| 7th European Mixed Championships | Page 2 | Bulletin 7 - Friday, 22 March 2002 |
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The Last Trains
On Thursday morning, each team had three more chances to maintain their qualifying spot or to qualify at another team's expense. Rather than watch tables 1 or 2 we turn our attention to the matches where the teams ranked below 4th are trying to catch their last train. So here you will find a report about the match at table 3 between the French team STOPPA, full of past European champions, against a much younger and therefore less experienced team from Iceland, ALLA. On the first board, the slow approach worked much better, surprisingly enough:
Well, nothing wrong with Isak Sigurdsson's opening bid, but the effect of it was that he got the timing wrong to show the true nature of his hand. The French were allowed to play in peace and made 11 tricks. STOPPA +450.
Stoppa did very well to first pass and then describe his hand in one bid later on. Bidding 5§ thus was a matter of routine for Avon. One down, -100 but 8 imps for STOPPA. Board 13 produced no swing, as both declarers were the victims
of the same optical illusion:
East opens 1ª and South ends up in 3NT on a spade lead to the jack and king. If South ducks the jack, East will continue a low spade and the effect will be the same. Now the point is that there is no point in taking the diamond finesse. Just try to count East's cards. She holds five spades and the ©A, so after five rounds of clubs she cannot hold more than two diamonds if she has not discarded a single spade. So the diamond finesse will be wrong or the queen will drop. If East throws a spade, declarer can play a heart for her ninth trick, of course. Near the end, the French had another substantial gain when their opponents did too much bidding.
With nothing to guide him, Isak Sigurdsson won the heart lead in hand with the ace and ran the ¨10. This lost to the ace and a heart came back to dummy. Declarer's third heart went on the ¨Q, but the preparations had been made now for a defensive overruffing festival when a club was led off dummy next. South took her ace and played a heart, ruffed with the 10 and overruffed with the jack. When South could ruff the diamond return with her ª9, the contract was down two. STOPPA +100.
Guided by the double, Stoppa not only made the good decision to stay out of game, but also knew how to play the hand. He won the heart lead in dummy and simply led the ªK, as it was obvious that the ªA would be with South. South won the ace, cashed the §A and returned a heart, won by Stoppa in hand. Two more rounds of trumps followed, and then the ¨10 was run to the ace. Ten tricks and 7 imps to STOPPA who went on to win the match 27-6 or 21-9 V.P. Their qualification only looked a matter of time now. In the intermediate round of the morning, the most interesting pairing was to be found at table 4. Would the holders, AUKEN from Denmark, catch their last train? They were playing VIVES, a French team coming from nowhere to book a front row seat in their last train. Something happened on the first board.
A reasonable enough decision by Dorthe Schaltz to pass 1ª, but this time it did not work out well. The contract just made for +80.
Who wants to argue with success? When trumps broke and dummy had four of them, making ten tricks was not that difficult any more. VIVES +8 imps. On the next board, the French again reached a good contract in
one room.
On the actual heart distribution, nine tricks were never in danger. VIVES +400. To West it was clear that his partner's jump in spades would promise something nice in the minors.
Sabine Auken's heart splinter put 3NT out of reach so the Aukens had to settle for 4ª. This would have been a make had the ¨A been doubleton anywhere. As it was, South would have to unblock the ¨J had East played a diamond to her king at any time, but having found out that it was South who was likely to have two diamonds only, Sabine Auken played for her legitimate chance of finding South with the ¨A. One down, VIVES another 10 imps. Both teams missed a grand slam on board 15, but the Aukens must
have been very close to reaching it:
West could not be sure at all about what exactly was going on opposite.
The Aukens obviously play 4¨ as forcing, so Jens might have considered going on with all his aces…As it was, no swing. The board below sealed the French win:
No chance on the lead of the ¨2, away from the ace. VIVES +100.
The three-card suit rebid by Le Poder worked out well when partner raised him all the way to game AND Sabine Auken found the unlucky lead of the ¨A. Now, with the spades 3-3, declarer could no longer go down. A very lucky +600 for another 12 imps to VIVES. The titleholders ended their bid for a semifinal berth in a blaze
of glory.
The aggressive approach on this nice 6-6 had done its job, even more so as West had failed to open. The Schaltz couple thus was allowed to make a game while there was a slam on the cards for the opponents.
Sabine judged the situation extremely well when she decided to bid one more. Five Spades goes down, of course, but making the slam created one of the biggest swings we have seen here in Ostend so far: 19 imps. The final result of the match thus became 35-19 or 19-11 V.P. to VIVES. With one round to go before the cut, Popova, Mali, Stoppa and Lavazza were the leading foursome. As it happened, they all had to play each other and as both these matches ended 16-14 they all got enough V.P. to qualify, so there is no story about any team jumping into the last four at its final attempt. The semifinals would be: Popova v. Stoppa and Mali v. Lavazza |
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