V Barcelona Bridge Open Chronicle by Angie Bach

Barcelona, Spain February 9, 2014

V Open Internacional de Bridge de Barcelona

All the Positions: [ilink url=”http://csbnews.org/new/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014-02-07-09-V-OPEN-INTERNACIONAL-DE-BARCELONA-2014-Sesión-3-Resultado-final.pdf”]Click Here[/ilink]

3rd Playing day

 Julius Sigurjohnsson-Peter Fredin won the V Barcelona Bridge Open with the 62%.

 These are the first 5 positions:

1- 62,0% Julius Sigurjohnsson-Peter Fredin; 2- 61,1% Bernard Cabanes-Delmas-Sirven; 3- 60,7% Juan Carlos Ventin-Dennis Bilde; 4-59,8% Jose Ignacio Torres-Antonio Francés; 5-59,2% Jose Debonnaiare-Pedro Souto.

The pair in the first position received a 4000 euros and the trophy. The second position pair received 2.500 euros, and the third 1200 euros, the fourth 900 euros and the fith 700 euros .

After the prize ceremony the winners Julius Sigurjohnsson and Peter Fredin answered me some questions. This time my translator was the TD and excelente player Dragan Markcovic:

1- Julius & Peter. -¿How do you feel? are you happy?  😆  Did you expect this victory?

YES! We are really Happy….The truth is that we expected to win, because yesterday we end in the first position

2-¿Do you play bridge as a pair?

No, we only played once before this event, this is our second time playing together.

3–¿ Then Peter, who is your usual partner?

I play with Falenius

4- ¿Did you play the Barcelona Open before?

No! this is our first time, and the first two days were fantastic. The last day we lived some technical problems.

5-¿ Where are you going to play in the near future?

We are going to play the next NABC, in Dallas.

6- At what age did you began to play Bridge?

Peter Fredin: 15 years old; Julius: 16 years old

7-¿What do you think about our Messi del Bridge: Agustín Madala?

He is a fantastic player…

8- ¿Do you like to play bridge?

We are passionate about the bridge

9 – ¿Are you Bridge PROs?

Yes we are professionals. Our work is to play bridge. I am from Sweden and Julius from Iceland.

At the end of the interview I made them a little but symbolic present, my Csbnews credential, they keep it and were very happy with it. The pic is the credit of that moment.

I want to thank Jörg Dombrowe. Jörg playing with David Kendrick ended in third place yesterday, he answered a lot of my questions about the German Bridge … you will soon be able to read them here. Thank you Jörg Dombrowe!

Second Day

The second play day of the the fifth annual International Open de Barcelona sponsored by the  Catalan Bridge Association started at 17,00 in the Hotel Princesa Sofia Barcelona. The 161 pairs continued to battle till 20,30 in a highly concentrated environment, because of the extremely high level of many of its participants.

So, after this second session, passing the tournament ecuator, the top six positions are as follows:

1- 64,9%  Julius Sigurjohnsson-Peter Fredin

2- 61,9%  Juan Carlos Ventin-Dennis Bilde

3- 60,4%  Jörg Dombrowe-David Kendrick

4- 60,1%  Bernard Cabanes-Delmas-Sirven

5-59,8%   Jose Ignacio Torres-Antonio Francés

6-59,7%   Xavier Massana-Lluís Malla

With a strong two day”s perfomance, Julius Sigurjohnsson-Peter Fredin, climbed from the fourth to the first place. The same is true for Juan Carlos Ventin-Dennis Bilde; they climbed from the 25th position in the first session (57.3%) to the second position with the 61.9%.

Regarding the first day, yesterday we mentioned that the leader pair was: Michael Gromoeller-Christian Doebig, they didnt have a good day today and dropped to the 24th place, when I asked them at the beginning of today”s session for their expectations, they very kindly told me that they would try to stay in the top-10; they also explained me that 25 years ago they were a German juniors pair, and this was their very first tournament since then.

The pair who were second after the first session: Conchita Gross-Paco Marimon now are in the 18th position, still with  possibilities, this point was confirmed to me at the beginning of the day by Paco Marimon who told me that it was very difficult to keep the first positions but that the really important thing was to get to the final day with possibilities.

Was very nice surprise to see the current World Champion, Norberto Bocchi arrived to the event and stay for more than an hour  in the room greeting many of his friends that are participating in the event.

Finally I want to thank Ramon Malla”s kindness: he was my translator with Gromoeller-Doebig, here he in a picture with both of them. Also I need to thank Thibault Delmas-Sirven, who is playing with Bernard Cabanes, and is currently in the fourth place, who at the end of the day was my translator, in an interview I made to the Italian player Gabriela Olivieri, in the picture next to Norberto Bocchi.

Barcelona, Spain February 7, 2014

V Open Internacional de Bridge de Barcelona

1st Day

All the Positions: Click Aqui  The Boards Click Aqui

Today February 7th at 20.00 has started in the Hotel Princesa Sofia Barcelona”s the fifth annual International Open de Barcelona sponsored by the  Catalan Bridge Association.

The tournament (6 Zones, 26 boards per day), is a Mitchell Pairs event, and the field is 161 pairs.

Among the attendees we can mention International and National Bridge Masters as Juan Carlos Ventín, Dennis Bilde, Nuria y Marta Almirall, Diego Brenner, Dragan Markovic, Amadeo Llopart, Carlos Fernández, Javier Graupera, Marta Zoreda, Federico Goded y Gonzalo Goded, Krzysztof Martens, Jordi Sabate, Juanito Pont, Montserrat Mestres, Lluis Malla, Xavier Masana, Paco Marimon, Bernard Cabanes, Thibault Delmas-Sirven, Michael Gromoller, Erikas Vainikonis, Peter Fredin…

Finally I want to tell you that,this Saturday, I will have the pleasure of interviewing the Italian player Gabriela Olivieri, the Bridge Master from Poland Krzysztof Martens and the young Norwegian expert Dennis Bilde.

 At the end of the first 26 boards the first four positions are:

1- 65,5% Michael Gromoeller-Christian Doebig

2- 63% Conchita Gross-Paco Marimon

3- 62,6% Jose Ignacio Torres-Antonio Frances

4- 62,4% Julius Sigurjohnsson-Peter Fredin

 The Spanish Master Federico Goded before starting to play gave me his forecast and agreed with most of them. These are his favorite, given the results of the first session, except for a pair he did not mention, he was not wrong…-):

1- Almirall sisters;  2-Torres-Frances; 3-Cruzeiro-Paes de Carvalho; 4-Melnikov-Dyomin; 5-Sigurjonsson-Fredin (considered one of the best in the world); 6-Ventin-Bilde, 7-Tuszynski (European Champion several times)-Sroczynoski ; 8-Cabanes-Delmas-Sirven, 9-Federico Goded-Marta Zoreda; 10-Jordi Sabate-Gonçalvez; 11-Graupera-Fernández; 12-Gromoeller-Daebig

One of the favorites, Juan Carlos Ventín, after asking him for the following tournaments in which he will participate, kindly replied that on 21 February he will be travelling to Moscow to play the [ilink url=”http://www.slavacup.com/tournament.htm”] Slava Cup[/ilink] and in May he will be playing in the [ilink url=”http://santiago2014.csbnews.org/”] Southamerican Bridge Championship[/ilink] .

 The winner of the last Barcelona Open edition, Bernard Cabanes, with great sympathy, told me that for him the favorite pair was: Fernández-Graupera and after asking him about our Bridge Messi, smiling he answered that he was really great.

 Finally I want to mention an amusing anecdote about Dragan Marcovick. While everybody was happy, playing the hands, he was leaning against the wall so I asked him why he was not playing, he replied that he arrived late.

While in the shower, he received a phone-call from his partner Lambruschini who asked him why he had not come to the Princesa Sofia as they were about to start Dragan replied that he still had an hour… so he certainly was an hour late. Luckily for him, Joan Priu also had a problem with his partner…

I can not stop to overemphasize that the place was really full, that the playing atmosphere looked wonderfull and how nice it felt the tranquility while you could observe all the players very concentrated.

Finally I want to thank Mr. Federico Goded on my behalf and on behalf of CsbNews for his great collaboration introducing me to countless players.

Esta entrada también está disponible en: Spanish