| 18th European Youth Team Championships | Page 5 | Bulletin 9 - Tuesday, 16 July 2002 |
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Juniors Round 16 We start our look at Round 16 of the Juniors with Board 6. At all twenty tables, South declared 4ª, often doubled. The contract has four losers, of course, but at only six of the twenty tables did the defence manage to defeat the contract.
At most tables South opened 4ª so his general hand-type was known but that was all. West usually began with a top diamond. There were a couple of ways in which the contract was let through. Firstly, East discouraged and West switched to a club - the obvious switch. When I was given the hand as a problem that is what I did. The only question in my mind was whether to switch to a low club or to the king. It follows that I agree with those Wests who let the contract through in this fashion. I blame any East who discouraged. Partner, if playing the popular ace for attitude, king for count, would have led the king from ¨AKQ, so East knows that declarer holds the ¨Q. West would lead ace from ¨AKx(x) but, I think, king from ¨AKxxx, so South is known not to hold the dangerous queen doubleton, when a switch may be required to knock the §A off the table. All of which leads to the conclusion that East should encourage at trick one - given that the methods in use are the ones I have assumed. When East discourages, the obvious switch is a club and West is correct to find that play. While the information gained may not help very much, there are those who will suggest that West should cash the ªA before making up his mind. Well, that is fine when declarer has 100 honours in spades but will cost a trick quite often when East has ªJxx or similar. The second way in which the contract was let through was when West, having cashed some or all of his diamond and spade tricks, now tried a low heart and East put up the ace. That was ruffed out and declarer rattled off a stream of spades, eventually squeezing West in clubs and hearts for the tenth trick. Maybe this mix-up is also avoidable. West might view that once he has decided to lead hearts at all he might as well switch to the king. Alternatively, East might decide that partner should not really have a singleton heart and doubleton spade, which is what is being played for when the ace of hearts is played, as he might then have overcalled 4NT or 5§, according to his minor-suit distribution. For the record, the six successful pairs were: Olivier Bessis/Godefroy de Tessiers for France, Nikita Malinovski/Mikhail Krasnosselski for Russia, Martin Schaltz/ Andreas Marquardsen for Denmark, David Gold/ Alex Hydes for England, Janne Airaksinen/Tatu Hekinnen for Finland, and Berk Basaran/ Ozan Ugan for Turkey. Well done to them.
Six of either black suit is almost assured, while 6© also happens to make courtesy of the even trump split. The Russian pair were allowed a free run and duly found the spade fit, exchanged cuebids, but then stopped at the five level; +680 after the ace of diamonds opening lead. Estonia were not given the luxury of a free auction. Mikhail Krasnosselski came in with a somewhat thin 1¨ overcall of the strong club opening and Lauri Naber's 1ª was control-showing. Malinovski could take a lot of bidding space away with his jump to 4¨ and Aivar Tihane passed that around to see what his partner could do. What Naber did was to cuebid to get Tihane to pick a major, which he duly did with a jump to six hearts. Perhaps, if he was going to slam anyway, Tihane could have tortured his partner with a return cuebid of 6¨ in case North did have only four cards in one major - or perhaps 6¨ would have been a grand slam try? Anyway, no harm done as the hearts behaved; +1430 and 13 somewhat fortunate IMPs to Estonia.
Noga Tal opened 1§, strong, and Dana Tal responded 1ª, a natural positive promising five spades. Noga chose to agree spades immediately with a splinter bid of 3¨ and that made for a very easy and quick auction to 6ª; +1460 after a heart lead. The Tirks were using natural methods and South had an awkward rebid as he considered his hand (correctly in my view) to be too strong for a rebid of 3§ once partner had responded in a major. Though Sakrak bid spades at his third turn, it never seemed to be totally clear which suit was agreed. Certainly, Sakrak's response to RKCB suggests that he at that point assumed spades to be trumps, while the fact that Suicmez eventually bid the grand slam suggests that he always had hearts in mind and expected to be facing three aces. What is surprising is that Sakrak did not convert 7© to 7ª. That shows a lot of trust in a murky auction. Now the spotlight turned to Ophir Reshef. Declarer has 15 tricks on a non-diamond lead, and east had not doubled the 5¨ bid. Reshef took a while but finally got it right with a low diamond lead for one down and 17 IMPs to Israel. That was a big lead, because had Reshef not chosen a diamond the swing would have been 13 IMPs to Turkey.
Pia Nurmi contented herself with a heavy 3§ rebid and Maria Ahonen raised then cooperated in a slam hunt. Six Clubs was just fine; +1390 on a heart lead. Monika Kummel's 1§ was strong and Iris Grumm's 1NT showed four controls. Why did grumm choose to play 6NT when spades had been agreed? You had better ask her. Obviously, 6NT could have been beaten by several tricks, but the chosen lead was a heart - after all, North had to hold ¨Kx(x), didn't she? Grumm had 13 tricks now for +1470 and 2 Austrian IMPs.
Where would you like to play on the North/South cards? Four Spades, I would imagine. It didn't prove to be easy to get there. Indeed, not one of the pairs who opened either 2© or a Multi 2¨ managed it. Some stopped off in partscore, but the majority reached either 4© or 3NT. Only England's Ollie Burgess and Gareth Birdsall got to the top spot and that was because the South hand did not meet Burgess's requirements for a weak two bid so that Birdsall could show his long strong spades in a natural auction. Well done to them. For Hungary, Mraz/Szegedi reached 3NT. A low diamond lead did not cause Mraz any difficulties as he just knocked out the ªA and came to ten tricks; +430. Against the Swedish 4© contract, the defence took the ¨A, §A, and ªA, before playing a second club. Goran Linerudt had the communications to play ©A then run the jack and come to hand to cash the ©K; +420 and a flat board. For Poland, Krzysztof Kotorowicz tried an underlead of the ªA against 4©. Tomislav Scepanovic won in hand and played ©A then ran the ©J. He played a diamond and the defence took the ¨A and §A but then tried second club; eleven tricks for +450. Konrad Araskiewicz's 4§ response to the Multi 2¨ was, I think, asking his partner to bid the suit below his major to allow Araskiewicz to declare the hand. Karlo Brguljan led the §J and Vedran Zoric won the ace and returned a club. Araskiewicz won in hand and played a diamond to the jack. When that held, he continued with ©A then ©J, running it, but had no quick entry to dummy to draw the last trump. He tried the ¨Q but Brguljan won and put his partner in with the ªA to get a club ruff; down one for -50 and 11 IMPs to Croatia. David Gold led a club against Bas Drijver and Alex Hydes won and returned a club to the queen. Declarer played the hearts correctly but again had no quick entry to dummy to draw the last trump and the defence duly took their ruff for one down; -50. Birdsall had no worries in 4ª, of course; +420 and 10 IMPs to England.
What fun! All levels of spades from four through seven were tried,
plus the oddity of 6¨
the other way. That was worth a 10 IMP pick-up to The Netherlands when their North/South pair was left to play in 6¨, down just one for -50. Gold opened 4ª but then left his opponents to it, having no reason to guess that Hydes would turn up with all his values in the place they were needed to make the spade slam. For Croatia, Brguljan/Zoric got to 5ª - well, Brguljan got there on his own after opening at the one level and taking the push first to 4ª then to 5ª. The diamond lead meant twelve tricks; +480. For Poland, Jakub Kotorowicz opened 4¨,
South African Texas (or Namyats if you have American influences),
and when Scepanovic overcalled 4©,
Krzysztof competed to 4ª.
Jakub now took the push to first 5ª
then 6ª, and it
was difficult not to double with the South hand. A heart lead meant
all 13 tricks for +1310 and 13 IMPs to Poland.
The Tal sisters bid smoothly to the normal heart game after a strong club opening and negative response; +650. At the other table, Ophir Reshef came in over a strong and artificial 2§ and Erke Suicmez doubled, showing a bad hand, I believe. When Eldad Ginossar raised pre-emptively to 3ª, Ozgue Sakrak doubled to suggest a penalty and Suicmez was happy to agree. Reshef started with eight losers and finished with eight losers; -1100 and 10 IMPs to Turkey.
For Finland, Nurmi/Ahonen had a free run after a 2§ opening and their standard auction led to the standard heart game; +650. Kummel opened a strong club and Heikkinen overcalled. Aireksinen did not raise, which was mildly surprising with four-card support, but perhaps he had spotted that he was vulnerable. Kummel's reopening double saw Grumm jump to 3§ to show genuine length plus some modest values. When the heart fit subsequently came to light, Kummel risked the five level in pursuit of a possible slam. Had Grumm been two-one the other way round in spades and diamonds, that might have been too high, but as it was Grumm was OK in 5©; +650 and no swing.
For Czech Republic, Jan Martynek opened 2ª and Petr Jelinek raised pre-emptively, leaving Manolis Dialynas with little option but to double for take-out. Alexis Dialynas responded 4© so the normal contract was reached when Manolis passed that out. Declarer took the double heart finesse to pick up the trumps and come to twelve tricks; +680. In the other room, the Czechs had a free run and Robert Vrkoc asked for five-card majors then showed four hearts, puppet-style, before judging to play the club game when no heart fit came to light. At least I think that is what was going on and Milan Macura simply took a view to play 3NT with his 4-3-3-3 hand. We may find out before going to print. Macura now guessed to raise to 6§, a poor contract in theory but an excellent one in practice. Whether declarer chooses the ruffing spade finesse or the double heart finesse, he will find that he cannot go wrong; +1370 and 12 IMPs to Czech Republic. |
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