| 48th European Bridge Team Championships | Page 5 | Bulletin 5 - Thursday 17 August 2006 |
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Open Teams - Norway v Iceland (Round 5) by Jos Jacobs On Tuesday morning, one of the big Scandinavian clashes was scheduled: Norway v. Iceland. Both sides have been regular BB qualifiers in recent years and sometimes even more than that: I certainly remember the 1993 final in Santiago, Chile when Norway narrowly lost to the Netherlands. And who does not remember the 1991 Bermuda Bowl, won by Iceland. In these Championships, Norway had made a flying start until their heavy defeat at the hands of the Netherlands (again!?) on Monday evening, whereas Iceland had made steady progress throughout. It turned out that the promise of a good match came more than true, though nothing very much happened on the first five boards. This was board 6:
Open Room
The Iceland relays were in operation here: 1♣ was strong and 1♠ showed 5+ hearts. 1NT was relay and 2♠ showed four spades. 2NT was relay again and 3♣ confirmed 2-2 in the minors. Now, 3♦ was a control asking and 3♥ just showed two. Next, 4♦ was suggesting a slam and 4♠ was accepting it, but also denying a heart control. Now 6♥ was a little gamble, hoping for the ♠A with partner instead of the two kings. Now imagine Helness’ problem. He could not believe his respected opponents would bid a slam missing two aces so he assumed East had to be void of spades. That’s why he decided to underlead his ♠A, presenting declarer with his contract…Iceland an incredible +1430. Closed Room
More decent bidding in the Closed Room. Brogeland just lost his two aces and 13 IMPs in the process. Iceland led 17-2 at this stage. On the next board, the Norwegians were unlucky in the other room:
Open Room
This is a perfectly normal contract, but now look at the West hand. What would you like to lead? Even the ♦A and another only seem to postpone the endplay. As it happened, Baldursson led the ♥Q, giving Helgemo a problem. When he decided to win in dummy and play East for the jack, he was doomed once Baldursson found the next defensive move of exiting with a low club away from his ace. One down, Iceland +100. Closed Room
With North declaring East had a few safe leads available. When he elected to lead a spade declarer was able to insert dummy’s ten and thus get rid of his loser in that suit. End of the defence. Iceland +620 and 12 more IMPs. Norway picked up a few IMPs on the next two boards and them came something more substantial:
Open Room
Once Jonsson opened at the one-level NS were out of trouble, it seemed. Helness could introduce his suit after partner’s overcall without having to worry about the combined strength of the NS hands. As it happened EW had a different view on the hand with penalty passes hidden at both sides of the table… The ♦K was led and a heart went to the queen and king. The diamond continuation was taken by declarer’s ace and Helness’ next move was to try and ruff his last diamond. However, East ruffed in front of dummy and the heart continuation gave West the chance to ruff out dummy’s ♥A. This way, Helness made only 5 tricks for +800 to Iceland. An the other table, the weak two put more pressure on NS: Closed Room
South had to make a further move as North’s strength was still unclear. East led a spade and West switched to diamonds. Once the heart finesse lost to the blank king, the scene was set for an 1100 penalty and a surprise 7-IMP gain to Norway to trail 14-29 now. Three pushes and one more IMP to Iceland on boards 14 had made it 30-14 to them when the grand finale of the match began:
Open Room
We will never know if the redouble showed doubt or if Helgemo simply expressed his doubts. Anyway, 5♣ was a better game contract than 3NT would have been, as you still have the diamond guess up your sleeve if the ♣K is wrong. Norway +620. Closed Room
For Iceland, there was no doubt about the meaning of the redouble or at least: if there was any doubt, we will never know. With the ♣K behaving it was not so difficult to score ten tricks for the more exotic species of the 1,400 number. Iceland also gained 13 IMPs for their efforts. Exploiting the defensive chances brought Norway a double-figure swing on partscore defence, just one board later:
Open Room
It all looked so innocuous. Helgemo led the ♦A and Jonsson ruffed. He next crossed in clubs to run the ♥10 but when Helgemo won his queen the roof fell in. Spade to the queen, club ruff, spade to the king, club ruff, spade to the ace and club ruff made it down three within seconds. Norway +300. Closed Room
When South led a spade, North cashing three tricks in the suit, the defensive possibilities were gone. Nine tricks, +140 to Norway and a well-deserved 10 IMPs back. After Norway gained 6 more IMPs on board 17 they were only 13 IMPs down but on 18 their NS pair bid to a hopeless slam to double the deficit. The Icelanders drove the final nail into the Norwegian coffin on board 19 where a 7-6-0-0 caused havoc all over the room:
Open Room
Well, the advantage of opening 3♥ was that East had absolutely no way left to conduct a scientific inquiry about partner’s support for his suits. So he bid what he thought he could make and was rewarded by the actual layout. As it happens, 6♦ is not a bad contract at all and with the trumps and the spades behaving it made easily. Iceland +1370. Closed Room
Preempts over preempts are generally considered a bad idea so Magnusson’s 3♣ temporarily shut out Baldursson. Thorvaldsson’s jump to 5♣ gave Salensminde a nasty problem. His rather unusual “unusual NT” backfired when Brogeland showed a strong preference for hearts but 6♠ was not a hopeless contract at all. The problem of it rather was to find the best line. It seems OK to ruff a diamond, catering for a 4-1 break, and then hope for the ♠K to be onside or possibly the ♠Jx. Playing this way, a number of declarers went down, among them Salensminde. This final blow of 16 more IMPs gave Iceland a fine 69-33 victory, 22-8 in VP and saw them rise to joint 6th in the table with the Netherlands. |
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