| 47th European Bridge Team Championships | Page 3 | Bulletin 10 - Wednesday, 30 June 2004 |
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France v Germany – Seniors Round 10 by Jos Jacobs On Monday afternoon, the organisers had decided to put a match on vugraph from the Seniors Championships. As Germany were leading the field after nine rounds, and France were in a challenging third place, offering the spectators a view of this match looked an excellent proposition, the only disadvantage being that the Seniors are restricted to 16-board matches. Taking into account the speed at which these mature gentlemen usually are playing (remarkably few women have been seen playing in the Seniors over the years), it should not be a logistical problem to raise their number of boards to 20 as well, thus giving the vugraph audience even more value for free. With the age limit for Seniors again going up, this event may well develop into sort of an Old Boys Network. I certainly got that idea when I looked through the line-up for this match: famous names from the 1970s and 1980s, both within their respective countries and abroad. Let’s quickly have a look now at what these masters had in store for us.
This all looked like very sound bridge. I should give an honourable mention to François Stretz’s nice 2NT matchpoint bid, placing that declaration in the right hand too. There were eleven easy tricks on a trump lead when North jumped up with the §A on the first round of that suit; France +450.
On Board 2, the Germans found a double of 4ª that afterwards proved to be unjustified and cost them another 5 IMPs but then:
This should have been a flat board but for a rare defensive mistake at the other table:
Chemla led a club to the queen and ace and Mari returned a trump to declarer’s queen. Humburg’s next move was to play a low diamond, on which Chemla, understandably, hopped up with his king instead of ducking the trick to his partner, who certainly would have led another trump. So far so good, but when Chemla went on to cash the ©A and did not return a trump after that the contract had slipped through. Declarer could win the club return throwing a diamond from hand, cash the ¨A and ruff a diamond for ten tricks; Germany an unexpected +620 and 12 IMPs. Their deficit had been reduced to 4 IMPs now. On the next board, the defensive problem was missed all round the playing area:
Please note the nice tactical action by the old friendly fox in the South seat. At his second turn, he thus created a position for himself in which he could express the value of his hand with exactitude. The contract was just made on the lead of the §5; Germany +620.
In the Open Room, South did not get the opportunity to perform any tactical brilliancies, but the same contract was easily reached here as well. This time, West led the §3 and the contract was made too for no swing.
The correct answer is the NINE to suggest a heart return. From the first two tricks, it is very likely that declarer cannot easily come to his hand to take whatever finesse, so why help him? ©A followed by ©Q puts him firmly back in dummy again. He will either have to lose two diamonds now or refrain from the spade finesse. At both tables, however, West played his lowest remaining club. This message was not lost on Stoppa who promptly returned a diamond to partner’s ace. As this was just what the declarer needed ten tricks were quickly there. At the other table, Humburg did not consider the §3 worthy of
conveying any message at all. So he returned a trump, giving declarer
a free finesse. After two rounds of trumps, Chemla could lead a
diamond from his hand. When he put up the king, a third-round diamond
ruff enabled him to lead a heart through West for his contract.
This went two off for +300 to Germany. The cherry on this delicious
pudding of course was the 5© bid,
A less imaginative auction by the Germans lost the board for them when they let Mari play 5§; France +600 and 7 IMPs to lead by 23-12. One small partscore swing had brought Germany to within 6 IMPs of France at the half-way stage, but then came:
Left to his own resources, declarer can hardly ever come to nine tricks unless he guesses both diamonds and clubs correctly. But what should South lead? A low spade looks doubtful, a club may help declarer to find the right way to tackle the suit, but the ªA, the reasonable alternative chosen by Schroeder on the South hand, led to immediate disaster. In France, the general standard is to unblock under the ace and to give count under the king, but the Germans certainly did not want to adopt this principle here! Anyway that gave France a tremendous +630.
Here, a low spade was led by South and declarer made eight tricks when he guessed well in diamonds; Germany +120 but 11 IMPs to France to lead 34-17. Three boards later, the late rally Germans are world-famous for finally started.
If the 3¨ rebid by Stretz is according to Standard Français, then Stoppa might have decided to put on the brakes a little. Even if the diamonds break, the contract is still far from being fulfilled. At the table, Stoppa went down four when he tried to establish the spades, his only chance; Germany +200.
This is the board I was anticipating when referring earlier to mature gentlemen playing a friendly bridge game in a remote corner of the playing area… Well done Humburg and Mattsson. Germany earned +430 because they stayed safely on their feet. The score now stood at 34-30 to France.
Twelve tricks, France +680. We will never know why Stoppa did not make any further move once he knew about partner’s lack of a heart control.
On this board, the German pair in the Open Room took an almost entirely reverse approach. Instead of behaving like respectable gentlemen (etc. etc.) they for once started to behave like the talented Juniors we all in Seniorland have been, be it too many years ago most of the time. Mattsson spotted an undisclosed extra value in his cards, the void in diamonds, which was enough for him to bid one more this time. That was another good move for a well-deserved 13-IMP swing to Germany who had taken the lead now by 43-34. On the last board, but still well before injury time in fact, Germany scored again:
As South had become the declarer after an inverted minor sequence, West led a heart. Dummy put up the ©10, East played the jack and South won the ace. Schroeder now played three rounds of diamonds, Stretz winning and Stoppa discarding the ª3. This induced Stretz to continue the §9, which ran to the jack and king. After conceding a club to East who finally returned a heart, declarer only had to guess right in spades to make his contract. As West had discarded two hearts on the fourth club and diamond to protect his spades, guessing well in that suit was easy and an overtrick was born; Germany +430.
It’s a long time ago we last saw the Acol 2NT response in operation. As it placed the declaration in the other hand it was East to lead a low spade. Dummy put up the ª10 but when West, for good reasons, did not cover this, the contract could no longer be made. Germany had another +50 and a final swing of 10 IMPs to set the result of the match at 55-34 or a 20-10 VP victory to them. They would stay firmly at the top. |
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