| 48th European Bridge Team Championships | Page 2 | Bulletin 4 - Wednesday 16 August 2006 |
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Open Teams - Poland v Hungary (Round 3) by Mark Horton Our hosts, looking to rise up the table against a team Hungary for points. (Apologies, I couldn’t resist it.)
Open Room
North found the excellent lead of the queen of hearts. Declarer ducked in both hands, won the next heart and knocked out the ace of clubs, preserving an entry to dummy. He won the next heart, played a diamond to the queen, a club to the queen and a diamond. South could take the ace and cash his hearts but declarer had the rest, +120. Closed Room
North’s opening salvo saw West bid what he hoped he could make, and had North led his ‘suit’ he would have been right. No, North was right there with the queen of hearts, and declarer was without resource Here he elected to win the first heart and then South won the first club and knocked out the king of hearts. He took the first diamond and cashed out for one down, and 5 IMPs to Hungary.
Open Room
North led the jack of diamonds, which South does best to duck. However, he took the ace and switched to the six of clubs, ducked to North’s queen, declarer winning the diamond continuation and playing a heart to the king and ace. He took the next club with the ace and discarded dummy’s last club on the king of diamonds. Now he ruffed a club and played a spade to the nine and North’s ace and was sure of eight tricks, +110. Closed Room
Play developed along similar lines (although here North had led a low diamond, so it would not have helped South to duck). However, at the point where his counterpart had ruffed a club declarer elected to play a low spade and North won with the eight and played a diamond. That left declarer with no winning move and he was soon one down, -50 and 4 IMPs. It was a quiet set and not much happened until this deal came along:
Open Room
*2♣ Forcing Declarer took the opening lead of the king of diamonds with dummy’s ace and cashed two rounds of clubs, pitching a diamond. He played a heart to the ten and then cashed the ace and king. Then he played a low spade and when South played low he could win with dummy’s ten and discard a spade on the queen of clubs for eleven tricks, +650. Closed Room
The opening lead was the same but declarer won and played three rounds of hearts, declining the finesse. North won and switched to a spade. South took the ace, gave his partner a ruff and there was a diamond to come for one down. That probable loss of concentration cost 13 IMPs.
Open Room
North led the seven of hearts and South won with the queen and tried to cash the ace. Declarer ruffed and played a spade. North went up with the king and played a second spade. South won, but missed the chance for a trump promotion when he switched to a diamond, down one, -200. Closed Room
Here North led the nine of hearts and South took the jack with the queen and switched to a spade. The defenders made no mistake, playing three rounds of the suit to produce the setting trick, +100 but 3 IMPs for Poland – remarkably their biggest gain of the match.
Open Room
East led the three of diamonds and declarer won and played three rounds of hearts, ruffing with dummy’s ace. That set up a trump trick for East so declarer was one down, -100. Closed Room
West led the king of diamonds and declarer won and cashed the ace of hearts and ruffed a heart with the ten of clubs. He cashed the ace of clubs and ruffed a diamond low. East overuffed and so we had a flat board. Suppose declarer wins the opening lead and draws trumps in three rounds. He then plays a spade. In order to give the defence any chance East must go up with the king. I wonder if that happened at any of the tables?
Open Room
South led the four of clubs and the trick was completed by the ten, jack and queen. Declarer played the four of hearts to two jack and nine and then played a diamond to the five, eight and ten. South switched to a heart and declarer won in hand and cashed the ace of diamonds. He played two more rounds of diamonds, South discarding the six of hearts and the three of clubs. Since the play record now says declarer made his contract it is clear North did not find a killing spade switch, -400. Closed Room
The same opening lead saw trick one repeated, but then declarer cashed the king of diamonds. His next move was a diamond to the jack and North’s queen, South discarding the seven of clubs. North switched to the jack of spades, ducked by declarer. North continued with the nine of spades for one down, another 10 IMPs for Hungary. As the cards lie there is a way to make the contract without relying on a defensive error, but I doubt anyone would consider it. After cashing the king of diamonds declarer takes another top diamond followed by the ace of clubs and four rounds of hearts. Whatever South discards he can be thrown in with a club to give declarer a spade trick at the end. It was the Hungarians who had dined well in terms of IMPs, winning the match 49-4, 24-6 VP. |
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