Български бридж он-лайн

BG-Bridge On-Line

The origin of bridge in Bulgaria is unknown. The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge reads that British officers - advisors to the Turkish army - have played bridge in the trenches of Pleven during the Russo-Turkish war 1877-1878.
Probably bridge came to Bulgaria after World War 1 mainly in the French variation of Plafond brought by Bulgarian students in Paris. I clearly remember some coffee houses in Sofia where people played bridge-plafond, backgammon and other popular games in this region of Europe.
Contract bridge was likely fetched from Austria and Russia during the 1930s. That time the Austrian and Hungarian bridge was one of the strongest in Europe. And no wonder that developing commercial relations along the Danube River helped in disseminating the game. On the other hand Russian emigres who settled in Bulgaria were known to be good bridge players and among leaders in Contract Bridge in the city of Sofia. Evgeni Romanovich Stolitza (1903-1985, born in Moscow, long time concert-master of the Bulgarian National Symphonic Orchestra) introduced team-of-four duplicate in the early thirties and was the most respected bridge authority in Sofia all the time till his dead. In the 1950s he developed a revolutionary bidding system, with unlimited transfer openings at the level of one. Thus 1 shows 12+ HP with biddable heart suit. Similarly 1 shows spades and major opening bids show the corresponding minor. The idea behind the system was to use complicated relays and asking bids to exchange information between partners toward the final contract without loosing space.
Team championships were organized locally in the largest cities since the early 1950s.The first pair tournament emerged in 1967. More significant bridge development we see in the 1970s, particularly after 1978 when bridge was recognized by the government authorities as a non-Olympic sport and a corresponding Commission was established under the umbrella of the National Union of Sports and supported by the Bulgarian Olympic Committee. Meanwhile national championships were organized on a regular basis and since then we have open teams, open pairs, ladies pairs and mixed pairs each year. In addition several bridge festivals, including East European Regional, are organized in the mountain and the Black See coast resorts almost each month which attract players from Poland, Russia, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia and other countries. The records show that several Americans also have participated.
Bulgarian participation abroad started splendidly in 1966 with an open pairs win by the current World Senior Champion Mr. Drumev then partnered by the late Mr. Kanazirski in Marienbad (the Czech Republic). Since then many Bulgarians took part in the international arena of bridge - several wins of the famous Cino del Duca tournament, top rankings in Scandinavia, Holland, Poland, France, Italy and other countries. Since 1987 Bulgaria participates regularly in the European team and pair championships and among the best achievements are the gold medals of Mrs. Lorer and Mrs. Deleva in the ladies pairs in Brighton (1987) and quite recently several high rankings of a young Bulgarian team in the European Open Team Championships (4th in Malta, 1999, 8th in Tenerife, 2001, and again 4th in Salsomaggiore this year) and hence the representation of the country in Bermuda Bowl for a second time against the strongest of the World. This year we got the World Senior Pairs Champions Mr. Drumev and Mr. Tanev in Montreal. Four years ago Mr. Drumev won the World Senior Team Championship in an international squad with an Austrian and an Israeli pair.