Wonderful Defence In The Chairman’s Cup

by Jos Jacobs

Malmömässan is a vast building, very suitable for Trade Fairs, Congresses and record-breaking bridge events. At the moment, the Swedish National Open Seniors Championships as well as the Chairman’s Cup, a team event sponsored by the Chairman of the Swedish Bridge Federation are being played simultaneously with the Europeans next door. From the final match of the preliminary round of the Chairman’s Cup, we picked up a wonderful defence by a relatively unknown Polish pair from team GABI against Tony Forrester’s PANAPHOUR team.

Board 75. Dealer South. None Vul.
	ª A J 3 © 9 8 6 ¨ A J 10 § A 10 8 2
ª K Q 9 4 © A K 7 ¨ Q 6 4 2 § 7 3		ª 8 7 2 © J 5 ¨ K 9 7 § Q J 9 6 4
	ª 10 6 5 © Q 10 4 3 2 ¨ 8 5 3 § K 5

West, Tony Forrester, opened 1NT and played there.

North, Damian Wronski, led the }2 to dummy’s queen and the king from east. When this held, south, Krzysztof Warzecha, had to reconsider the situation. It was clear that partner had led from four to the ace, so the first thing to do was to attack dummy’s entry, the {K. So he returned a low diamond on which Wronski correctly inserted the 10. Dummy’s king won and Forrester continued with a spade to the king, won by North immediately (a farsighted move, as we shall see).

Wronski now switched to the ]8 (the Poles play reverse count) which was covered all round. Forrester’s next move was to lead his remaining club, but Wronski rose with the ace to continue hearts to clear the suit. Forrester won the third round and prepared to throw Wronski in with a spade to lead away from the {A.

Of course, having done everything right so far, Wronski would have nothing of becoming the victim of an ordinary throw-in, so he gallantly and swiftly unblocked the [J when the [Q was cashed. This proved the final knock-out for declarer who thus suffered the relative ignominy of having to concede down three for a score of -150. Tony must have felt very happy that he was not playing a pairs’ event this time!

After this board, it will be no surprise for you to hear that team GABI easily qualified for the quarterfinals of the Chairman Cup!

NEW SCHEDULE FOR SENIOR TEAMS CHAMPIONSHIP

The EBL Tournament Committee together with the Chairman of the Senior Committee and the Championship Manager have discussed the problem that the entry for the senior event is much lower than expected, which leads to a programme where the teams when playing a round robin have an unsatisfactory championship, with insufficient boards being played. This feeling has also been expressed by participating senior teams.

Discussion has resulted in the following change of the programme.

The round robin as published in the programme will be played normally but over fewer days. After this round robin the field will be divided in two groups, the first eight and the second eight and both groups will play a round robin within the group, leading to a ranking 1 to 8 and 9 to 16. Ties will be solved in accordance with the regulations (5.3).

The rounds will consist of 16 boards and the schedule is such that it almost completely follows the schedule for the open teams, playing the same set of boards, but 4 less.

The results after the complete round robin of 15 rounds will be maintained and completed with the 7 other matches.

The time table is as follows

SENIORS CAPTAINS MEETING

Wednesday 10,00 h in the vu-graph theatre