| 48th European Bridge Team Championships | Page 3 | Bulletin 5 - Thursday 17 August 2006 |
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Open Teams - Sweden v Italy (Round 8) by Jos Jacobs The last match on Tuesday would have been the clash between the current leaders if Sweden had maintained the runner-up position they held at the start of the day. As you see, I am already taking it for granted that Italy would still be leading at this stage; they were the only team with five wins when the day started and two matches later they had recorded seven wins. What is more: I have to admit that I would be very surprised if Italy were not going to win again, judging from what we have seen so far. Well, after the second board I started regretting these initial lines a little. If one has to think of a team at all capable of catching up the Italians, Sweden are the first to be mentioned, as they were the worthy runners-up in Malmo two years ago. This is what I saw on board 2:
Open Room
Once Bertheau took his chance to double the 2♣ checkback the Italians were under pressure, as they had to make nine tricks now without losing the lead. Nystrom led the ♣5 on which Bertheau cleverly played the nine, which held. He continued the ♣Q, Lauria winning the king. With no clue whatsoever as to which finesse to take he exited in clubs, hoping no doubt to get more information from South’s discards and North’s forced return. As a consequence, he threw two small hearts from his hand, South discarding two diamonds and dummy a spade and a diamond. In the end he took no finesse at all but just played for some sort of squeeze to have developed. When this was not the case he had to accept one down, Sweden +50. Closed Room
When Nunes led a natural low diamond Bjornlund had ample time to take a heart finesse into the safe hand and end up with no less than 12 tricks for +490 and 11 IMPs to Sweden to lead 13-0. Three pushes and then a judgement board:
Open Room
4♣ was void-showing transfer and 4♥ was a cuebid. Quite understandably, Lauria doubled the save on his solid enough four trumps. He must have felt disappointed to collect only +300 with a slam possible on a correct but unlikely club view. Closed Room
Fredin obviously had other ideas about the trick-taking potential of his hand when he decided to go on to 5♠ in front of his partner. Well done, +650 and another 8 IMPs to Sweden. After two more pushes Italy finally got “unblocked” (as they say in Italian) on board 9, scoring their first IMPs of the match. Board 11 and 12 however were interesting examples of the difference in partscore bidding between the two teams:
Open Room
Well, 3NT is a perfectly reasonable contract as it depends only on the diamond position. When the king was behind the ace, the outcome was down two instead of a likely overtrick. Italy +100 when Versace, knowing he held a sure diamond entry, decided to lead the ♥A and not a low heart. Closed Room
Fantoni did very well here to compete once more (influenced by the fact that Nunes’ 1♦ showed 15+) and he was rewarded when Nunes could not go down on any normal line of play. Italy +130 and 6 IMPs back. And 6 more on the next board:
Open Room
Once Lauria showed extra values with his double, Versace had an easy jump to game with his outside aces. Just made when the clubs behaved. Italy +400. Closed Room
One overtrick, but only +150 to Sweden. On the next board, Italy leveled the match at 21 all and then came a major disaster for Sweden:
Open Room
If you look at this hand even superficially, you should immediately ask yourself how Lauria managed to conjure up even eight tricks here. Here is the solution. Nystrom made an unlucky lead: the ♣A. Now, had he simply continued the ♣Q nothing would have gone wrong but he shifted to a low trump on which Bertheau also played low. When at trick 3 the ♠A collected the two outstanding trumps another likely loser had disappeared. Next, a heart went to the queen and ace and North had to return a heart or club as a diamond would have given Lauria the two discards he needed. On the heart return, however, Lauria won his king and, noting the fall of the jack, led a low club towards dummy’s jack. When South ducked this, Lauria all of a sudden had made his contract… Italy a most unlikely +420. Nothing special happened in the other room: Closed Room
On the lead of the ♥J this contract went one down in peace. Italy +50 for a 10-IMP gain. They had gone into the lead once again… On the penultimate board another partscore swing extended their lead to 21 and with the last board likely to be a routine 3NT all over the place another 19-11 VP Italian victory was odds-on. This was not to be, however, when for once the Italian machine hampered:
Open Room
2♠ showed diamond support, game forcing and 3♥ showed four of the suit with shortness in spades. Nystrom’s double suggested a heart lead so the contract was already down two before declarer got the lead. When Versace misguessed trumps as well, he suffered a three-trick set for -800 that brought Sweden a late 16 IMPs. This settled the result at 16-14 VP for Italy, 43-38 in IMPs. Just for the record, here is the auction in the other room: Closed Room
No trouble after a spade lead from North and an avoidance finesse of the ♦Q. Sweden +630. |
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