| 18th European Youth Team Championships | Page 2 | Bulletin 4 - Thursday, 11 July 2002 |
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Round 5 Slams There were three deals in Round 5 that saw some pairs trying a slam contract. The first was Board 4, which produced a number of swings.
Both Wests showed their strong no trump type. For Belgium, Jef van Parijs made a mild slam try by going through 2§ on his way to 4ª, but two low trumps hardly appealed to West. Just as well really as after a heart lead declarer won the ace and took a spade finesse, settling for just ten tricks; +620. Bas Drijver made a clear slam try by transferring then raising to 3ª. When he later showed a diamond control, Maarten Schollardt drove to slam via RKCB. Tom Cornelis decided to attack with a low diamond lead. Schollardt had little option but to run that to his hand and must have been pleased when his ten scored. He took a losing trump finesse and won the club return. There are a number of successful line from here. Schollardt drew trumps and played three rounds of hearts, ruffing. The last trump squeezed North in the minors and the ¨A then squeezed South in clubs and hearts; +1430 and 13 IMPs to The Netherlands.
Once again, both Wests described a strong no trump type. For Scotland, Bergson showed his spades then made a self-agreeing splinter bid. When that got doubled, McCrossan made a noncommittal pass, feeling that he had a lot of stuff in hearts but not such a bad hand for his opening. Bergson checked on key cards but then settled for 5ª on finding that there was one missing. The lead was a club but McCrossan had no problems. He won and led a spade to the ace, dropping the bare king, and later took a heart finesse for twelve tricks; +680. The Hungarians drove to slam and Coyle led a low heart. Hegedus ran the heart and Batemen played the nine. Was that the correct card in this partnership? Hegedus won the ©10 and crossed to a top club to take the trump finesse. Coyle saw the possibility to give his partner a heart ruff and continued the suit. A second heart finesse gave Hegedus three discards for his minor-suit losers; +1430 and 13 IMPs to Hungary.
Italy stopped in 5ª and, as we have seen, twice that has meant losing 13 IMPs, however, slam is a long way from being secure, and this time it was the slam bidders who conceded the IMPs. The Croatian pair sailed into slam, 4ª after transferring being a slam try. Lo Presti led a trump and Brguljan saw no reason not to take the finesse. That lost, of course, and he ran the heart return to dummy's ten and drew trumps. But there were eleven tricks and no more; -100.
Board 12 was not so much about getting to slam, though one pair of unfortunates had a misunderstanding and played in 4§ on the North/South cards, but of whether it was possible to get to seven.
It is not easy after an opposing pre-emptive barrage but that South hand looks enormous after partner has made a take-out double and surely Tihane's choice of cuebid followed by raise to seven is the practical shot. It earned Estonia 13 IMPs when Greece stopped in six - was Katsaris really fooled by Matisons' baby psyche?
In this match neither West saw an opening pre-empt in his cards. What is wrong with 3§ at favourable vulnerability is beyond me, but I have no doubt that they had their reasons. McCrossan came in over Szegedi's forcing heart raise and Bergson wasa able to take some space away with a jump to 5§. Szegedi's jump to 6© looks a little lazy now when he is surely worth a 6§ cuebid on the way, and Mraz had no reason to raise to seven. Alas for Scotland, Bergson did not see the danger in taking what looked as though it would be a paying sacrifice. When Szegedi passed 7© round to him, Mraz did well to go on to 7©; 13 IMPs to Hungary.
In this match neither North came in over the pre-empt, making it much harder to reach seven. Zoric's leap to 6§ really put it to his opponents and the best that Mazzadi could do was to double. He had no idea that the grand would be good so, of course, had to pass Lo Presti's 6© response. Guariglia only raised to 5§ and, if the bidding record is correct, Kazalicki made a very odd call of 5© when double looks to be routine. Five Hearts attracted a raise to six from Praljak and Guariglia took the save. Kazalicki did not leave the decision to his partner, doubling in front of him. The sacrifice went for 1100 but that was worth 8 IMPs to Italy.
Any slam is pretty poor, but several pairs tried their luck at the six level.
A fine example of a weak 2¨ opening from Szegedi created a problem fro the Scottish East/West pair. Having seen his partner make a three-level overcall, can Bergson be blamed for taking the push to 5ª over 5¨? I don't think so, looking at solid spades, short diamonds and a partial club fit. The heart lead meant a quick one down for +100 to Hungary. Though North/South found the diamond fit at the other table, they did not do nearly enough bidding to put pressure on their opponents. While it would probably not have mattered, surely Coyle is worth more than 3¨ when his partner introduces the suit? Coyle led his singleton heart but Bateman won and tried a club switch. Had South held the §A or ªA, that might have proved to be a very effective switch. As it was, it just allowed declarer to come to twelve tricks, winning the §A, drawing trumps and taking the club finesse to establish the suit; +680 and 13 IMPs to Hungary.
Tihane's 2NT opening claimed to be weak with at least five-five in the minors. It caused his opponents terrible problems and they eventually subsided in the faintly ridiculous spot of 6©. That inelegant contract drifted three off for 300 to Estonia. It looked as though the Estonian gain might be a relatively modest one as Rubins/Matisons sailed up to the apparently hopeless club slam in the other room. However, the chosen lead was a trump, which I think deserves a sad fate. South withheld his queen, of course, and declarer won cheaply and cashed the §A. He had no legitimate chance whatsoever from here, of course, but Rubins just started running spades through South. It seems that South was determined not to allow his trump queen to be couped but, when he kept on discarding, all of declarer's red losers went away on the §Q was the defence's only trick; +1370 and 17 IMPs to Estonia. |
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