| 48th European Bridge Team Championships | Page 3 | Bulletin 9 - Monday 21 August 2006 |
| |
||
|
Open Teams - Netherlands v Poland (Round 20) by Jos Jacobs On Sunday morning, the local audience were once again given the chance to watch their favourites as the host country’s Open Team was scheduled to play on VuGraph against the Netherlands. Poland had made a very bad start but had gradually improved their position as the first week went on. On the other hand, The Netherlands had made an even worse start but had wiped off their first-day deficits from the third round onwards to be among the contenders for a Shanghai berth right from the start of the third day. When this match started, Poland thus needed a big win whereas the Netherlands could not afford a big defeat. The boards also helped the players this time in presenting us with an interesting match. After a good slam on board 1, missed by both pairs, and a routine game on board 2 this was the third course of the morning buffet:
Open Room
Bridge is such an easy game…why go on when partner has a passed hand and there is no need to be afraid of the spades? On a diamond overruff the contract was just made for the rarity of +80 to Poland. Closed Room
What looked such a nice hand to Bertens in reply to Bakkeren’s opening bid turned out to be a club duplication nightmare. Even 3♥ would have been well beyond the safety limits so the breach of discipline did not matter very much. Poland +300 on the same diamond overruff for a gain of 9 IMPs out of nowhere. The Dutch were compensated a little for this loss when on board 7 they managed a passout whereas the Polish Club by Chmurski and Gawrys led to a 2NT contract off six tricks; 3 IMPs to Netherlands to trail by 7-14 when a sequence of interesting boards came up:
Open Room
2♦ was Multi and 3♥ play or correct, but the Poles had no problem whatsoever. When the ♥10 came down quickly the contract was never in danger. Poland +630. Closed Room
After Gawrys’ 2NT relay it was much more difficult for the Dutch to enter the auction so they were more or less forced t sell out to 4♠ undoubled. Gawrys went down two in peace for a loss of 100 and a gain of 11 IMPs. Poland +18. The IMPs came back to the Netherlands on the next board when they showed a better assessment of their combined hand values:
Open Room
Well, on a spade lead you would make a slam, but after the logical heart lead De Wijs had to be content with 11 tricks. Please note the sophisticated bidding agreement by NS. Netherlands +600. Closed Room
Less sophisticated bidding here from NS, and far less enterprise too. When Bakkeren did not bother to lead his partner’s suit 12 tricks were made but Poland had lost a vulnerable game swing: 10 IMPs back to the Netherlands. The next board was an interesting push in our featured match. In some of the other matches, however, all sorts of things happened:
Open Room
Simon de Wijs’ double made the defence easy for Bauke Muller. He won the lead of the ♠J with his king and switched to a low club. De Wijs won the queen and continued the suit to end declarer’s chances. As North was eventually squeezed in the red suits the contract was only one down, +100 to Netherlands. Closed Room
Chmurski too led the ♠J but Gawrys ducked this to declarer’s queen. When Bakkeren saw the 4-1 break in diamonds he simply cashed out for down two. Poland +100. No swing. Kiema was playing 3NT for Finland in their match with France after the following auction: Open Room
Chemla led the ♠J which ran to declarer’s queen. After two top diamonds and the bad news Kiema led a low club (!) on which Chemla hopped up with the queen to lead another spade to Cronier’s king. Cronier exited with a heart, declarer taking the ♥AK and also the ♦J. As Cronier had discarded two spades Kiema now could get off play with a spade, forcing Cronier to lead into the club tenace to hand declarer his contract. Finland +400. Closed Room
Nyberg too ducked the ♠J lead to declarer’s queen butDe Sainte Marie next played ♥A and another. South, on lead with the ♥J, cashed a top spade and now switched to a low club. When North won the queen and continued clubs, declarer had to go two off. Finland another +100 and one more step towards their 20-10 VP win. Some interesting variations turned up in the Iceland v. Germany match. Open Room
Jonsson ducked the ♠J lead to Fritsche’s queen and declarer continued ♥K, ♦Q and a low heart. On play with the ♥J Jonsson next cashed his ♠AK before exiting in clubs. Once declarer ducked this, the count was rectified for a red-suit squeeze on North at this able too. Germany +100. Closed Room
1NT was a negative response to the take-out double. As a consequence, East had become the declarer in 3NT and South led a low spade on which declarer did well to put up the queen. Three top diamonds followed and then Thorvaldsson exited with a low club, North’s nine winning. North next cashed his ♠J, which South could not overtake, and continued the ♣Q and another. All declarer could do now was to cash his ♥AK, give North his two heart tricks and get the ♦K in the end to go down one. Did you see that South did not make a single defensive trick? Germany +50 and 10 IMPs to restrict their defeat in the match to 12-18 only. Back to Netherlands-Poland now after this lengthy excursion.
Open Room
A weakness of Tarzan Precision caused the Dutch’ bad result here. They have to open 1♥ with a 5-5 in the majors. The contract went down two. Closed Room
When Bertens made the unlucky lead of the ♣7 declarer finessed to get rid of two losing diamonds. After that, he could ruff out the hearts, overtake the ♠10 with the king and play on trumps, just losing two trumps and a diamond to make an overtrick. Poland +170 and 9 IMPs to lead by 11 again. On board 15, the Dutch found a good save missed by the Polish:
Open Room
With spades established at the four-level due to systemic reasons, the Polish saw no reason to save any further and thus conceded -620. Closed Room
Bertens’ jump to 3♥ made it easy for Bakkeren to show both an outside trick and a willingness to save. Down two, Poland only +300 and 8 IMPs to the Netherlands. The score stood at 36-31 to Poland now. On the next board, the Polish missed a game but the Dutch misjudged:
Open Room
1♠ showed either 5 hearts or 4 spades and 5+ diamonds. Though Kowalski responded to Tuszynski’s double I what was the doubler’s best suit, Tuszynski still called it a day. Poland +150. Closed Room
Bertens’ natural 1♦ opening made it easy for the Dutch too to miss game: 3NT only goes down on an unlikely club lead from South. Chmurski bid what he thought he could make, and so did Bertens. When Chmurski accurately (but rather obviously too) switched to a club after winning the ♥A the contract had to go one down for +100 more or 6 IMPs to Poland. In the closing stages, the Netherlands got back some IMPs to lose the match 38-45 wich gave Poland a victory by 16-14 VP. Neither team’s cause had been done any real good by this result. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
| Page 3 |
