A new day brought new leaders, as Israel moved to the top of the table. The performance of the day belonged to Turkey who amassed 67 Victory Points, including a tremendous 24-6 defeat of Norway. It was enough to move our hosts into second place, and there is sure to be a full house when they meet Denmark on VuGraph this afternoon.

Italy dropped to third place, which they share with Norway. They are followed by France, Denmark and Croatia, the latter winning all three of their matches to leap up the table.

The weather may be getting cooler, but the temperature at the table is hotting up!

Turkish Delight

The host nation is doing very well at these championships and is very much in contention for a medal and a place in next year’s World Junior Championships. On Sunday morning they had an excellent 24-6 win over one of the other contenders, Norway. The win included these two swing deals:

Board 6. Dealer East. E/W Vul.
	ª K J 6 4 © 9 5 4 ¨ K 9 6 § A J 10
ª 7 5 © K J 8 6 3 ¨ A Q J 3 § Q 8		ª A Q 8 3 2 © A 10 ¨ 8 2 § K 9 7 3
	ª 10 9 © Q 7 2 ¨ 10 7 5 4 § 6 5 4 2

The two tables had the identical auction of 1ª - 2© - 2ª - 2NT - 3¨ - 3NT and both Norths led a low spade.

The Norwegian declarer ducked the opening lead and South for turkey, Guray Sunamak, won and switched to a diamond. Declarer put in the queen and Sinan Tatlicioglu would have done best to duck. However, he won and found the next best defence, returning the nine of diamonds to attack declarer’s communications. Declarer won the diamond and played a heart to the ace followed by the ©10. Of course, with hearts 3-3 and the queen onside, the winning line was to overtake with the jack and run the hearts. Declarer was fearful of a 4-2 break and decided to let the ©10 hold. Next he tried a club to the queen but when that lost to the ace he had no way back to hand and the contract had to go down.

In the other room, Toygar Alper took the spade finesse at trick one and continued with the ace and ten of hearts. When the ©10 held the trick, he took a losing diamond finesse. It didn’t matter as Alper still had a second diamond to get to his red tricks and his superior play helped his team to a 12 IMP gain.

Board 14. Dealer East. None Vul.
	ª - © A 4 ¨ K J 10 4 2 § A K 10 9 8 3
ª K J 9 7 6 © Q 9 8 3 ¨ A § Q J 5		ª A Q 8 4 3 2 © 10 6 5 2 ¨ 8 6 5 § -
	ª 10 5 © K J 7 ¨ Q 9 7 3 § 7 6 4 2

At both tables the 2¨ opening showed both majors with less than opening values. The Norwegian West jumped to 3ª and Tatlicioglu showed his minor two-suiter by overcalling 4NT. When Sunamak chose 5§, neither Norwegian player saw fit to bid on. Five Clubs was a comfortable make, of course, for +400 to Turkey.

It seems that West’s 3ª response, with a double fit for his partner’s suits, was inadequate. Certainly, Alper’s 4ª response in the open room worked out much better for his side. Tamer Uz was always intending to go to 5ª facing a 4ª response but he didn’t want to sound too enthusiastic in case he convinced his opponents that they should bid on to the six level. Accordingly, he did not bid 5ª immediately over 4NT but waited until the next round. The fact that Alper doubled 5§ fitted in beautifully with his plan, making it even less likely that North/South would bid 6§. Sure enough, 5ª was passed out for a further +450 to Turkey and 13 IMPs.