| 48th European Bridge Team Championships | Page 3 | Bulletin 3 - Tuesday 15 August 2006 |
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Open Teams - Italy v Romania (Round 3) by Jos Jacobs After a first day of many surprises, at least one certainty remained intact: the Italians found themselves back in the standings in a position quite familiar to them over recent years. On the other hand, Romania also could look back on the first day with some satisfaction having opened their account with a useful 34 VP. So the Vugraph audience could expect a morning match between two confident teams and so it proved right on the first board:
Open Room
This board looks like a warming-up routine game for EW. So it proved in the Open Room when West was given the chance to open his strong hand in 4th position. North overcalled 1♠ but EW reached 3NT without any problems. North led a spade and that was the end of the story. Romania +430. Closed Room
In the Closed Room, however, the aggressive style used by the Romanians gave Munteanu the chance to open a fully systemic 1♥. Here too, game was easily reached by EW but his partner’s opening bid enabled Rotaru to find the only lead to beat the contract: the ♥Q. The relatively solid heart suit and the two aces would always leave South one tempo ahead. One down. Romania +50 and away to a flying start: 10-0. Italy scored 1 IMP on both boards 2 and 3 to trail by 8 when this board arrived:
Open Room
3♥ showed a minor-suit-oriented hand with three spades and 3NT thus confirmed a solid stopper in hearts. Knowing all this, Ghigheci elected to lead a spade to Briciu’s ace. A switch to the ♥Q (!) should give the defence a chance to prevail after all but when a spade came back (and who can blame West for that?) it was all over. Italy +630. Closed Room
With nothing to guide him Lauria opted for the safest lead: the ♥10. After that, beating the contract had become inevitable. Italy +100 and 12 IMPs to take the lead for the first and last time in the match. A stolen game saw the Italian lead go up into double figures on board 8:
Open Room
As an Italian BBO-commentator put it: “Let’s assume Ghigheci got a phone call from Moggi (the ex-president of Juventus Football Club) about which suit to lead.” The actual diamond lead did the Romanian cause no good at all: Italy + 430 again. Closed Room
2♠ was invitational with clubs and 3♦ was a feature. The cruel heart duplication meant that the contract needed two working finesses to make and that was one too many. Italy +50 and 10 more IMPs to lead by 19 now. Worse for the Romanians was to come two boards later:
Open Room
Fantoni saw no reason to disturb the EW auction after his partner’s weak overcall and right he was. The contract was just made and Romania registered +620. Closed Room
3♣ showed hearts but Rotaru’s little raise gave Versace the chance to express a firm opinion at his next turn. The save proved too expensive as there was no way for declarer to get rid of all his losing diamonds. Down four, +1100 to Italy and another 10 IMPs. The score now: 42-12. After an adverse partscore swing of 9 IMPs on board 12 Romania finally recouped a few points on the next board:
Open Room
All credit to Nunes for respecting the discipline and passing the weak raise to 3♥. But his one level opening had already shown 14+, so he had no extras. Italy +200 when he made 11 tricks on an underlead by West of his ♣A after cashing the two diamond tops. Closed Room
Munteanu had mainly the same information available as Nunes but he took a shot at game. Not unreasonable either, keeping in mind his nice 6-4 distribution. With the trumps behaving, 10 tricks were easy enough. Romania +620 and 9 IMPs back to trail by 32.
Open Room
After the interference, Nunes did not bother to investigate about the quality of Fantoni’s clubs but simply rebid his fair major suit. He was left to play there and made 11 tricks in comfort; Italy an ambiguous +650, I thought. When looking at the NS hands in isolation, wouldn’t you prefer to declare 6♣? Once you ruffed your losing heart 12 tricks seem to be there more often than not… Closed Room
As East led his lowest diamond it may or may not be easy to read this as a singleton, depending on the EW lead agreements. What is the best line? If you proceed to ruff a heart you look stranded in dummy. As soon as West gets the lead in spades he will play a diamond to promote the ♣J. So the better line might be to establish your spades. In that case, ruffing a heart is no longer necessary. So you win the ♦A, draw trumps and lead a spade from hand? This looks ill-advised against Lauria as we all know he has done it before (2004 v. Netherlands, the ♣Q). He would most certainly have gone up with the ♠K to present you with an almost insoluble problem. At the table, declarer ruffed a heart and got off dummy with ♠A and a spade. When West could win this the diamond continuation meant one down and 13 IMPs more to Italy. A signalling problem came up two boards later:
Open Room
Simple and straightforward bidding to reach the normal contract. South led a club to declarer’s queen and the ♦A came next. Noting the fall of the ten declarer followed with with a low diamond to the jack. Nunes contributed an interesting ♥6 to this trick, clearly not a suggestion to continue clubs. Fantoni thus won his ♦Q and without any hesitation put one of the two winnings cards on the table: the ♠9. We all know this suit combination: it is essential to start with the nine if you want to pick up the whole suit even though ♠J also wins today. Well done anyway, +50 to Italy. Closed Room
Here too, a club was led to the queen but Lauria, after cashing the ♦K, crossed to the ♥J and led the ♦J from dummy, ducking when North covered. South, who had followed with the two to the first heart, now discarded the ♥3. As there was no shade of a spade suggestion in this card, North simply continued clubs and that was the end of the defence. Italy another +430 and 10 IMPs more to lead by an unassailable 61 now. Two more double-figure game swings on the last two boards brought the final score to 107-21 or 25-0 VP to Italy who would remain even more clearly at the top of the standings. Will anyone here in Warsaw be able to remove them from this position before the end of the Championships? |
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