Helgemo’s World of Bridge
![Geir Helgemo (montage)](Images/helgemo.jpg)
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](../../../Graphics/Hand/board.gif) |
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](../../../Graphics/Hand/board.gif) |
ª
10 9 8
© -
¨ 10
§ Q |
|
ª
7 4
© K 9
¨ -
§ A |
|
Belgium Team Profile
![Belgium](../../../Graphics/Flags/Belgiumc.gif)
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.
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