| 45th GENERALI European Bridge Championships, Arona, Tenerife, Canary Islands | Saturday, 30 June 2001 |
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Italy vs Poland Open Series - Round 32 On Friday morning, four rounds from the end of the championship, the last of the really important matches, that´s to say those in which two of the leading teams had to face each other, was scheduled. As a consequence, a certain element of luck would creep into the eventual outcome of the championship: how many V.P. would each of the contenders for the title get from their last three matches against less well-placed teams? With the score at 3-2 for Poland, this was board 3:
Pszczola graciously offered the Italians all the bidding space they wanted. Thus Versace was able to find out that Lauria held at least four diamonds, but only three spades. He thus settled for 5¨, a contract that could not be made when the ªK proved to be offside. Poland +50.
Bocchi´s 2© took some bidding space away from the Poles. Thus, Zmudzinski made a practical shot by jumping to 3ª, raised to game by Balicki. With spades 3-3, this proved an unbeatable contract: Poland another +420 and 10 IMP´s.
The normal contract: Italy +110.
Bocchi led a trump, won by declarer´s ten. He then won the return of the ©J with the ace and proceeded to play the §A. presenting declarer with his contract as the cards lay. Poland +620 and another 11 IMP´s. The next four boards did not trouble the scorers at all, but
then came:
After 2¨, Kwiecien could make a normal take-out double, so the double fit nature of the E/W was immediately revealed. Of course, Pszczola went on to slam, be it for insurance reasons only, though in fact all 13 tricks are there for E/W. When South went on to 6ª all Pszczola could reasonably do was to double, so Poland scored +500 here when the defence got three aces and a diamond ruff. Special mention should be made of the fact that when West cashed his aces in the rounded suits, South each time had to follow suit with a blank king!
Here, Duboin could not double the splinter of 4§ for systemic
reasons. When South next cuebid 4©, he did double, but it was
too late already, given the state of the vulnerability (the red
v. green syndrome, as it is often called). So the Italians subsided
rather early, defeating 4ª by just one trick for +50. Poland had
scored another 10 IMP´s.
Even more so if you look at the west hand from a rubber bridge angle, 4ª looks an obvious shot.. Poland +620.
Science failed again where a practical approach would have worked. Duboin showed spades with 1NT and described a six-card suit and invitational values. When Bocchi decided that his AK and A were not enough, a good game proposition was gone. Italy +170 and 10 IMP´s more to Poland. On the next board, the Italians registered the first of a few
partscore swings in their favour when an aggressive raise of partner´s
overcall paid off:
West no doubt fancied his defensive prospects, but the contract proved an easy make. Italy +110 (nine tricks).
After the aggressive raise, North could not really make another move. Italy another +140 and 6 IMP´s back.
A normal enough auction, but why did Kwiecien go down? He won the club lead and proceeded to cash the ©AK. Curtains. He went on, however, to take a direct spade finesse which worked. So why not do so immediately? He then would have found out that North held at least four spades with his clubs and thus might have been induced to finesse the hearts at any time, using the club ruffs as entries to dummy. Anyway, Italy +100.
Duboin was showing hearts with 1ª, but when Balicki doubled this Zmudzinski understandably expected a better spade holding with his partner. When this was not the case, the Poles for once were far off target. The contract went down four, Italy +800 and 14 IMP´s back.
One down, Italy +100.
Zmudzinski apparently realised that with four trumps opposite, the chance were that 5ª would still make. Right he was, though it will not occur frequently that you can make 11 tricks missing the trump AKQ! Poland +650 and another 11 IMP´s. They had won the match 52-27 or 20-10 in V.P. and Russia thus were back in the lead. All would depend on how many V.P. each of the title contenders would score against some of the lesser gods… |
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