| 21st European Youth Team Championships | Page 4 | Bulletin 2 - Friday 13 July 2007 |
Austria vs Poland (Juniors 1st Round) The first vugraph match featured the holders, Poland, against Austria. A partscore swing in each direction left Austria leading 5-4 when this deal appeared:
Open Room
Closed Room
The slam looks poor so the Polish pair in the Open Room can feel justified in keeping out of it. West opened a Polish Club and natural bidding concluded in Three No Trump by East. South led a heart, won by East, and declarer immediately laid down ace, king of clubs to solve any problems. 3NT made 11 tricks. In the Closed Room Austria reached Six Clubs from the West seat. Superficially, it looks as if declarer has the ace of hearts and a diamond to lose, not to mention worries in the trump suit. However, when North led a heart and declarer played low from dummy, South was caught in what can be called a Morton’s Fork. (Morton was the Chancellor who stated that the noblemen could always pay their taxes: if they spent a lot they must have plenty left, and if they lived a frugal life they must have saved enough for him). Here, when South wondered whether to play his ace of hearts there was no answer. If he ducked declarer could throw the losing heart on the second spade and later give up a diamond, and if South played the ace on thin air declarer later had two diamond discards, and when the diamond finesse worked there was no diamond loser. 1370 to Austria was worth 12 IMPs. The next board also contained the potential for a swing either way:
Open Room
In the Closed Room, East had opened at the two level and the Polish North/South stopped in Three Spades. This made an overtrick for 170 to Poland. By contrast, Michal Nowosadzki opened Three Hearts. This had the effect, as so often, of pushing the opponents into a game they probably would not have reached under their own steam. So all would hinge on whether Adele Gogoman would make her game. West led his top heart. The diagram shows that if declarer guesses both black suits there is no problem, but real life is not as easy as that. South ruffed and began by leading the queen of clubs. West correctly withheld the king and the queen won. Next South tried the king of diamonds. West won and played a second heart. Again South ruffed, leaving her with only three trumps. The vugraph audience was expecting South to guess clubs correctly, but the trump suit was more of a problem. Given that declarer cannot cope with a 4-2 break, the suit must be assumed to be 3-3, in which case placing the missing queen becomes a close matter. West has shown up with two aces and a king already. With queen to three trumps he might well have doubled Four Spades. Furthermore, if the hearts are 7-2 the advantage of taking the trump finesse through East is that, should it lose, West may have no further heart to play. All these musings proved irrelevant when South misguessed clubs, leading a low one next. The defence had more trumps than South and the contract went two light. Poland had gained 9 IMPs when they might have lost 10. The final score was 66-38 IMPs in favour of Poland, or 20-8 VPs. The missing VPs are due to a slow play penalty against both teams. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Page 4 |
