28 years “Salou Open”

History

The idea to organize the draughts tournament in Salou came from Dutch draughts player and organizer, former ship captain Dick Hendriksen.
Salou was (and still is) a very well-known travel destination for Dutch people. Dick shared his idea with Alexander Presman, and in 1998 they organized the first Salou Open together.
The Belarusian Draughts Federation (Pavel Shatsov) also helped them by providing draughts materials (boards, clocks).
As a creative draughts promoter, Dick brought to Salou 50 dark and 50 light checkered carpets and built a giant draughts board on the promenade of Salou. The tournament was (optimistically) supposed to be played outdoors on the very same promenade.
It was literally refreshing, pleasant, and joyful. It also attracted the public.

But one day the strong wind, and another day a light rain, forced the tournament to move to hotel Jaime I, where most of the participants stayed.

Since 2001, the tournament has found its permanent venue in hotel Cala Font, beautifully situated in Cap Salou.
In 2004, Dick Hendriksen made a switch in his career and became a ship captain again. The tournament could have stopped.

But another Dutchman, Peter Pippel, with the active support of the Hoekman family, decided to take over the tournament organization.
During the "Pippel" years (2004-2019), the tournament grew, attracted many countries, and became a stable part of international draughts life.
Peter's personal attitude was highly valued by the participants.
For Peter, "Salou Open" became perhaps the most important aspect of those years, and he simply enjoyed being seen and called "Mister Salou".

Since 2020, the organization of the tournament has been in the hands of the Dutch "Salou Open" foundation.
The first edition in 2020 directly promised to break all records in the number of players, guests, and participating countries.
But COVID disrupted all plans. In 2021, we also had to miss "Salou Open".
2022 brought another grief — the war in Ukraine.
Despite this, the 23rd edition of the tournament was played (though with fewer participants than usual) and the organization was a success again.
In 2023, the tournament celebrated 25 years of "Salou Open" and continues to grow every year again.