Disaster Corner

by Jean-Francois Jourdain (Belgium)

It could not be very long before Belgium entered the Disaster Corner. Sunday was a huge deception for the Belgian team, as they met Slovakia, Croatia and Austria but were unable to score more than 16 VPs in any match. They were 53-0 IMPs ahead from Austria after 12 boards, but managed to lose the last six boards by a resounding 0-43. Not less than 6 of the 9 lost VPs could have been saved on this single deal:

Round 9. Board 17. Dealer North. None Vul.
	♠ 8 6 ♥ – ♦ A K Q 9 7 3 2 ♣ K 10 7 4
♠ A Q 9 7 5 3 ♥ 10 8 5 4 ♦ 10 8 ♣ 2		♠ K J 10 ♥ A Q J 6 2 ♦ J 5 ♣ Q 8 5
	♠ 4 2 ♥ K 9 7 3 ♦ 6 4 ♣ A J 9 6 3

In the Open Room things went very badly:

West	North	East	South
De Visschere	Gogoman	Van Mechelen	Eglseer
		1♦	1♥	1NT
3♥	3NT	All Pass

“Never bid spades as it could frighten the opponents,” thought Wim De Visschere. That U-Boot tactic allowed the opponents to bid this silly 3 NT which can easily be defeated by three tricks. De Visschere not only hid his spades, but also did not lead them. No harm was done, however, when he led the ♥5. But Rutger Van Mechelen, who had already played 56 deals the same day, fell curiously asleep. Looking at seven tricks in dummy and knowing quite certainly the ♥K and a black ace must be in the closed hand, his only chance to defeat the contract was to switch to a spade. But instead of that he put in the ♥J, a card which cost seven tricks all on its own. When South ran all the diamonds, East let go a club and declarer soon collected all 13 tricks for + 520 instead of –150.

Events in the Closed Room were even more spectacular:

West	North	East	South
Islam	Vanparijs	Stigleitner	Guiot
	1♦	1♥	1NT
3♦	4♣	4♥	5♣
5♥	6♣	Dble	All Pass

Where in the Open Room the lack of a spade stopper did not prevent N/S from playing in 3NT, in the Closed Room the lack of spade control did not prevent the same hands from bidding 6♣, a better contract anyway, since it can be only defeated by two tricks and scores more points if it makes. And that was nearly the case when Stigleitner made the very uninspired opening lead of the ace of hearts. Vanparijs ruffed and drew trumps. Knowing the diamonds to be 2-2 and the hearts 5-4, he had to decide about the spade layout. If they were 3-6 he had to finesse the ♣Q immediately, risking two undertricks. If they were divided 4-5, which looked more likely since they remained unbid, then he had to play for the drop. That’s what he finally decided. He played club to the cce, threw a spade from his hand on the kin gof hearts, and when West showed out on the second club he had scored a disappointing –100 instead of a joyful ♣1190. So, having been able to score 1340 points in total for ♣16 IMPs, the Belgians instead conceded 620 total points and lost 12 IMPS on this deal. If that is not a disaster, I don’t know what is.