17th European Youth Bridge Team Championships
Monday, 10 July 2000

Helgemo’s World of Bridge

Geir Helgemo (montage)

The winning teams at the Junior Championships have included many stars of the future. Few shine more brightly than that of Norway’s favourite son, Geir Helgemo, who was on top of the Podium in 1990. His list of achievements is already colossal, and includes a victory in the prestigious Generali World Masters.

We have spared no expense in securing permission from Five Aces to publish an extract from a book about the maestro, ‘Helgemo’s World of Bridge’ that will be published in August. It has been written by Geo Tislevol & Geir himself.

 

Deals where Geir Helgemo makes the right choice, when it looks like a guess, are countless. It is certainly no coincidence, but it is not easy to wrest from him the secret of his success. I think it has to do with the small details he collects during the play; in the end they give him some kind of clue as to what to do. It is important to be alert all the time, and then sort out all the hypothetical information before adding it to the known facts about the deal.

Even when Geir was a very young junior player, people noticed his fabulous ability to make the right choices. In the bulletin of the 1990 European Junior Championship, the Norwegian bridge journalist Arne Hofstad mentioned this fact. Arne was the best bridge journalist in Norway for nearly forty years, and highly respected internationally. He won a lot of journalist awards, quite frequently writing about Geir Helgemo. One article from the above-mentioned junior championship is set out below.

The Norwegian junior team at that time had a lot of excellent card players. They were not at all afraid of following the line they believed to be right, even though the percentage calculators were of a different opinion. A good nose combined with a natural talent for card- playing technique were their qualities. Systems and theoretical knowledge had to be developed later.

The title of Hofstad's article was 'The Norwegians have it at their fingertips'. He won the championship journalist award for it, and Geir won the prize for 'Best Played Hand'. Geir has later stressed that he felt his play did not deserve any prize, since it was all about sniffing out the vibrations at the table. However, he agreed that Hofstad deserved the prize for his good article. This is the full story:

 

Dealer South. All Vul.
  ª Q J 6 2
© A 4
¨ A 9 6
§ K 10 4 2
ª A K 3
© Q 8 7 3 2
¨ Q J 4 3
§ 3
Bridge deal ª 10 9 8 5
© 10
¨ 10 8 7 5
§ Q J 8 5
  ª 7 4
© K J 9 6 5
¨ K 2
§ A 9 7 6

 

West North East South
1©
Pass 1ª Pass 2§
Pass 2¨ * Pass 2NT
Pass 3NT All Pass
(1) 4th suit, forcing to game.

 

When you see the line of play Geir selected, you might imagine that West gave the game away in the bidding, by hesitating, by questioning, or something. But he had done nothing of the sort, and part of Helgemo's play on this deal must be placed in the category of pure intuition.

West led the three of diamonds and Geir took the first trick with the king. Then, with a steady hand, he played the jack of hearts, which held the trick! East's ten was a joy to see, and next Geir played a club to the king, and the ten of clubs from dummy. East covered and was allowed to hold the trick. Back came a diamond, which went to West's jack, and the next diamond went to dummy's ace. Now Geir cashed the ace of hearts before playing a club for the marked finesse through East. This was the ending:

 

  ª Q J 6 2
© -
¨ -
§ 4
ª A K
© Q 8
¨ Q
§ -
Bridge deal ª 10 9 8
© -
¨ 10
§ Q
  ª 7 4
© K 9
¨ -
§ A

Belgium Team Profile

Belgium

Two years ago in Vienna, there was no Belgian team for the first time since 1974. The Austrian principal town was judged too expensive by the Belgian federation, and the junior team to be sent wasn’t good enough, they said.

So first of all, we are very glad to be here in Antalya. As a matter of fact, you cannot expect youth bridge to flourish by keeping your players at home, so that participation in major events is compulsory if you want to learn. So now we will present the renewed Belgian team.

 

It is not uncommon for two brothers to be playing in the same team, but in Belgium we have done one better, we have three brothers in the national squad, and they all come from Antwerp, the second Belgian town.

 

Steve De Roos (19) is a student in commercial engineering. He is a real danger for every beautiful girl in the neighbourhood, and is never afraid to double the opponents when he likes his cards, which seems to be regularly the case.

 

His brother Daniel (21) is also a student, he is a civil engineer in chemistry. He likes parties, so he says, but you should not mention that to him at the at the table, as he often tries to suppress the enthusiasm of his younger brother, with whom he captured the Belgian junior title four years ago, retaining it the following year. The last two years were less successful.

 

Third brother Timothy (simply say Tim) is 23. As he works for Bayer Antwerp, his arrival in Antalya was delayed by some hours. Fortunately, he found a flight that would get him here in time to play the fourth round. He used to be an excellent 800 metre runner, and as a consequence of concentrating his efforts on running he started learning bridge later than his two brothers.

His partner is Els Toutenel (16); they have partnered each other for two years and were the last of the Belgium pairs to qualify to be here. Els studies Greek and Latin at school, a rarity nowadays. Dont believe the jealous guys who tell you she is only here to disturb (principally Dutch) opponents with her magic décolleté.

 

Tom Cornelis (23) is the most experienced player in the team. He plays in the Belgian second division. He speaks three languages fluently, studies computer science in Ghent, his native town, and describes himself as a fanatic theoretician. He found out a system to bid slams with half controls and thirds of points which can be described in a five-way Blackwood.

Unfortunately his partner, Steven De Donder from the small town of Lokeren (football freaks will know about this place) sometimes forgets this remarkable system. Nevertheless, this young fellow of 20 years and 191 cm (I think only Dutch players do better) is making a very strong impression on his first international appearance.

 

Non-playing captain Jean-Francois Jourdain (38), nicknamed Pitch, represented Belgium as a youth international, at both chess and bridge. This last occurred in 1986 (Budapest) and 1987 (Valkenburg), but these are not the best memories of the Belgian team. He started to work with the youth players two years ago. The rules he fixed with the players seem to be very efficient. He gets bought a drink each time a player lets through a doubled partscore, goes down in a Grand, gets penalised for arriving late or who for -1100. At the same time, he buys all the team a drink each time they win a doubled partscore, set up a double squeeze or simply win a match.

 

He promised champagne in the case of a 25-victory or if the Netherlands were defeated, which has already cost him bottles! It tends to work out about even since Belgium is doing well here up to now, but we all know the road is still very long for our young team.

When Geir played the ace of clubs the situation was not pleasant for West. He might just as well have folded up his cards and conceded. He had to keep two hearts, and whether he pitched the queen of diamonds or a spade honour he would be endplayed in spades. At trick twelve a heart lead into Geir's K-9 was the beautiful finale.

 


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