The Juniors had the evening off on Friday. This gave the chance for the Schools to feature on Vugraph. Spectators saw a high-standard match between Germany and France. The French were able to applaud the defence of Romain Tembouret and Jean-Francois Grias on this deal:

Schools Session 4

Board 16. Dealer West. East/West Vul.
	ª K 9 © 8 5 3 ¨ J 6 5 4 § K 8 5 3
ª Q 6 5 4 3 © Q J ¨ Q 3 § Q 10 6 2		ª J 8 7 © 10 7 6 ¨ A 8 7 2 § 9 7 4
	ª A 10 2 © A K 9 4 2 ¨ K 10 9 § A J

West	North	East	South
Tembouret	Smirnov	Grias	Kraemer
Pass	Pass	Pass	1©
1ª	2©	2ª	3ª
Pass	4©	All Pass

West, Romain Tembouret, led a low spade against South's Four Hearts. It looks as if declarer has only a heart and two diamonds to lose. He won the spade lead in hand over East's jack, and laid down a top trump. When the queen of hearts fell from West declarer feared the suit was 4-1, and he would need to play the suit from dummy to prevent East making two trump tricks. So declarer crossed to dummy with the king of spades and led a trump, finessing when East played a small one.

The intention was to guard against a bad trump break, but it proved to be an unsafety play when the defence found the best reply: West led a low diamond to East's ace, and East returned his trump to prevent declarer ruffing his losing spade.

Declarer regretted not taking his spade ruff earlier, but he spotted a way he might recover. He thought West held the guarded queen of diamonds and as West was known to hold the queen of spades, he could be subject to a strip-squeeze endplay. Declarer cashed his remaining trumps, played the jack of clubs to dummy's king, and returned to the ace in hand. He had three cards left, a spade and two diamonds. West was supposed to hold the same. Declarer triumphantly exited with a spade, expecting West would have to return a diamond into his tenace, but he was shocked to see West cash a winning club, before conceding the last trick to declarer's king of diamonds.

One Down. At the other table France made Four Hearts on the normal play for a swing of 10 IMPs.

Disaster Corner!

The Belgian brothers, Jef and Wim van Parijs have been nominated as serious candidates for the worst bid hand of the tournament. It comes from Belgians 4-25 thrashing by Israel in Juniors Round 10.

Board 11. Dealer South. None Vul.
	ª A K 4 3 © A Q 9 7 4 3 ¨ 10 7 § 6
ª J 7 5 © 10 5 ¨ K J 8 4 § K 10 8 2		ª 10 9 8 6 © J 8 6 ¨ 9 3 2 § Q 5 4
	ª Q 2 © K 2 ¨ A Q 6 5 § A J 9 7 3

West	North	East	South
	Wim		Jef
			1§
Pass	1©	Pass	2¨
Pass	2©	Pass	2ª
Pass	6NT	All Pass

In the first seat, Jef could not start with a strong no trump, which would probably be the first choice of most of us, since they play a 12-14 no trump. He opened 1§ and, over 10 from partner, bid a very shaky reverse of 2¨ rather than rebid 1NT. His brother replied with 2©, which he clearly intended as forcing. This was by no means the opinion of his younger brother, who at first picked out a green card, then suddenly thought that he could bid further and settled for 2ª, a quite obvious bid if you play that 2© was forcing. Now Wim bypassed about 19 levels of bidding by deciding on his own to bid 6NT, when his hand could be as cold for either 5© or 7NT, depending on Jef's cards.

Six No Trump had no play after the spade lead, but 6© is an easy make after ruffing the third round of spades and drawing trumps. As the heart slam was duly bid in the other room, Israel picked up 14 IMPs.
By the way, Wim ducked the spade lead, hoping that something would develop in the minor suits to provide his twelfth trick. The defence soon claimed one off, telling him that they should just keep the same number of cards as dummy in each suit.

Best Lead of Event?

By Peter Gill

If you have not yet seen the hands from Round 10, then cover all except the South cards, and decide what you would lead as South against 7ª:

Board 12. Dealer West. North/South Vul.
	ª 9 8 7 © Q J 8 5 2 ¨ 8 § 9 8 7 4
ª K Q 10 4 © 10 9 7 ¨ A K Q 7 3 2 § -		ª A 5 3 2 © A K 4 ¨ 6 4 § K Q 5 2
	ª J 6 © 6 3 ¨ J 10 9 5 § A J 10 6 3

West	North	East	South
Skalski	Birdsall	Baranowski	Burgess
1¨	Pass	1ª	Pass
4¨	Pass	4NT	Pass
6C	Pass	6©	Pass
7ª	All Pass

  4¨ was a raise to 4ª with good diamonds. The 6§ response to 4NT showed two key cards and a void. 6© asked for the queen of trumps.

England's eighteen year old Junior Team member Ollie Burgess led §J! Not something one sees every day, this underlead of an ace against a grand slam. Not knowing that the diamonds weren't breaking, Poland's Jacek Baranowski ruffed. If one draws North's three trumps, one needs diamonds to break. Thus one should draw just two rounds of trumps, then play diamonds, in case one opponent has a doubleton spade and a singleton diamond. That is exactly how Jacek played, but the second round of diamonds was ruffed, so he had to go down two.

The alternative lead of §A allows declarer to ruff two clubs in dummy, later discarding his heart loser on ¨Q. On a non-club lead, the fourth spade is an entry to the established diamonds. Only the low club opening lead will defeat 7ª.

At the other table, David Gold in 7ª received a diamond lead. He drew three rounds of trumps, set up the diamonds and claimed; 17 IMPs to England.

Denmark v Hungary
West	North	East	South
Szegedi	Marquardsen	Mraz	Schaltz
1¨	Pass	1ª	Pass
3©	Pass	3NT	Pass
4©	Pass	4NT	Pass
5ª	Pass	5NT	Pass
6¨	Pass	7ª	All Pass

Denmark's Martin Schaltz led §6!! The play was the same as above, Hungary's Mate Mraz ruffing, playing two rounds of trumps, then the doomed two rounds of diamonds.

West	North	East	South
Gjaldbaek	Marjai	Henriksen	Hegedus
1¨	Pass	1ª	Pass
4§	Pass	4©	Pass
5§	Pass	5©	Pass
5NT	Pass	6©	Pass
7ª	All Pass

Hungary's Gai Hegedus led §3!!! The play was identical once again. Boje Henriksen went down two, for an incredible flat board.

In the Schools Championship, the Dutch pair reached 7ª from the West seat. This allowed North to find the killing lead of §7 rather easily. Bad luck, especially when France stopped in game at the other table. One would hope that the Dutch Schools team are not afflicted by the same series of bad luck that has affected their Open Team's performance.

How about the Dutch Junior Team, who are rapidly losing their status as one of the favourites to win? They reached 6§, down six. Finland did not do well either. They reached 7ª, but declarer won the heart lead and led §K at trick two. South covered, and a key entry to dummy had been removed. Not so good. Croatia received a diamond lead in 7ª. Now declarer should draw three rounds of trumps, but he only drew two rounds before playing a second diamond. Curtains! Most of the other tables were content to play in 6ª.

For a further look at the fascinating clash between Marjai-Hegedus and Marquardsen-Schatlz both sitting in the North/South seats, see the coverage of Board 9 in the Session 10 article in today's Daily Bulletin.