Sweden – Turkey

(with England – Germany highlights)

Double duty for your Editor, who, thanks to the wonder of modern technology was able to follow two matches at the same time – rather like watching Sweden-Denmark & Bulgaria-Italy on Tuesday evening. One featured the two high flying teams, the other a battle between traditional rivals, where, continuing the footballing analogy, ‘Bridge is a simple game; 8 men play with cards for 170 minutes and at the end Germany wins.’
Meanwhile Jos Jacobs brings you the best of the action from Denmark and Poland.

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

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Elinescu	Justin	Wladow	Jason
		Pass	Pass
Pass	3NT	All Pass

A typically aggressive bid from Justin Hackett backfired. The traditional advice against this type of bidding is to lead an ace, but declarer was not going to be let off lightly. East led the two of spades and West won and switched to the ten of diamonds. East took the king with the ace and advanced the jack of spades. When declarer covered that with dummy’s queen he was held to five tricks, -400.

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Townsend	Reps	Gold	Ludewig
		Pass	Pass
1¨	3NT	4¨	All Pass

Rightly or wrongly East decided to take out insurance. After three rounds of clubs declarer came to nine tricks, but that was 10 IMPs for Germany.

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

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Assael	Sylvan	Zorlu	Sundelin
1ª	Pass	2©	Pass
2ª	Pass	3¨	Pass
3©	Pass	4©	All Pass

West’s decision to show his doubleton heart rather than bid 3NT turned out badly, as the 5-1 trump break proved to be fatal. Declarer won the club lead in dummy and played a diamond. North won with the king and played a club. Declarer won in hand, ruffed a diamond and went after the trumps. He was two down, -200.