| 45th GENERALI European Bridge Championships, Arona, Tenerife, Canary Islands | Saturay, 23 June 2001 |
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Open Series - Round 11 On Thursday early afternoon, the Rama match of course had to be Poland v. France. Somewhere else on the premises, however, another important match was in progress: Bulgaria v. Greece. Below, we are presenting highlights from both matches. For the sake of convenience, we will go through the boards in numerical order while reporting the things of any interest at either table. Board 2 produced a big swing in the Rama match when the popular contract of 2© doubled was let through:
In both our matches, as well as at many other tables around here, East opened 1ª and South overcalled 2©. When this came round to East again, he doubled and West sat it. This contract should go down one, but it needs careful defence. West can either continue diamonds or spades after leading a top diamond, but if he plays spades East should play the ten to keep communications intact. In the Closed Room of the Rama match, Lesniewski took the ªA at trick two and returned the queen, but now Quantin, after winning the ªK, could cross to dummy twice in clubs and ruff two diamonds in hand before playing a third club which Martens ruffed. Now what should he do? If he returns a fourth diamond, declarer can ruff with the jack and exit with another club. If West ruffs this, he will have only trumps left; if East ruffs it he can cash spades, but West will have to ruff his partner´s winner and return a trump into the AQ after all. Neither did it help West to return a trump, as he did at the table; the nine was taken by the jack and the AQ would certainly score as well with East no longer able to lead a trump through. Please note the difference if East plays the 10 to the first spade trick. Now West can ruff the third club and still reach his partner to cash a spade and lead a trump through. There are variations, but they are bound to lead to one down as well. So France scored 670 and 200 to lead 13-0. A board of general interest was board 6:
Bulgaria v. Greece
A cheap save by the Bulgarians for 300 only when their opponents did not go any further, though 5ª can be made.
Here, the Bulgarians did go on to 5ª so the Greeks had to save at the six-level. They correctly did so, but the extra undertrick was still worth 200 or 5 IMP´s to Bulgaria. On Rama, we saw a pretty auction: Poland v. France
Kwiecien´s 2ª showed a preempt in either minor or a weak major twosuiter. When Palau overcalled in clubs, Pszczola could show a diamond fit with some confidence. When Allegrini showed his spades, Kwiecien found the wonderful bid of 4©. He explained it as a cuebid to Palau (it cannot possibly be a suit, of course), and at the other side of the screen Pszczola told his opponents that they had no agreements, but that he expected the bid to have some lead-directing values. The French then went on to 5ª, but Allegrini´s line of
play made it clear that he had not for a second thought of the
possibility of4© showing a heart void. He ruffed the diamond lead
high, played the ªQ and then finessed the ª10 through North. So
Kwiecien won a surprise trick, but when he returned a low club
to partner´s ace, Pszczola was quick to play back a heart
for his partner to ruff. One down, Poland +100.
Here, Quantin completely shut out the opponents when he decided to open 4¨. Multon raised to game, with his good trump support, and there it rested. One down for -50 looked a fine result for France indeed, but it only served to keep the adverse swing to 4 IMP´s only. Board 8 looked like a little partscore, but it brought a wide range of scores:
Bulgaria v. Greece
Nobody had anything to add to Mihov`s 1ª opening, but the Greeks once again had the last laugh when this contract also went two down. Greece +100 and 5 IMP´s to them. On Rama, the auctions in both rooms were identical, but the play made a difference of four tricks. Poland v. France
Lead: ª6. Tricks: 8, France +120.
Lead: ©4. Tricks: 4, France +150 and 7 IMP´s to them. The next board was a cold slam, but apparently difficult to reach,
as you can see from the four auctions below:
Bulgaria v. Greece
The relays did not work very well here, in spite of the second-round jump in diamonds. Bulgaria +420.
For their Greek counterparts, slam was very much out of the question, even after the jump rebid. 3NT looks more like a bid of a pairs specialist…Greece +400, 1 IMP to Bulgaria. Poland v. France
Well, from the auction one might get the impression that North was not fully aware of what was happening at the other side of the screen, but in the end, the top spot was reached. Poland +920.
Maybe, Quantin could have made another move here…France +420, but 11 IMP´s to Poland. On board 10, 4ª was played at many tables, but not all declarers
managed 10 tricks. Kapayannidis for Greece even went two down,
completely misguessing the layout of the hand. This is what happened:
Bulgaria v. Greece
Here too, we saw a heart lead and a diamond return, but the defence made no further mistake and thus collected their two trick set and 500 to Bulgaria, amounting to 7 IMP´s. Poland v. France
When Pszczola showed his twosuiter, it became clear that Allegrini´s double of 4ª was exclusively for penalties. France +500.
Multon did well for his team when he took the bull by the horns immediately. Lesniewski´s double did not send the same clear message as at the other table, so Martens understandably went on to 5©. Quantin was polite enough not to double this, but the French still collected another 150 and 12 IMP´s. On the next board, on Rama both teams ended in the proper contract of 5§, but in the other match, they would have nothing of this:
Bulgaria v. Greece
This went two off, undoubled: Bulgaria +200.
When East led the suit indicated by his partner´s double, declarer had all the time in the world to establish the hearts for the two diamond discards he needed. Greece +1370 or 15 IMP´s.
Here, the Bulgarians were very lucky that nobody doubled them. When Italy were defending a spade contract in their match against Germany, they managed to come to all six defensive trick they were entitled to: heart lead, diamond ruff, club through, diamond ruff and two more clubs. On a heart lead, Skoularikis was happy to first cash his other ace, thus defeating the contract, before beginning to think about the hand…Greece +200.
Compare the quiet 4© by Palau with the resolute 5© by his Greek counterpart. Here, North had room to show his diamond fit, and there it rested. Poland +600.
Lesniewski did even better when he jumped all the way to 4© at his first turn. This made life easy for his partner. A heart was led to the ace and a diamond returned, but as west did not have the courage to play the §J on his partner´s club return, two possible undertricks disappeared. Still, Poland another +200 and 13 IMP´s. The next board was a grand slam, bid frequently all round the
room, but not in our two featured matches:
Bulgaria v. Greece
As 1¨ already was a relay and 2ª showed a balanced game forcing hand, diamonds never came into the picture when North elected to rebid 3§ showing or at least suggesting a six-card suit. When the clubs did not break, justice was done and Greece scored +50.
Natural bidding brought the diamonds into the picture immediately. Greece another +1440 and 16 IMP´s. Poland v. France
The Polish Club did not deal very well with this hand. Diamonds were introduced and supported, but the full trick-taking potential remained undisclosed. Poland +940.
A splinter showing a good raise of partner´s second suit made life easy for the French. Well done, +1440 and 11 IMP´s back. On the last board, a cheap save was available against the spade slam, but it might be difficult for E/W to unveil their double fit.
Bulgaria v. Greece
When Skoularikis could open and in fact did open 2©, the Greeks looked set to find the save, but at the decisive moment they left off. Bulgaria +1430 after all.
Though Mihov did not open, he was in an even better position to help his partner to find the save. With his club fit, he might have ventured 4© over the 4¨ splinter. When he did not, the board was destined to be flat. Poland v. France
When the French, much in accordance with their general approach, did not open or overcall, the Poles had a free and easy run to the optimum contract. 5ª just asked about the trump quality. Poland +1430.
Here, Lesniewski butted in with a twosuited overcall, having heard his partner pass in advance, so the double fit came to light. In fact it did not even matter that much whether Quantin would double or go to 7ª. The save just nets 800, so he was bound to lose at least 12 IMP´s anyway, whereas the grand might make on a wrong lead or whatever. Poland +100 or 17 IMP´s. The final scores in the two matches:
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