| 18th European Youth Team Championships | Page 2 | Bulletin 8 - Monday, 15 July 2002 |
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Schools Round 5 For the Saturday morning match we visit each Schools match in turn for just one board, starting with Austria v Sweden.
Both Souths made a very sound 2§ overcall. Johnny Sharp raised to 2ª on the West cards, as did the majority of Wests in this position. When Eliran Argelazi competed to 3§, Catherine Evans had an opportunity to teach him a lesson by doubling, but instead bid a safe 3ª. With everything fitting nicely for East/West and the spades behaving kindly, Evans managed ten tricks easily enough for +170. In the other room, Gilad Ofir made a negative double on the West cards and Ory Assaraf looked at his chunky four-card club holding and passed. Ofir led the king of diamonds and Lauralee Reed took the ace immediately and tried a sneaky nine of hearts to the queen, hoping that this would be her best opportunity to slip past the king on her left. But the king was not on her left, and perhaps it was odds against that it would be so after the ¨K lead. Worse, the king was singleton on the right and, far from sneaking a trick, Reed had developed an extra loser for herself. The defence could always prevent a spade ruff in dummy so Reed had just six tricks now for -500 and 8 IMPs to Israel. Wales are having a hard time of it so far in these Championships and this match ended in a 109-18 win for Israel, 25-0 VPs. Next up are Ireland and Poland. You can see an Irish triumph from this match in a separate article in today's Bulletin. The match generally went the way of the Poles, however, and this next board helped them to their 84-33 IMP, 25-5 VP win.
For Wlodzimierz Karlowicz the South hand was a Precision-style 2§ opening. Adam Flynn jumped to 3ª and Andrew Carrigan went on to 4ª over Piotr Zielinski's negative double. Meanwhile, Cian O'Muicheartaigh did not have a 2§ opening available to him and preferred 3§ to 1§. That put extra momentum into the auction and Jan Sikora eventually took the push to 5ª. You would think that this gave prospects of an Irish gain with their opponents playing a level higher but the Poles both outplayed and outdefended them so that the swing went the other way. In 4ª, Flynn received the lead of a spade to the queen and ace. All he had to do was to play out ace and another diamond to establish a discard for his third heart, but he did not see the need for hurry. Instead, Flynn played back his lowest spade and Karlowicz won and switched to a heart to dummy's ace. Still, two rounds of diamonds is good enough but Flynn took the diamond finesse. When that lost the heart was knocked out. He could unblock the diamond and cross to dummy's five of spades but - wait a minute! - he had squandered the ª4 at trick two and all his remaining trumps were bigger than those in dummy. There was no way to avoid the heart loser now for an embarrassing one down; -100. In 5ª Jacek Kalita received the lead of the ace of clubs, on which O'Muicheartaigh deposited the three. Perhaps the club play was just intended to confirm an odd number of clubs, but it looked to Emmett Davis like a suit preference signal and he switched to a low diamond away from his king. The ¨J scored and Kalita cashed the ace of trumps then played the ¨A, on which south discarded, followed by the ªJ. There were three entries to dummy to establish a long diamond and to cash it; +650 and 13 IMPs to Poland. You'll like this one. It comes from the match between Germany and Italy. The Germans won the match by 79-58 IMPs, 19-11 VPs, with most of the margin of victory coming on this deal.
First, we should take a passing glance at the normal table, where the Italian pair had a Stayman auction to 3NT, an eminently sensible contract in which Alberto Sangiorgio came to ten tricks after a spade lead; +630.
Next stop, Denmark v France, and another penalty, though nothing on the scale of the disaster we just saw from Italy.
Romain Tembouret opened 3NT, gambling, and Simon Houlberg doubled. When jean-Francois Grias removed to 4§, pass or correct, and Anne-Sofie Houlberg tried 4ª, Tembouret broke discipline by going on to 5§, quickly doubled by West. There were six top losers in the side suits and that was -800 - and deservedly so. Lea Troels Pederson Moller also opened with a gambling 3NT but David Ancelin did not double. However, when Lars Nielsen removed to 4§, Ancelin tried 4ª and bought a fairly suitable dummy. The defence cashed two top clubs then switched to the ¨J to declarer's ace. Ancelin cashed the ªA then ran the ªJ to South's queen - probably with the odds in the suit, but not perhaps the best way to play the whole hand. South continued with a second diamond and Ancelin won, ruffed a diamond and played a heart to the king then a heart back to the ten and queen for down one; -100 and 14 IMPs to Denmark, who won the match by 62-33 IMPs, 21-9 VPs. On vugraph, the French Junior declarer, Olivier Bessis, showed how 4ª might be made despite a trump misguess. After two rounds of clubs, the Italian South switched to a heart for the ten, jack and king. Bessis played a heart back to the ace then three rounds of diamonds, ruffing. Only now did he play ªA and run the ªJ. Though South won the queen, he had only clubs left and had to give a ruff and discard so that dummy's heart went away. A nice play, I think. The host nation, England had an awkward match against Norway. Though Norway gained 11 IMPs on our featured deal, it was England who came out on top in the match, winning by 57-41 IMPs, 18-12 VPs.
Neither East scraped up an opening bid on their five-five ten-count, disliking the two weak suits (quite right too). Erik Eide opened a Multi in third seat and Espen Lindqvist jumped to 3©, pass or correct. The 3ª conversion from Eide bought the contract with neither North nor South ever finding a way into the auction. Three Spades can be beaten, but only by North getting a heart ruff with the bare ace so that South gets the setting trick with the ªQ. Not surprisingly, the defence did not try that line. They got their four top tricks but that was all; +140. Susan Stockdale did not open the West hand and, while many of us would have done so, it is hard to criticise a pass with such a weak spade suit and decent outside strength. Allan Livgaard opened the North hand, of course, and Duncan Happer made a Michaels Cuebid. Petter Eide doubled to show some values and when Stockdale jumped to 3ª Livgaard found a 4§ bid, raised to game by Eide. Though East has a singleton diamond, there is no way for the defence to get a third trump trick and, with clubs two-two and the diamond finesse working, Livgaard soon had eleven tricks stacked in front of him; +400 and 11 IMPs to Norway. Our last match features Czech Republic and Scotland. The Scots are another team who are finding it tough going up to now and this result, 58-11 IMPs, 24-6 VPs to the Czechs, did not improve matters from the Scottish point of view. Still, with such a cheerful captain as Liz McGowan, I am sure that their spirits will stay high.
The Czechs may have had a slight concern that Scotland would reach the heart game in the other room, but they need not have worried. Gordon Pearson decided that the best way to describe his hand was to open a 14-16 no trump, which seems fair enough. Karolina Vlachova doubled David Wallace's Stayman response and Pearson bid his hearts. It would be very pushy for East to go on facing 14-16 and Wallace duly passed. Now Vlachova showed her second suit by bidding 2ª. It seems that the message about the club suit was lost somewhere in mid-table because Lukas Falta did not give preference to 3§ but passed 2ª. Perhaps Wallace should compete to 3© now, as his partner is pretty well marked with a doubleton spade if the opposition bidding is to be believed. However, he passed and hoped that his trump length would prove to be a problem to declarer. It might have been had the defence started a forcing game, but they did not find that line. Pearson cashed two top hearts then switched to ace and another club - apparently Falta was not the only one to fail to appreciate that South had doubled 2§ to show the suit. Wallace's club ruff was followed by the ace of diamonds but that was that for the defence; eight tricks for +110 and 7 IMPs to Czech Republic. |
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