| 45th GENERALI European Bridge Championships, Arona, Tenerife, Canary Islands | Thursday, 21 June 2001 |
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Norway v. Poland Open Series Round 6 On Tuesday afternoon, the first match on Rama was the big clash between two of the strongest teams present here, so a good and aggressive match was odds-on. Would it live up to the expectations of the Rama audience? Well, it certainly did at the start, as on the first four boards 16 undoubled undertricks were registered against only one contract made, a humble 2§. At that stage, Norway were 10-6 up when board 5 hit the screen:
This was a very safe contract, certainly when the spade lead brought the seventh trick immediately. Declarer went after the diamonds, but correct defence restricted him to one overtrick only. Norway +120.
With all those jacks, there is little perspective in the East hand. So Pszczola quietly bided his time when Helness overcalled 1¨ after the Polish Club. When 1ª came round to him, he settled for 2§ as the final contract. Well judged, as game is really far away. Nine tricks, Poland +110.
The Norwegians had other ideas. Their 14-16 NT in combination with the good five-card suit in responder´s hand made their auction understandably automatic. So was North´s lead: a simple fourth-best from his best suit. When dummy´s ¨8 won the first trick and the spade finesse of the queen came off, Groetheim had nine tricks in the bag with time to come to an overtrick when the defence tried to defeat the contract by switching to hearts. Norway +430 or 8 IMP´s and in the lead again, 25-22.
Natural bidding by the Poles on this misfit hand; Kwiecien gave it one more try with his maximum, but the message was not lost on Helness when Pszczola passed 3§. A merciless trump came out in a split second and a second trump followed when he got the lead in diamonds. The eventual penalty was a mere 400 on this indifferent partscore hand.
The Norwegians avoided any problems when Aa elected to open a Multi (?) in second seat. The standards required for this opening bid are subject to inflation very much, and here we see the effect of it. Groetheim could bid 2ª to show a strong hand, but as 2ª was not forcing Aa was happy to pass it. Eight tricks were duly made when the defence led trumps into declarer´s tenace in an attempt to stop the diamond ruffs. Norway another +110 or 11 IMP´s out of the blue. The board below is included as a pretty example of the advantage of the tempo, the right to strike the first blow at notrumps. Whoever is entitled to play the first card can make seven tricks.
This old adage did certainly apply when South had to try for his seven tricks, but that was virtually impossible to see. The defence led hearts, won in dummy. South then did well (not too problematic after East´s double) to play a diamond to the queen, a diamond to the ace and another diamond, clearing the suit. The heart return then established seven tricks for the defence before declarer could come to his possible club trick. Poland +200.
Here, Lesniewski led a diamond to Martens´ queen, after which the suit was cleared. A heart went to the king and the diamonds were cashed. North exited with a club. It is normal to run this to the queen, and that´s of course what West did. When South produced the king, the contract was one down. Please note that the double-dummy play of rising with the ace works: North has to win the next top heart and is out of clubs. Poland +50 and 6 IMP´s back.
As 4ª was a cuebid, 5§ was the cuebid Helness was waiting for, and not a suggestion to play in the suit. The fate of the heart slam thus hinged on the lead. As you can see, only a diamond lead beats it. On any other lead, declarer draws trumps, pitches his diamond on the clubs and ruffs a spade in the end. When Pszczola led his trump, the play thus was quickly over: Norway +980.
When Lesniewski doubled at his first turn, the Poles simply were not given enough room to explore any further, so the slam was missed and Norway had gained 11 IMP´s more. Critical readers may think at this moment:
"What´s the problem with this hand? You can always
make 12 tricks with clubs as trumps." True it is, but very
few pairs managed to do so. Elsewhere in this issue we will come
back to this aspect of the hand.
Back to our featured match. On board 18, the inflatory Norwegian Multi scored again heavily when it suggested a lead to partner:
With nothing to guide him, Kwiecien elected to put a club on the table, so Helgemo could claim ten black tricks very shortly afterwards. Norway +620.
In the Closed Room, Aa struck again with his Multi. This time the suit was of good quality, so when Groetheim led a heart he hit the jackpot straight away. One down, Norway +100 and 12 IMP´s.
Helness´ 3© almost committed his side to game, so the spotlight turned on the play. On a diamond lead, Helness won the ace and immediately turned his attention to clubs, leading low to the ten and queen. Kwiecien returned a diamond for dummy to ruff. Locked there, Helness could do little better than draw two rounds of trumps, noting the fall of the jack (good news) and play §A and another. When Kwiecien was able to ruff the §A the contract thus was one down in spite of an attractive line of play. The alternative, playing for the ªA to be right, may not be the best chance, but it would probably have worked here…Poland +50.
Martens followed the same line as Helness did (a strong indication that Helness´ line was the best available!) and thus came to the same nine tricks, this time scoring 140 more for Poland or 5 IMP´s. The final result of the match was a good win for Norway: 59-34 or 20-10 V.P. |
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