By Vassilis Virvidakis
Last weekend (April 26 to 28) Hellenic Bridge Federation (HBF) organized the National Championships U26 & U16. Although the U26 Championship has a long history (since mid 70ies) the first U16 Championship took place in 2016 with 7 pairs and was annually held until 2020 when covid pandemic changed everything. After two U26 Online Championships (2021 & 2022) 12 U26 pairs participated in 2023 event.
Since October 2023 the game of bridge was introduced, for the first time, in a significant number of Greek schools and there were created groups where teachers of these schools, under HBF’s supervision, undertook the training of the children. This resulted to the revival of this year U16 event in which 15 pairs participated, while another 13 pairs played in the U26 Championship. Participants represented different Greek cities (Athens, Thessaloniki, Kalamata, Agrinio, Larissa, Patras, Aigio, Heraklion, Lavrion, Ioannina, Veria). The children had fun, made new friends and, although many of them are this year’s students not used to competing in demanding tournaments, they did very well.
Our goal is that in next year’s events the 2018 record numbers (22 U16 and 20 U26 pairs) will be overpassed and, if the school project brings more youngsters to classes, a third Championship for the U21 to be established.
