Impressions Of The Open Pairs Final by Jos Jacobs On Friday morning, the Pairs Finals got underway. In the Open, all 52 pairs would meet each other over the two full days scheduled for the event, 51 rounds of 2 boards in all. Below, I will present a few boards that drew my attention for one reason or another. Board 15. Dealer South. N/S Vul.   ♠ 10 8 7 6 ♥ J 8 6 5 4 2 ♦ 7 ♣ 8 4 ♠ A J 4 2 ♥ A 10 ♦ A 10 9 6 5 ♣ J 3 ♠ Q 5 3 ♥ Q 9 7 ♦ K Q 8 3 ♣ 9 7 2   ♠ K 9 ♥ K 3 ♦ J 4 2 ♣ A K Q 10 6 5 West North East South Bakkeren Hanlon Bertens McGann       1♣ 1♦ Pass 1NT Dble Pass 2♥ 2NT Dble Pass 3♥ All Pass   At many tables South opened 1NT, but if you don’t play 15-17 NT you have to look for something else. The 1♣ opening made it easy for EW to enter the auction and find their diamond fit, in which there are ten tricks for the taking. At pairs, no-trumps are everybody’s favourite denomination, so Bertens was quite right to go after NT first. McGann had his doubts about 1NT, but Hanlon was not interested. Right he was, but when McGann doubled a second time Hanlon might have considered a waiting pass first. Had Bertens run to 3♦ all would have been well for either side’s share of the matchpoints available, but 3♥ was not a success. Declarer had to lose a diamond, two spades and three hearts for the dreaded –200 and only 4 m.p., a score of 8%. In the second session, we saw wonderful bridge from all players on this one: Board 6. Dealer East. E/W Vul.   ♠ A 9 6 ♥ 9 7 6 5 ♦ 10 ♣ A J 9 7 5 ♠ 7 5 4 ♥ A K Q 10 4 2 ♦ 8 ♣ Q 10 2 ♠ K Q J 10 8 3 ♥ J ♦ J 9 6 ♣ K 6 3   ♠ 2 ♥ 8 3 ♦ A K Q 7 5 4 3 2 ♣ 8 4 West North East South Mouiel Bompis Levy De Sainte Marie     2♠ 3♠ 4♠ 4NT Pass Pass Dble All Pass     The 3♠ bid was a modern gadget, asking partner to bid 3NT if he happens to hold a spade stopper. Holding a spade stopper plus a surplus ace, Bompis decided his hand was more than good enough to give him a fair chance in 4NT. In a sense he was right, until Mouïel doubled. When everybody looked happy, Levy duly led the ♥J so the defenders had the first six tricks and 48 m.p. or 96%. As Olivier Beauvillain, one of the tournament directors, pointed out, this South hand reminded him of the Special Alert card in our bidding boxes here. As far as we know, no good reason or explanation has yet been given for its presence, but suggestions are galoring. What about the reversed convention on a hand like this? Interchange the North and South hands and there you are. Over 2♠, South (holding the North cards) can overcall 3♠ and use the Special Alert to tell his screenmate that this shows a spade stopper and asks partner to bid 3NT if he holds a running minor. In an all-Dutch confrontation, two rounds later, a baby psyche by Verhees backfired: Board 9. Dealer North. E/W Vul.   ♠ K J 6 5 ♥ 9 5 ♦ 7 6 4 ♣ K J 10 3 ♠ A Q 9 4 ♥ A 6 ♦ K Q J ♣ A 8 7 6 ♠ 10 7 3 2 ♥ K Q J 4 2 ♦ A 10 2 ♣ 5   ♠ 8 ♥ 10 8 7 3 ♦ 9 8 5 3 ♣ Q 9 4 2 West North East South Kroes Verhees Van Cleeff Jansma   Pass Pass 1♦ Dble 1♥ 4♥ All Pass The 1♥ bid was very effective in a sense, because EW never found their spade fit in which they should have reached the slam just like nearly all the other EW pairs. Jan van Cleeff of course knew almost for sure he was being psyched, so he blew it away with a straightforward leap to 4♥ for an unexpected (undeserved?) score of 48 m.p. or 96%. In fact, bidding the slam and going down one would have been exactly average – to prove that this is a homogenous and very strong field.

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