| 48th European Bridge Team Championships | Page 3 | Bulletin 10 - Tuesday 22 August 2006 |
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Open Teams - Hungary v Norway (Round 21) by Jos Jacobs On Sunday afternoon the big match for second place was scheduled between the teams second and third at that moment. In the morning match, Norway had just caught up Hungary to move 1 VP ahead of them into second place, and this was therefore the right moment to see which of these two teams would deserve most to be second at this stage. It turned out that the big match we were all hoping for was a little one-sided, with most of the swings and honours going North. Below you can find a few of them. On board 1 the Hungarian NS overbid to turn a possible 3-IMP gain into a 4-IMP loss. On board 2 both sides bid a slam in which they both guessed to play for the drop in clubs but Hungary gained 2 IMPs as they were playing in hearts instead of clubs as trumps. So at 4-2 to Norway this was board 3:
Open Room
After the strong NT Helness simply bid 2♣ to show majors and Helgemo bid game, made with an overtrick. Norway +650, nothing special. Closed Room
(1) One Major At the other table Winkler treated his hand as a Multi, thus suppressing his spades. Brogeland made an aggressive raise to 2NT to exclude any possibility of the EW spade fit coming to light later. The contract was not made, as Brogeland had probably expected when he bid it, but Norway had gained 12 IMPs by losing 50 instead of 650. Three boards later, with the score at 21-2 to Norway, we saw a major Hungarian defensive disaster, or rather a black-out by South:
Open Room
It is difficult to see how you might ever make 3NT with both black suit finesses wrong even though South took the low heart lead with his ace to switch to a low diamond. North duly won the ♦10 and returned the suit, declarer winning the third round. Helgemo next cashed the ♥Q, crossed to the ♣A and took the spade finesse. North won the second round of spades and returned his last club, dummy winning. Helgemo now shed his ♣J on the ♥K, a discard apparently missed by Macskasy, as we shall see later. He then went on to cash his remaining spades, so at trick 12 South had to decide to throw the last diamond or the ♣Q. When he held on to his ♣Q, an impossible game had come home. Norway +600. Closed Room
Here, North led a spade and declarer immediately returned the suit, North winning the king. When he shifted to a diamond any chance for declarer to make his contract was gone. Norway +100 and a rather peculiar 12 IMPs more. Three boards later, we were in the slam zone but again, the Hungarians were not able to fully cope with the problems presented to them:
Open Room
Over 2♠, showing at least that suit, Helness had an easy double. Helgemo correctly took his partner’s pass over 4♠ as forcing, as his next action was a bold leap to slam. Well done. Playing for the trumps 3-1 was a matter of routine after this bidding. Norway +1370. Closed Room
2♦ was Multi ones which Winkler had to pass, intending to double any spade bid for take-out later. He duly did so at his next turn but there was no good way left for the Hungarians to both show the extras they had for their bidding. Slam missed. Hungary +630 but again 12 IMPs to Norway who led by 42 now. With the Norwegian lead having gone up to 50 we saw another swing coming up their way, this time a simple defensive affair:
Open Room
It looks so harmless. East leads a club, you win the ace and run the ♥Q, West winning and returning a club. When the jack held, he shifted to a diamond won by Helness. The ♣Q now took away a trump from dummy so all of a sudden declarer was in big trouble as the spades turned out to be 4-1. There was no way to unblock or establish the spades AND draw all the outstanding trumps, so he had to go two down when East ruffed the second round of spades. As you can see, a club at trick 1 or possibly at trick 2 after the ♦A was the only way to cause all this trouble since the ♣A is needed as a late entry to the spades. Norway +200. Closed Room
This is one of these hands on which the 6-2 fit is a better proposition than the 4-4 fit but the Norwegians did not avoid this trap either. When East led a trump, however, the club switch by West came too late. Just made, Norway another +620 and 13 IMPs more. Down 64 after 15 boards, the Hungarians finally registered a major plus on board 16 when for once the Norwegian defence failed:
Open Room
With East on lead, beating the contract seems almost impossible as only a low diamond or the ♦A and another will do the job. Helness came very near to it when he led the ♣A and switched to a low diamond but declarer, guided by the take-out double, made no mistake and put up the king to ensure his contract. Hungary +420. Closed Room
When Salensminde did not open the sub-minimum North hand the spade game was played from the South position. West made the natural lead of the ♣10 and when this held, easily found the diamond shift. One off, Hungary +100 and 11 IMPs back to trail by 53. Over the last four boards, Norway extended their lead into a final score of 80-20 or 25-3 VP. Their second place suddenly had begun to look very solid. |
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