Round 3 - Italy vs Netherlands

By Peter Gill

The clash between the early leaders and the pre-tournament favourites is featured, with secondary coverage of the Vu-Graph match between Russia and Austria. Italy's Francesco Mazzadi and Fabio lo Presti came 3rd in the World Junior Pairs Championship in Stargard last year, and the only other medallist from that event who qualified this year for Torquay is Netherland's Bas Drijver, 2nd in Stargard and now partnered by Maarten Schollaardt.

On Board 2, 1999 World Champion Stelio di Bello for Italy held ªQ6543 ©J ¨A107 §K1082. He passed as dealer, LHO opened 1©, Double from partner, 3© by RHO. He called 4© to show a strong 4ª bid. This was a case of being too well-prepared, as it put a singleton club on lead, dooming 4©. At the other table, and at both tables in the Vu-Graph match after similar auctions, the normal 4ª bid avoided the club lead so the contract was made. 10-0 to the Dutch.

Last time I played bridge, my partner and I agreed that every single 2NT call was always forcing. Sure enough, I forgot, and the di Bello brothers (my apologies to Bjorg Houmoller of Denmark for referring to her as a brother in yesterday's Bulletin) did likewise on Board 4, playing in a 29 point 2NT contract; 21-0 to Netherlands.

Board 6. Dealer East. East/West Vul.
	ª K J 7 © 2 ¨ Q 8 § A K Q J !0 7 6
ª A Q 8 4 © A K J 8 ¨ 4 § 9 4 3 2		ª 6 5 © 10 6 5 4 3 ¨ A K 9 6 5 2 § -
	ª 10 9 3 2 © Q 9 7 ¨ J 10 7 3 § 8 5

West	North	East	South
Schollaardt	Lo Presti	Drijver	Mazzadi
		Pass	Pass
1©	Dbl	4§	Pass
4NT	5§	Pass	Pass
6©	All Pass

None of the four Norths was willing to bypass 3NT by pre-empting 4§ or 5§ at their first turn to call. Three East-West pairs therefore had enough space to discover that 6© is a reasonable contract, and all three had to go down as the cards lay. Maarten Schollaardt ruffed the §A lead, cashed ©A then ¨A, ruffed a diamond with ©8, ruffed a club, ruffed another diamond with ©J, cashed ©K, and ruffed another club. Francesco Mazzadi over-ruffed and played his last trump, killing dummy. Schollaardt exited a club, end-playing North to escape for two off, and a flat board when the bidding and play at the other table followed similar lines.

Mazzadi Francesco, Italy

The Russian pair stopped in 5©, which, as we have just seen, is far from routine to make. The lead of §8 was ruffed by declarer Leonid Romanovitch, who wisely finessed ªQ to make maximum use of the limited entries to the East hand. North won and forced declarer (East) with another club, the best defence. ¨A was cashed, a diamond ruffed, ªA cashed, a spade ruffed, then ¨K, a diamond ruff, a spade ruff, another diamond ruff, plus ©K making a total of 11 tricks.

The far-sighted play of the early spade finesse had allowed declarer to set up a cross-ruff without the danger of clubs being over-ruffed. This was the best way to play 5©, and gained 14 IMPs when the Austrian declarer failed by three tricks in 6©.

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

West	North	East	South
Schollaardt	Lo Presti	Drijver	Mazzadi
			1¨
Pass	1ª	Pass	1NT
Pass	Pass	Dbl	All Pass

Once upon time, players used to pass the South hand - a scattered 12 count with no pips, vulnerable. That would be sacrilege nowadays. The influence of the world's leading bridge coach Eric Kokish has made "responding on weak hands" quite common. The Dutch pair had the methods to penalise the Italians: passing on the first round with a hand like Drijver's is often a good approach.

The delayed Double asks for the lead of dummy's first bid suit, so Maarten Schollaardt led ª3. Bas Drijver (whose profession is not what his name sounds like) won ªK and stopped to think. He tried ¨Q. This fetched the two from declarer and the eight (reverse attitude, thus discouraging) from partner. Bas stopped for more thought. The Italians play a Strong Club system, so 1¨ was either 11-16 natural or canapé with clubs, or 11-13 balanced. The canapé possibility understandably put him off the winning club switch, so he decided on ©6 which went to the king. Unable to attack clubs from his side, Schollaardt tried ª2, ducked to declarer who attacked hearts.

Now that declarer had been shown to have three spades, four hearts and presumably four diamonds as West had discouraged them, the club switch stood out. West knows that East has ªA, ªK, ©A, ¨Q and surely ¨A, and thus cannot have much more if South has the points for an opening bid. Thus, from West's point of view §7 would have been a helpful card for East to switch to. However, East made the more traditional play of §9 to deny an honour. Perhaps West too can inferentially count out the shape of the entire hand and deduce to continue clubs, but he exited a heart to remove the entry to dummy's spades. Mazzadi won in dummy, played ¨J which won, and cashed out his winners to escape for a penalty of 500, and a 3 IMP gain when his team-mates made 3NT for 600.

If that analysis seemed long, you should have seen how long it took the normally quite fast players to play that hand. Unaware that one slow hand was the problem, the Director came up afterwards to tell them that they were two boards behind. Not long afterwards, they were a board ahead!

On Vu-Graph, Mikhail Krasnosselski (who played on Russia's Open Team at the recent
European Open Championships in Salsomaggiore) was playing the Polish Club system so he responded 1¨, showing various weak or strong hands, to South's 1§. West doubled, South bid 1©, West tried 2§, 2NT by East, passed by West who thought she had done enough by voluntarily bidding 2§. The alternative argument is that vulnerable at IMPs scoring, one bids game whenever possible. Perhaps it is East who could have jumped to 3NT. Anyway, 600 in the other room meant only 9 (not 10) IMPs to Russia, because declarer did well to make 10 tricks in 2NT. Whenever you have missed a vulnerable game or any slam, the IMP scale is such that you save one IMP if you can make one more trick than the player in your seat at the other table, assuming that the other table has bid higher than you.

After 8 boards, Italy had crept back to trail by 8-21 and on Vu-Graph, Russia led Austria 32-9.

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

West	North	East	South
Schollaardt	Lo Presti	Drijver	Mazzadi
Pass	3¨	3ª	Pass
Pass	4§	Pass	4ª
Pass	4NT	Pass	5ª
Pass	5NT	Pass	6§
Pass	7§	All Pass

The bidding is not a misprint. The Italian pair's opening bids of 2NT through 3© are either transfer pre-empts or strong 6/5 shapes. Their Convention Card says that 4NT by the opener in general is a cue-bid. This is an interesting treatment that fits into their Strong Club methods which limit the opener's strength. Perhaps some of you might decide to play these bidding methods, as 7§ was not reached at the other three tables. This hand is also described elsewhere in today's Bulletin.

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

West	North	East	South
Schollaardt	Lo Presti	Drijver	Mazzadi
		Pass	1¨
1NT	Dbl	Pass	Pass
2§	Pass	Pass	2¨
Pass	3NT	All Pass

South opened 1¨ at both tables, leading to a comfortable 3NT, which made easily for a flat board. The 1NT overcall showed 8-15 points, a 5+ minor and four of the other major, Polish style. The interest lies in the bidding in the Vu-Graph match. In the Closed Room, South passed and Vladimir Andreev opened 3§ in third seat, silencing North/South. The defence was good, but would 400 be enough? The Austrian East/West pair on Vu-Graph butted in, causing problems for their opponents:

West	North	East	South
Kummel	Krasnosselski	Grumm	Malinovski
		Pass	Pass
Pass	1§	1©	Dbl
2§	Pass	Pass	Dbl
Pass	2ª	Pass	3¨
All Pass

Kummel Monica, Austria

2§ doubled would not have been pleasant. Monika Kummel's 1© overcall, combined with Iris Grumm's 2§ call, seems to have prevented North/South from establishing that their flat hands belong in no-trumps. Whenever the weak side bids two suits, it is difficult to call 3NT because there are two suits for which stoppers need to be found. Board 12 was a gain for Netherlands and Austria when their North/South opponents bid too high on a misfit. Then came a remarkable difference in evaluation by two of the Souths:

Board 13. Dealer North. All Vul.
	ª 8 © A K J 7 ¨ A 10 3 § K 8 7 3 2
ª K Q 5 3 © 9 4 ¨ J 9 2 § A Q 9 5		ª J 10 9 7 2 © Q 10 8 5 2 ¨ 6 § 10 6
	ª A 6 4 © 6 3 ¨ K Q 8 7 5 4 § J 4

West	North	East	South
Schollaardt	Lo Presti	Drijver	Mazzadi
	2§	Pass	2¨
Pass	2©	Pass	2ª
Pass	3ª	Pass	4¨
Pass	4©	Pass	4ª
Pass	5§	Pass	6¨
All Pass

The Italians bid accurately to the best contract. 2§ was Precision style, 2¨ and 2ª enquired,
2© being either natural or "monomax" which presumably means one-suited. 3ª showed the spade shortage, and South set diamonds before the cue-bids. South realised that his sixth diamond was golden and that the perfect fit more than compensated for the low point count.

There is some danger of promoting ¨J in the play. After §A was led, Mazzadi won the second club, played ªA and ruffed a spade, followed by ¨K, then ¨A on which East's heart discard looked suspiciously like being from a five card holding. Declarer therefore ruffed a club, eventually pitching his third spades on dummy's fifth club for plus 1370 and 12 IMPs in.
It is worth observing the planning involved in winning the second diamond in dummy.

The Russian South took a different view by passing his partner's 2§ opening bid. This contract failed by a trick, after a spade lead by Monika Grumm and forcing defence. Austria gained 12 IMPs by bidding when Stephan Winkler and Gernot Steinerbid and made 3NT at the other table.

The next few boards were quiet in the Italy- Netherlands match until:

Board 19. Dealer South. East/West Vul.
	ª A9 © K9 ¨ 9 7 4 3 § Q 10 9 5 4
ª K J 10 4 © Q 10 7 4 3 ¨ J 10 2 § 7		ª Q 5 © J 6 5 2 ¨ K 8 6 § K 8 6 3
	ª 8 7 6 3 2 © A 8 ¨ A Q 5 § A J 2

West	North	East	South
Schollaardt	Lo Presti	Drijver	Mazzadi
			1ª
Pass	1NT	Pass	2§
Pass	2¨	Pass	2NT
Pass	3NT	All Pass

2¨ was an artificial enquiry. §3 was led to the nine. Lo Presti now played a club to the ace, a vital play of refusing the finesse that was known to be working! This enabled him to collect four club tricks, and five others, taking the diamond finesse eventually. Well played! At the other table, South opened 1NT, raised to 3NT. The heart lead was won in dummy and §10 won. Another club to the jack resulted in doom, and Italy had gained 10 IMPs. Had declarer played §Q on the second round of clubs, he can prevail due to the friendly diamond break.

Lo Presti Fabio, Italy

On Vu-Graph, Mikhail Krasnosselski sitting North demonstrated another stylish way to handle this club suit. He won the heart lead, and pulled §Q from his hand towards dummy, to tempt a cover. When it wasn't covered, he unblocked §J, played a club to the ace and another club. Later the contract made with the assistance of the diamond finesse, a 7 IMP gain as Austria stopped in 2NT.

Board 20. Dealer West. All Vul.
	ª Q 7 6 3 2 © Q J ¨ 8 5 § A 6 3 2
ª A K 10 © A K 7 3 2 ¨ Q 7 4 § Q 4		ª 9 8 © 9 6 5 ¨ J 10 9 2 § K 10 9 7
	ª J 5 4 © 10 8 4 ¨ A K 6 3 § J 8 5

West	North	East	South
Schollaardt	Lo Presti	Drijver	Mazzadi
1©	Pass	2©	Pass
2ª	Pass	3©	Pass
3NT	Pass	4©	All Pass

Mercifully, neither North nor South had anything resembling a penalty double. Perhaps
2NT would not have been natural over 2©, as it seems like an obvious call, to right-side the club holding while retaining the possibility of staying at the two level. ©J was led to the ace, and §10 finessed. The roof fell in, diamond ruff included.

At the other table, ©J lead again proved irresistible, but declarer in 3© cashed ©A, ©K, ruffed a spade and established a diamond, making nine tricks for a significant gain to Italy, contributing to their 22-8 victory.

On Vu-Graph, Krasnosselski found the diamond lead to defeat 3©, gaining 6 IMPs. ©Q was the lead against 1© at the other table, so Russia gained 6 IMPs to salvage a 15-15 draw.