| 1st European Open Bridge Championships | Page 3 | Bulletin 11 - Wednesday, 25 June 2003 |
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Chagas vs Welland 2nd Half For the second half of the match, the Chagas team remained seated where it had been in the first half: Chagas-Brenner NS in the Closed Room, and Gerner-Weinstein EW in the Open Room. Welland had brought in Rosenberg-Zia to play NS on the Rama, and Levin-Weinstein stayed where they were as EW in the Closed Room. On the third board, Chagas increased their lead when Garner-Weinstein ended up in a contract not affected by bad breaks:
With all the hearts placed well for declarer, the defence had no chance to do anything here. Garner lost two clubs and two hearts to just land his contract. Chagas +400.
Chagas’ light distributional opening bid changed matters. As Levin did not consider his heart stopper very solid, he decided to settle for 5§, a contract in which he could not avoid losing two trump tricks as well as one top heart. Unlucky, but +50 to Chagas and 10 IMP’s to lead by 22 now. The wildest board of the set produced no swing, but both tables did their best to produce the most sensational auction:
Obviously, the very good spade holding was ample compensation for the lack of a club stopper, but sometimes you have to pay the price. After hearing partner bid 6§, Weinstein felt a little uncomfortable, so he went to 6¨. At this point, we could see on Vugraph that Michael Rosenberg at his turn was feeling quite uncomfortable now, as he had no idea what would happen in any other slam the opponents might go to. So he passed after a long huddle and, according to what he had feared, Garner indeed introduced a new slam denomination. There it rested as nobody felt sure enough to double. When a trick was lost by declarer in the play, he went down two, +200 to Welland.
Here too, East made the obvious jump to 6§. As Weinstein felt less uncomfortable here, it rested in 6§ in which declarer lost a club and two hearts for –200. No swing. On the next board, we finally had a slam swing:
With the duplication in diamonds unveiled in time, nobody was tempted. Welland +650.
The auction had suggested club and diamond controls with NS, but EW were not to believe this. They simply led clubs and continued the suit to set the slam by one trick. Welland +100 and a maybe unexpected 13 IMP’s to trail by only 8 now. A few boards later, Chagas missed a chance to save the board:
Garner might have ventured a double here with two aces opposite the vulnerable overcall to increase the stakes a little, but he stayed quiet. Down two, Chagas +200 only. It seemed a fair enough score, as NS were wide overboard here. It could be worse, however:
Levin indeed threw the hammer, and when Brenner-Chagas decided to sit it they quickly were to regret it as there were only seven tricks available. Welland +500 which turned out to be a swing of only 7 IMP’s to them, but the match in fact stood at all square now. But then came a board that turned out to be decisive:
Helped by the spade overcall and the take-out double, EW were sort of able to locate most of the missing high cards as they ended up at dazzling heights in 5§. Trumps behaved (likely), the ªK was worth a trick (likely), the diamond needed no guess (who knows?) and the heart finesse was right (would you believe it?) so they chalked up a scintillating +600.
After Chagas found a weak-two in diamonds to open the bidding, Diego Brenner threw more sand into the EW machines by introducing his side suit – he could always retreat to diamonds, of course. When nobody had anything more to say this unintentional contract had to go down three for +150 to Welland, but a loss of 10 IMP’s. On the next board, Garner produced a fine unblocking defence to defeat a normal game, that had already gone down in the other room.
So in both rooms they were playing 3NT, but from different sides of the table. In the Closed Room, Weinstein had an easy club lead, after which declarer had little chance as he went after the diamonds by cashing dummy’s king rather early in the play. So the defence came to two clubs, two top hearts and the ¨Q. Down one. In the Open Room, Garner first of all found the not so easy club lead away from his §Kxx. The queen won in dummy, the ¨A was unblocked and declarer led a top heart won by West. Weinstein continued a club, ducked in dummy, and Garner cleared the suit. Next came a heart to the ©J in dummy, on which West played low – if the suit is continued, the contract will be defeated out of hand, and he could not be sure about the spade situation. Now, dummy’s top spades were cashed, on which Garner had to unblock all his high spades to avoid being put in with the last spade. This would give him two winners in the suit, but then he would have to lead into declarer’s diamond tenace. So when the ª6 held the trick, dummy had to revert to hearts and the contract went down after all. Well done! Welland recouped some IMP’s on the last board, but Chagas had just held on to win 45-42 and go through to the quarterfinals. |
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