Appeal No. 4 - France vs Scotland

Appeals Committee:
Anton Maas (Chairman, the Netherlands), Herman De Wael (Scribe, Belgium), Maria Erhart (Austria), Tjolpe Flodqvist (Sweden)

Senior Teams Round 3

Board 1. Dealer North. None Vulnerable.
	ª 9 8 2 © 8 7 ¨ A Q 6 § A J 10 7 5
ª A K 7 3 © 10 6 3 2 ¨ J 7 4 § 8 4		ª 4 © Q J 9 5 ¨ K 10 9 5 2 § Q 9 2
	ª Q J 10 6 5 © A K 4 ¨ 8 3 § K 6 3

West	North	East	South
Marshall	Faigenbaum	Innes	Damiani
	Pass	Pass	1ª
Pass	2§	Dble	2ª
Pass	4ª	All Pass

Contract: Four Spades, played by South

Lead: §8

Play: ©A,©K, heart ruff

Result: 10 tricks, NS +420

The Facts:
This was the first board of the match, in the third round.
West called the Director at the end of play. He would not have lead clubs but for his partner's double. East had doubled because he had not understood that 2§ had been alerted, as being Drury. He had intended his double to show the red suits. North stated he had alerted by pointing to his own bid. East told the Director that he was not familiar with this method of alerting. The scorer, who sat at the same side of the screen, confirmed that the bid had been alerted by pointing.

The Director:
Told North off for alerting in a non-standard manner, but ruled that East should be expected to understand what the movement means, or at least ask about it.

Ruling:
Result Stands

Relevant Laws:
Conditions of Contest C2

East/West appealed.

Present: All players and the Captain of East/West

The Players:
East told the Committee that he had not been aware there had been an alert, either by pointing to the bid or otherwise. When asked by the Director about it, he had wanted to express that he would be prepared to accept that such a action had taken place, but that he would not be certain it could be an acceptable alert. He had not seen anything.

South expressed his partner's apologies for not respecting procedure. South pointed out that he always used the blue card, but that his screen-mate alerted in the same manner as his partner, by pointing to the bids. South argued that Drury is not very unusual.

East/West's captain pointed out that Drury was not so usual in his country, and that West, while indeed alerting in the same manner, also always made certain that his screen-mate has noticed the alert.

When asked about it, North admitted that he could not confirm that East had noticed the alert.

South finally stated that he would always make the contract, even without a club lead. He would notice the 4-1 trump split and play East for the §Q.

The Committee asked the Director to confirm what was told to him. The Director confirmed that East had not objected to the fact that North had alerted by pointing at the bid. East had only told him that he did not think pointing at the bid constituted an alert. The Director had not asked further and had concluded that East had seen the movement but had not understood it.

The Committee:
Decided that the most important fact had never reached the Director: North had not made certain that East had noticed his movement. The Conditions of Contest contain the following sentence:
It is the obligation of the player making an "alert" to ensure that his screen-mate has
noticed that an "alert" has been made.

Therefore, the ruling shall be as if no alert had taken place.
The Committee then decided on what score adjustment to give. Without the double, West has three available leads: hearts, diamonds or clubs. The Committee decided to weight these options 75%-20%-5%. With a club lead, the contract is made, and with a diamond lead, declarer runs into too many difficulties to cope with. On a heart lead, the chances are with declarer, but it was not thought he would always make the contract. A success rate of between 60% and 80% was put forward, but in the end the Committee rounded the final outcome off to 60% making.

The Committee’s decision:
Score adjusted to
Both sides receive:
60% of 4ª= by South (NS +420)
plus 40% of 4ª-1 by South (NS –50)

Deposit: Returned

Note: the result at the other table was +420 so the final result on the board was:
60% of 0 IMPs
plus 40% of -10 IMPs
or -4 IMPs to the team of North/South

Lord of the Kings

Raymond Brock

Board 12. Dealer West. N/S Vul.
	ª A 10 9 8 7 © K J 6 ¨ 6 § A K Q J
ª K Q J © A 5 3 2 ¨ Q 4 § 9 8 5 2		ª 6 3 © Q 7 4 ¨ A 10 7 3 2 § 10 7 3
	ª 5 4 2 © 10 9 8 ¨ K J 9 8 5 § 6 4

This board, from the Open series match between England and Greece saw some declarer play that must be a candidate for the Best Played Hand of the Championship.

In the Closed Room, Kannavos played in 2ª on a heart lead which should have held him to nine tricks but the defence went astray and he ended up making ten.

The stakes were higher in the Open room:

West	North	East	South
Lambrinos	Price	Zotos	Simpson
1§	1ª	Pass	2ª
Pass	4ª	All Pass

South’s raise to 2ª would not be everyone’s choice and on this deal it led to the wafer-thin game.

One difficult aspect of defence is when dummy has a possible source of tricks and the defender with most of the high cards does not have a strong holding in that suit. If his partner guards that suit it is sufficient simply to defend passively; if his partner does not hold that suit then it is important to set up side-suit winners quickly.

Here East led a low spade and West’s jack was allowed to hold the trick. West now made a small mistake when he switched to a low heart. Declarer, David Price, went up with the king, cashed the ace of spades and played four rounds of clubs discarding dummy’s hearts. Now he led a diamond. This was not a guess for him because he could not afford for West to gain the lead. He won dummy’s king, ruffed a diamond and ruffed a heart with dummy’s last trump. That was eight tricks in the bag and he still had two certain trump tricks to come.

That was plus 620 and 10 IMPs which contributed to England’s 17-13 victory.

A stepping-stone End-play

By Svend Novrup

Maybe you do not win a long championship by executing coups and squeezes – but it helps! Board 1 in Round 14 caused problems in many matches, and we have heard of pairs who, sitting North/South, were happy to get a plus score in their game contract.

Well, against Lithuania in the Open series, Hedin Mouritzen from the Faroe Islands landed a small slam by means of a rare guest at the bridge table, a stepping-stone end-play that undoubtedly is one of the best achievements of the championships so far.

Board 1. Dealer North. None Vul.
	ª A K J 4 3 © A Q J 9 3 ¨ A Q § 9
ª Q 7 © K 10 8 6 2 ¨ 7 3 § Q 8 6 4		ª 10 9 8 6 © 7 5 4 ¨ J 6 4 2 § K 10
	ª 5 2 © - ¨ K 10 9 8 5 § A J 7 5 3 2

West	North	East	South
	Hedin		Joannes
	2§	Pass	3§
Pass	3ª	Pass	5ª
Pass	6ª	Pass	Pass
Pass

An extremely difficult hand to bid, and probably you will not consider 6ª to be the top spot to end up in but good slams are slams that make! 3§ showed a hand with HHxxxx in clubs and almost no side strength, so Jóannes Mouritzen thought that he had to do something extra on the next round. He felt like bidding 6ª but, as Hedin never refuses an invitation, he bid only 5ª (pard, you have to take care of the top trumps yourself!) putting the responsibility on the shoulders of Hedin!

East, who expected to see §AQxxxx in dummy, led a shrewd §10, a lead chosen at several tables(!). Hedin won §A, planned the play and started his voyage towards 12 tricks: ¨Q, heart ruff, ¨A, heart ruff, club ruff, ªA, ªK, ªJ, and ©A, hoping for the ©K to drop. Probably he was happy that this was not the case, as he now had to play for the stepping-stone variation in this position:

	ª 4 © Q J ¨ - § -
ª - © K 10 ¨ - § Q		ª 10 © - ¨ J 6 § -
	ª - © - ¨ K 10 § J

East was put on lead with the last trump while the §J was discarded from dummy, and he had to lead away from the ¨J.

One admiring fan later on, breathless from admiration, asked Hedin: – How did you know to finesse for the ¨J?
Hedin had a prosaic answer to that: – If East had held a non-diamond, he probably would have cashed it!