In the first round, two pairs who were to be among the overnight leaders had to meet. This was the first board:

Board 1, Dealer North, None Vul.   ª 9 8 2 © A Q 4 3 2 ¨ 4 § A 9 4 2 ª Q 7 4 3 © - ¨ A 7 6 5 § J 10 8 6 3 ª A K J 5 © 10 9 7 ¨ J 10 9 2 § K 5   ª 10 6 © K J 8 6 5 ¨ K Q 8 3 § Q 7

West	North	East	South
Karaivanov	Lesniewski	Trendafilov	Martens
	Pass	1NT	Pass
2ª	Pass	2NT	Pass
3§	3©	All Pass

This time, the multi-purpose 2ª relay preceded a sign-off in clubs. A weakness of the Bulgarian mini-NT came to light here: lack of accuracy in partscore battles. With at least nine tricks available in spades, EW still sold out to 3©. Making nine tricks here brought the Poles all 52 matchpoints.

On board 10, an unlikely squeeze could have saved the day for declarer in 4©.

Board 10, Dealer East, All Vul.   ª A Q 8 6 3 © - ¨ K J 5 § K 10 8 3 2 ª - © Q J 10 8 6 4 ¨ 10 7 2 § Q J 5 4 ª K 9 7 5 4 © K 9 5 ¨ A Q 3 § 7 6   ª J 10 2 © A 7 3 2 ¨ 9 8 6 4 § A 9

North can only lead a club against 4©. South wins the ace and now has to return a top diamond to break the squeeze. The ¨9 forces the 10, jack and queen. When declarer continues a club now, North can win and continue the ¨K to break the squeeze. If South continues clubs, as often happened in practice, North wins and once again has no good return. A club will be ruffed by dummy's nine, a low heart will go to the queen and the last club will be ruffed with the ©K. Declarer ruffs a spade and concedes to the ©A, ruffs another spade to get back to his hand and plays out the trumps. A few boards later, it looked as if the right lead would beat a game, but this was not quite the case:

Krysztof Martens

Board 15, Dealer South, North-South Vul.   ª J 10 7 © A 10 3 ¨ 7 6 4 § A J 9 5 ª 6 4 3 © 5 2 ¨ K Q 10 9 8 5 § 4 3 ª 5 © K Q 8 4 ¨ A 2 § Q 10 8 7 6 2   ª A K Q 9 8 2 © J 9 7 6 ¨ J 3 § K

South is in 4ª and the defence starts off correctly with three rounds of diamonds. You ruff, draw two rounds of trumps ending in South and get the bad news. Now the only thing you have to do is unblock the §K, lead a heart to the ten and claim. You will be one down if West started with a singleton heart, but this is not very likely.

If East returns a heart you win, draw the last trump and throw the heart loser on the §A. If East returns a club, you have two heart discards.

Board 24 was a matter of experience.

Board 24, Dealer West, None Vul.   ª Q 10 © K 7 6 4 3 2 ¨ A J 7 6 § 5 ª J 8 6 5 4 © J 9 ¨ 9 4 2 § 6 3 2 ª A 7 3 © Q 8 5 ¨ K Q 10 § A K Q J   ª K 9 2 © A 10 ¨ 8 5 3 § 10 9 8 7 4

We will not bother you with a comedy of German errors which led to a final contract of 5© by NS. Instead, we will go to a table where two senior players were facing two representatives of a younger generation.

Well bid. Just made.

The next board saw Martens-Lesniewski disappear from the top three:

Board 25, Dealer North, East-West Vul.   ª Q 6 4 3 © Q 8 6 ¨ J 3 2 § 8 7 6 ª J © A J 10 5 4 ¨ Q 10 § J 9 4 3 2 ª K 8 7 © K 7 ¨ A K 9 8 6 § Q 10 5   ª A 10 9 5 2 © 9 3 2 ¨ 7 5 4 § A K

West	North	East	South
De Wijs	Lesniewski	Drijver	Martens
	Pass	1NT	Pass
2¨	Pass	2©	2ª
3§	3ª	Pass	Pass
4§	Pass	4©	Double
All Pass

Martens led the §A followed by the §K and now had to reach his partner for the ruff. He made a gallant effort by underleading his ªA, but the effect of all this was that Drijver won a surprise ªK and drew all trumps by leading ©K, ©A and ©J. Just made.

At another table, Werdelin-Cohen were doing not much better:

West	North	East	South
Rogowski	Werdelin	Pikus	Cohen
	Pass	1NT	Pass
2¨	Pass	2©	2ª
4©	4ª	Double	All Pass

Even though West led the ªJ, which cleared up the trump position, and even though the defence dropped a heart trick later on, down two with 4© not on definitely was not a good score, but still the Danes increased their lead over the Poles on this deal.

The style of the overnight leaders can be illustrated well by the proceedings on the last board of the day.

Board 28, Dealer West, North-South Vul.   ª Q 6 2 © K 4 3 ¨ Q 3 § J 10 6 4 3 ª J 10 7 5 © 9 7 6 ¨ 7 2 § K 7 5 2 ª K 4 3 © A Q 8 5 ¨ K J 9 5 4 § A   ª A 9 8 © J 10 2 ¨ A 10 8 6 § Q 9 8

West	North	East	South
Cohen	Kowalski	Werdelin	Romanski
Pass	Pass	1§	Pass
1¨	Pass	1©	Pass
1ª	Pass	2¨	Pass
2©	All Pass

Allan Cohen

After the strong club, this auction showed either 5-4 or 4-5 in the red suits. A trump lead looks best when you look at the bidding only superficially. Leading the ©J would have worked well here. On a club lead, Werdelin managed to collect eight tricks as North could overruff the dummy only once. On the ©J lead, North will get the lead in diamonds in time to lead another trump. Mind you, that the lead of a low trump won't work as it forces out North's king prematurely.