| 7th European Mixed Championships | Page 3 | Bulletin 4 - Tuesday, 19 March 2002 |
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Final, First Session
In any pairs tournament, luck plays its part. Doing the wrong thing at the right moment might induce a mistake by an opponent; doing the right thing at the wrong moment might prove costly. Below, this double principle will be illustrated once again. The first round of the finals produced two lively boards at one of the tables 1, where the local favourites met the 3rd ranked Austrian pair:
For once, EW were in the top spot when they had NS doubled in 3¨, but Doris Fischer, who had opened on very light values, decided against defending in spite of her two aces. So it was left to her partner to make the best of 3NT on the lead of the ¨6. South carefully covered dummy's nine with her jack and West won. Now, you might play the §Q to smother the jack and get to dummy for the spade finesse, but playing off the ¨A and another seems a more logical approach. South wins her king and returns the §J, covered all round. With the timing still wrong, it looks as if there are no more than nine tricks, so the best you can do is to return a club and await developments. North wins his §10 and only has to return his second diamond for a good score. When he failed to do so but returned a club instead, South was inexorably squeezed in the red suits for an unlikely 460 to EW, nearly as many matchpoints as the 500 they looked set for. The other board at this table showed the effect of good timing:
1NT showed 9-12 hcp. and proved a very well-timed action. West led a club to the eight, king and ace, thus giving away the defence's natural trump trick, but…South continued the ©J, won by West who returned the suit, East showing count. Next came a club to the jack and a diamond to the king and ace. Now the roof fell in: diamond to the queen, diamond jack cashed and a low diamond for West to ruff, declarer shedding a spade. A heart ruff and the one top spade left settled the issue for 800. An interesting board, for deceptive or technical play, was this
one:
The popular contract was 4ª, usually played by West. North has a difficult lead: only the ¨K will really solve any problems. If North leads, say, a heart, declarer might win, shed a club on the top heart and play for the actual lay-out. Or, even better, he might win and take a ruffing finesse of the §K for a diamond discard. A fine deceptive play was produced by Vincent Kroes of the Netherlands. He got a trump lead by North, from which he assumed North might well hold most of the missing high cards. So he decided to go for a long-range deceptive play when he won dummy's king and took a losing club finesse. North, who could not see what was really going on, contined a trump. The ace won and next came two top clubs, declarer shedding a heart (!) from dummy. The last club was ruffed and overruffed and a heart came back, declarer taking the finesse. Still unable to deduce what was going on, North returned a heart, after which there were enough discards. Just made for a fine 620. A comedy of errors (?) we saw on this board:
After East's 1¨ opening (the garbage bin of the Strong Club), an interesting auction developed, of which the Austrians clearly had the better. When North led a low heart round to West's jack, it became clear that he did not hold the ¨AK, so South was marked with ¨Hx. Schifko proceeded to draw four rounds of trumps, so South was left with the 13th trump which she decided to use when the ©A was cashed in the 3rd round of the suit. Had she played ¨K and another, all would have been well, but her solution to lead a low diamond from Kx backfired when Justin won the ace and returned the suit, declarer of course ducking. The club return now meant an overtrick. On the next board, disasters occurred all round the room.
A few Souths managed to go down in 4© though there are 11 tricks even on a club lead if declarer ruffs a spade in dummy before drawing trumps. At another table, Willem jan Maas, in classic mixed pairs style, put himself in 3NT after South showed her strong twosuiter. He got the lead of the §8 (4th best). West won the king and returned the §7, covered by the queen (!) and ace. This proved an effective move, as East switched to a spade. Dummy's ace won and five rounds of hearts were cashed, on which no costly discards occurred, so declarer had to take the diamond finesse next. West had discarded his ¨8 and now contributed the nine, so North rightly refrained from finessing but played the ace instead. East elected to unblock her king, not wanting to be thrown in with it to lead up to declarer's presumed 10x in clubs… Eleven tricks to beat all 650's.
This is what we saw at one table. Really too much bidding by all parties involved, and West should score his two spade honours in the end as declarer is shortened after three rounds of hearts. The advantage of Tyrannosaurus-style bridge was clearly shown on
this one:
If you happen to be so far behind (or ahead, for all that) of Modern Times in bridge, it might occur to you NOT to play negative doubles. As a result, the following auction might occur:
A wonderful contract for a fully deserved overtrick and +150. The garbage bin caused havoc again at another table:
2¨ was explained by South to West as showing a solid raise in hearts… Well, 4© is unbeatable of course, but the thing is to believe in your luck. Ruff the spade continuation, play a heart to the jack, cash the king and lead a low club to hand. Draw the last trumps before conceding to the §A and take the more or less marked diamond finesse in relative comfort for +420. On the next board, 3© down one is about par, certainly if NS dare
double this (anyone for a double?) Beating par requires a different
approach. What about this example?
This strange-looking auction requires an explanation, but there is none. 1© was 8-11 hcp. and 2© thus shows a maximum of 11 hcp as well. East duly explained her 2© as 0-11, but West did not offer any explanation to South, who decided to take action anyway. North, not knowing what South knew, took the double to be completely serious and thus announced 3NT without further ado. The lead was the ©7 to the ace, and a low heart won with the king immediately. On the run of the diamonds, West discarded a club and a spade, so declarer could continue with a spade from dummy to the ten, king and ace. East, not at all sure about the actual heart position, switched to the §10, won by declarer's ace. As East had thrown a spade on the diamonds as well, all North needed now was a successful finesse of the ªJ. Ten tricks. The following board was spoilt on all the unlucky experts here
in Oostende.
In pairs, 6¨ is a better contract than 3NT. With all the luck needed for 3NT to succeed after a heart lead, why not go for a better-scoring proposition? One is never too old to learn how to handle suit combinations.
A fine example was given late in the Sunday.
How would you play 5§ after West opened 2§ or 2© to show a weak hand with both majors? One declarer decided to take the double finesse in clubs. When the first round lost to the jack, she stuck to her approach and thus lost the second round to the queen. To finish her off, East won a trick with her stiff ©K in the end. Both Reese and Roudinesco will frown upon South from above, we were told. Paul Chemla's signals need a good pair of glasses to been read:
East opens One Heart, South overcalls One Spade and East finally becomes declarer in 3NT against which South leads an unlucky low spade. West plays the four, North (Chemla) the three (!) and East wins the 10. Next comes the §A, on which Chemla contributes the nine! When it turns out that he held three low clubs, you might be well-advised to take this as a serious effort to show a key value in hearts. So when you get the lead in diamonds, do not be afraid and lead a low heart away from your ace-jack to collect three more defensive tricks for an acceptable score. Of course, North might have saved the day in the auction already, as we saw at another table. After 1©-1ª, West bid 2§ and North 2ª (!). This not only induced South to make the much more effective lead of the ªQ, but also steered EW away from their unbeatable 3NT. Instead, they suffered the ignominy of going one light in 3©… Another typical mixed pairs auction we saw on this board:
Well, the proper contract seems to be 1NT by South, but many a North could not resist the temptation to open 1NT himself. East would lead the ¨J, South winning the third round of the suit. Next comes a low spade to East's blank queen, and the diamonds are cashed. North discarded a second club and a spade and West a spade and the §J, so now East can put declarer in his hand with a low club. Forced to open up hearts himself, declarer played a heart to West's jack, and after two more rounds of the suit another club once again put declarer in his hand. The resulting spade loser means three down for a very good mp score. A breach of a golden rule resulted in a very good save:
Four Spades is an easy make, but 4© went down only one. |
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