week / Loiben, Austria

4-13 6th World JuniorTeam Championship / Hamil-ton, Ontario, Canada

6-10 7th Viru Bridge / VosuBeach, Estonia

15-24 EBU Brighton SummerCongress / Brighton, GreatBritain

21-27 Lake Balaton Bridge

7-9 EBU Seniors� Con-gress / Coventry, Great Britain

7-9 Monte Carlo TeamTournament / Monte Carlo,Monaco

7-9 12th InternationalBridge Tournament Puero de laCruz / Tenerife, Spain

16-23 3rd Red Sea Interna-tional Bridge Festival / Eilat,Israel

20-23 Winter Lake BalatonFestival / Lake Balaton,Hungary

20-23 19th InternationalBridge Festival Brasov / PolanaBrasov, Romania

7-9 English Bridge UnionYear End Congress / London,Great Britain

5-13 12th InternationalBridge Festival / Mamaia,Romania

11-14 8th InternationalBridge Festival �Minsk Cup� /Minsk, Belarus

JULY

SEPTEMBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

COMPETITIONCALENDAR

� This is an abridged list of the tour-naments scheduled to take place inEurope in the second half of 1997.More information is contained in thecomprehensive publication 1997 EBLCompetition Calendar.

OCTOBER

2-5 24th Tallinn Interna-tional Bridge Festival VilniusCup �97 / Vilnius, Lithuania

11 Kroegen Tournament/Amsterdam, The Netherlands

17-19 EBU Autumn Con-gress / Bournemouth, GreatBritain

19-November 2 33rd Ber-muda Bowl / Hammamet,Tunisia

19-November 2 11th VeniceCup / Hammamet, Tunisia

28-November 2 1st Trans-national Open Teams / Ham-mamet, Tunisia

ÍÌÊË26-August 3 2nd SwedishOpen Teams Cup / Skövde,Sweden

30-August 4 14th InternationalSummer Bridge Tournament /St. Moritz, Switzerland

AUGUST

Festival / Lake Balaton,Hungary

30-September 4 36th Inter-national Bridge Festival / Pula,Croatia

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