The 28^th edition of the annual Bridge festival in Sweden is over. It was held from July 26 to August 4 in the huge Congress Hall Conventum Arena in the picturesque town of Örebro. It is the biggest festival in Europe and is special and unique in many ways. One can meet players at a very young age (this year we have seen 8 years old kids) and seniors, over 90 years old.  There are plenty of tournaments to choose from every day. The total number of the participating pairs in all events is 6782.

The National Pairs championships in the different categories – Open Pairs, Senior, Women and Mixed – are played during the Bridge Festival.

The side events are single session drop-in tournaments providing the players with cash prizes and master points. Three events are “bronze” tournaments of 24 boards, starting at 10.00 (am), 14.30 (2.30 pm) and 19.00 (7.00 pm). The afternoon tournament is based on handicap results. In addition, there is a 40-board “silver” tournament every day at 15.30 (3.30 pm). In every tournament there is a coffee break approximately half-way through. All tournaments are played in semi-barometer style: all tables play identical boards, and in pairs tournaments with results delivered after every four boards.

The main and most prestigious event at the festival is the Chairman’s Cup (called CC) and is part of the WBF World Bridge Tour.126 teams from 17 countries lined up at the start. Besides Sweden there were representatives from Norway, Denmark, England, USA, Canada, Thailand, Singapore, Germany, Netherlands, Scotland, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Türkiye, Slovakia and Ireland. It starts with a two-day Swiss qualifier, followed by four days of knock-out matches. Teams qualify from the Swiss both to the regular KOs and to the Bonus Cup. Teams losing in the regular KOs are automatically transferred to the Bonus Cup.
The first prize in the CC is 50 000 Swedish crowns (approximately 4,400 €).
This year the CC was won by the team "Larsson på taket" (Larsson on the roof) featuring the twins Ola and Mikael Rimstedt, their father Magnus Eriksson, Tobias Törnqvist, Roger Wiklund and Henrik Noberius.

The 2-day very popular Goldmine pair event with cash prizes and gold master points is held during the last two days of the festival. Starting with a session of 42 boards, all players qualify for group finals according to their result. The group finals are played with a 20-pair group A, then 22-pair groups from B, C, D (and so on). All groups play 38 boards in barometer style.  The most persistent and successful gold diggers this year were Fredrik Alfredsson ‒ Mattias Weiler, members and Tournament directors of the S:t Erik club in Stockholm.

Every year the Swedish Bridge federation proudly hosts a great number of players from countries all over the world. This time many world federations received invitations to send to the festival junior teams.The young players I met and talked to, appreciated highly the festival atmosphere as well as the opportunity to gain experience and find new friends in Sweden. They were helped by the Federation with the accommodation and played for free.

Many prominent bridge players visited The Bridge festival throughout the years, such as the American super star Joe Grue and the English world champion Nicola Smith, as of October 2017 ranked first among Women World Grand Masters. She was nominated Member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elisabeth. When I asked her to give one advice to the bridge players at the festival she answered promptly: “You can consider yourself a bridge player the day you stop counting your points.”

The well-known Dutch Tournament Director Ton Kooijman worked at the Swedish Bridge Festival in 2022. It was his last professional assignment. He had decided to stop working the day he turns 80. I asked him to describe the festival in just a few words. “It is simply the best!” he answered.

We shall do our best to keep it this way.

Here is a board sent to me by the Swedish national player Jan Selberg. His 23-year-old partner Alexander Sandin played 3 No-Trumps.

Board 3. Dealer South. E/W vul

Contract: 3 No-Trumps.
Lead: ♦3.

Alexander won with the Ace in hand and continued with the ♦9 to the Ten in dummy. A Spade to the Jack, ducked. Declarer then played King, Queen and a third Club to East who cashed the last Club (declarer pitching a Heart from hand, West discarding a Diamond and North the ♦7). The Queen of Spades from East was duly left to win. And the Heart return duly taken with the Ace. When Alexander played a Heart to the King, West was squeezed. He had to let go a Spade, keeping the Ace of Spades and ♦Q8. Now, declarer played a Spade and made the last two tricks in Diamonds. Well played!

Text and pictures By Elena Ström, Sweden