In Thursday’s evening session, we elected to follow the performance of the other Italian participant, Allegra from Turin. Would they boost the Italian general morale by scoring a big win following the shock defeat of their fellow-countrymen? It did not at all look likely if one takes the very first board of their match against Besiktas from Istanbul into account: Both sides bid to 4♠ but the lead made all the difference.

Board 1. Dlr: North/None
	♠ 6 5 2 ♥ A K 9 ♦ K 6 5 ♣ K 9 7 4
♠ K J 10 7 ♥ Q 10 6 ♦ 10 9 8 7 4 ♣ 5		♠ A Q 9 4 ♥ 8 7 4 3 2 ♦ ♣ A Q 8 6
	♠ 8 3 ♥ J 5 ♦ A Q J 3 2 ♣ J 10 3 2

Open Room

West	North	East	South
Kubac	Bocchi	Tarhan	Duboin
	1NT	2♣	2♦
4♠	All pass

Bocchi led a normal enough ♥K. When he continued the suit, Duboin duly got his ruff but his trump return came too late as declarer’s hearts were established. Dummy won, a club was finessed and now declarer had time to ruff a club, cross in trumps noting the break, ruff the last club, ruff a diamond and draw the last trump to enjoy the hearts in peace. Besiktas +420. In the other room, the bidding was basically the same: Closed Room

West	North	East	South
D’Avossa	Zorlu	Di Bello	Kandemir
	1♣	2♣	2♦
4♠	All pass

Here too, 2♣ showed majors, but when Zorlu led a trump, declarer could no longer come to 10 tricks. So Besiktas had struck a big blow at the earliest opportunity: 10-imps. Except for a Turkish bidding misunderstanding which cost them 8 imps, nothing very much happened until almost halfway through the match, as this was board 8:

Board 8. Dlr: West/None
	♠ 6 3 ♥ Q 7 3 ♦ 5 ♣ A K 9 8 5 3 2
♠ 10 7 ♥ J 9 8 6 5 ♦ A J 4 2 ♣ Q 4		♠ A J 9 8 ♥ 4 ♦ Q 10 9 8 6 ♣ J 10 6
	♠ K Q 5 4 2 ♥ A K 10 2 ♦ K 7 3 ♣ 7

As we have seen on a number of occasions in this event, the choice of opening bid made all the difference. So far, we have shown some cases in which one player did open whereas his counterpart at the other table did not, but this time we have a variation. Open Room

West	North	East	South
Kubac	Bocchi	Tarhan	Duboin
Pass	3♣	All pass

In the Open Room, Bocchi opened the bidding with a pre-empt in his long suit, and quite rightly Giorgio was not at all tempted. Allegra +130. In the Closed Room, Zorlu opened 1♣ after which his side ran into trouble: Closed Room

West	North	East	South
D’Avossa	Zorlu	Di Bello	Kandemir
Pass	1♣	1♠	Dbl
3♦	Pass	Pass	3♠
Pass	4♣	Pass	4♥
All pass

Down two due to a very unfortunate break in what looked like a touch-and-go contract anyway. Allegra 6 imps. On the next board, when Bocchi did not open, the Besiktas forwards were given a free run:

Board 9. Dlr: North/EW
	♠ 7 3 ♥ A 7 4 2 ♦ A 10 9 3 ♣ Q J 7
♠ A Q 9 8 ♥ K 8 6 5 ♦ Q ♣ A 9 5 2		♠ J 10 6 4 ♥ Q 9 ♦ K 7 6 5 4 ♣ K 6
	♠ K 5 2 ♥ J 10 3 ♦ J 8 2 ♣ 10 8 4 3

Open Room

West	North	East	South
Kubac	Bocchi	Tarhan	Duboin
	Pass	Pass	Pass
1NT	Pass	2♣	Pass
2♥	Pass	2♠	Pass
3♠	Pass	4♠	All pass

The play was elegant: A club was led to dummy’s ace and a low heart was won by declarer’s queen. Next came a diamond to the queen and ace and North returned a trump, dummy’s eight winning. Tarhan now crossed to the ♣K, threw a heart on the ♦K and ruffed a diamond. A club was ruffed in hand and the last diamond ruffed with dummy’s queen. Dummy’s last club was led, North ruffing with the seven and declarer throwing his losing heart. Bocchi had only hearts left at this point, so he tried the ace, ruffed in hand by declarer for his ninth trick with the highest card of the pack still in dummy. Well played, Besiktas +620. At the other table, Zorlu made a very light opening bid again, but this time things were back to normal (in this event, at least) and thus his opponents were the ones who ran into trouble: Closed Room

West	North	East	South
D’Avossa	Zorlu	Di Bello	Kandemir
	1♦	Pass	1NT
Dbl	Pass	2♠	All pass

Diamond lead and trump return. Di Bello played mainly along the same line as Tarhan, but as the stakes were lower his side lost 10 imps in the process. So Besiktas had regained the lead: 23-18 at this point. With the scores level at 26-26 they went into the last three boards. This was the first:

Board 18. Dlr: East/NS
	♠ 2 ♥ Q 10 9 8 4 ♦ Q 9 4 2 ♣ A 4 3
♠ K 10 8 3 ♥ 5 ♦ J 10 6 ♣ K Q 8 7 5		♠ Q J 9 6 ♥ A 7 6 3 ♦ K 7 5 3 ♣ 9
	♠ A 7 5 4 ♥ K J 2 ♦ A 8 ♣ J 10 6 2

Open Room

West	North	East	South
Kubac	Bocchi	Tarhan	Duboin
		1♦	Dbl
1♠	4♥	4♠	Pass
Pass	Dbl	All pass

Once again, the light opening did not work well. A heart went to the ace and a club to the king was won by Bocchi who returned a trump. Duboin won the ace and returned the suit, leaving declarer without resources. Down two, Allegra +300. In the other room, East refrained from making an opening bid, so NS were allowed to register a quiet +120 for a loss of 5 imps. Closed Room

West	North	East	South
D’Avossa	Zorlu	Di Bello	Kandemir
		Pass	1♣
Pass	1♥	Pass	1♠
Pass	1NT	All pass

On the next board, a rather light opening bid again did the damage:

Board 19. Dlr: South/EW
	♠ Q J 3 ♥ Q J 10 4 2 ♦ 6 5 4 ♣ 8 5
♠ A 9 8 ♥ 9 6 ♦ Q 10 8 ♣ K Q 10 6 3		♠ K 7 6 4 ♥ K 7 3 ♦ A J ♣ A J 9 2
	♠ 10 5 2 ♥ A 8 5 ♦ K 9 7 3 2 ♣ 7 4

Closed Room

West	North	East	South
D’Avossa	Zorlu	Di Bello	Kandemir
			Pass
Pass	Pass	1NT	Pass
3NT	All pass

When you see an auction like this, you cannot help feeling that bridge must be an easy game, one way or another. Allegra +600. Open Room

West	North	East	South
Kubac	Bocchi	Tarhan	Duboin
			Pass
1♣	Pass	1♥	Pass
1♠	Pass	2♦	Pass
2♥	Pass	3♣	Pass
3♠	Pass	4♣	Pass
4♠	All pass

Though EW held solid enough red-suit stoppers between them, it never occurred to them to introduce the safest denomination. Trumps were 3-3 alright, but when both the ♥A and the ♣K were wrongly placed one down became inevitable. Allegra thus got 13 more imps to win by 44-26 or 19-11 V.P.