| 19th European Youth Team Championships | Page 6 | Bulletin 7 - Sunday, 8 August 2004 |
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Italy v Hungary – Juniors Round 13 After 12 rounds, World champions Italy were lying in fourth place in the Juniors Championship, while Hungary were surprising some people with their strong showing as they were currently in the lead. This would be a serious test of the Hungarians' credentials. First, however, we take a look at the first board of the vugraph encounter between France and Poland, two other teams currently in
the qualifying positions.
In the other room, Bessis/de Tessieres for France bid to 3NT on the East/West cards and made +460 by winning the first spade and knocking out the heart while the spades were still blocked. Krzysztof Kotorowicz bid very aggressively in the auction above to get Jacek Kalita to play the club slam. One Club was Polish, various handtypes, and the reopening double confirmed the strong artificial variety. You or I would choose between a penalty pass and 3NT with the West cards, but not Kotorowicz, he cuebid 4ª then, when partner could not bid slam himself, raised 5§ to 6§! Scarey, but successful. It takes a diamond lead to break it for certain, of course, thanks to the fall of the ©10 – though it is likely that declarer will finesse the ©9 on the second round, particularly attractive after South's 3ª overcall, and fail anyway. But Grenthe cashed the ace of hearts at trick one and now the slam was easy; +920 and 10 IMPs to Poland. That rather set the tone for the match, with Poland completely dominant and winning by a surprising 97-26 IMPs, 25-2 VPs, to go to the top of the table. Now, let us concentrate on our main match.
With no defence against a spade contract, Mate Mraz leaped all the way to game when Balazs Szegedi could open with a weak 2¨ bid. Stelio di Bello doubled for take-out and brother Furio passed, of course, looking at a blanced hand with four trumps. Szegedi must have been disappointed to find that he was at the five level with only an eight-card trump fit – of course, this was partly his fault as he was not obliged to open with only five cards (though I expect that i would do so at this vulnerability). Furio led the ªQ, ruffed in dummy, and Szegedi played the §K to Stelio's ace. He was forced to ruff another spade and now played §Q for a spade pitch then a diamond, Furio taking the ace and forcing him with another spade. The four-one diamond split meant that Szegedi did not have time to establish heart tricks. He drew three rounds of trumps then played a heart to the jack and queen, and was held to his trump winners; four down for –800. Csaba Szabo responded 2ª to Andras Riesz's Forcing Stayman response to the weak no trump opening and that excited Riesz, who splintered then asked for key cards over the heart cuebid. It looks a sthough East did a little too much here and the final contract was hopeless. There was a heart and a club to lose for down one; –100 and 14 IMPs to Italy.
The Hungarian East/West pair bid another small slam but this time it was the right thing to do, and they managed it in the face of a pre-emptive opening and raise from Lo Presti and Sbarigia. Szabo's leap to 6§ was the practical bid, as he was always going to have trouble in exploring the hand properly; +920. I am not sufficiently familiar with the di Bello brothers' methods to be able to tell you what went wrong at the other table. Obviously, something did, and they must have been very disappointed to bid to a grand slam off an ace when put under no pressure. Seven Clubs was down one, of course, for –50 and 14 IMPs back to Hungary.
Szeegedi showed hearts and a minor and Furio showed a constructive spade raise with his 3© cuebid. He went on to game at his next turn but respected stelio's double of the 5§ save. Furio led his trump and, though there were only three top losers, the heart stack meant that Sgedi had to lose a second trick in thta suit so was down two for 300.
Five Spades can only be beaten if, as above, declarer can be persuaded not to take the diamond finesse, but what about 5¨? We saw the answer to that one in the vugraph match between Poland and France.
Kalita's 2ª opening showed a weak two-suiter with spades and a minor. When Guillaume Grenthe overcalled 4§, Leaping Michaels, to show hearts and clubs, Kotorowicz went quietly until Jerome Grenthe raised to game, then he saved in 5¨. Guillaume doubled that but a heart lead was quite painless for declarer, who could take three heart ruffs in dummy, pick up the trumps along the way, and cash out the spades for thirteen tricks; +1150.
French players generally have a conservative opening style and the East cards did not meet Bessis' s requirements for a 1ª opening, 2ª being a single-suited weak bid. He passed but soon had the opportunity to show his two-suiter by way of a cuebid when 1© was passed round to him. Now de Tessiers followed a very revealing sequence, first trying 4ª then 5¨ over 5§. That pretty well marked Krzysztof Buras with a spade void and Konrad Araskiewicz trusted his opponents' bidding sufficiently to firstly double then lead a spade for his partner to ruff. And the spade he led was the two, suit preference. Buras duly underled his §A at trick two and received a second ruff so an otherwise cold contract had been defeated by a trick. Very nicely defended and +200 to Poland, giving them 16 IMPs.
Szabo cashed a top club then switched to a trump against 2¨. Sbarigia won dummy's ten and crossed to hand with a heart to take the spade finesse. From here it was possible to cash his winners and crossruff to make nine tricks for +110. The destination of the IMPs would be decided by the outcome of the rather optimistic 3NT contract in the Closed Room. Furio cashed the ace of clubs and switched to a spade for dummy's queen. The ©J was coveed by queen and ace and Szegedi ducked a heart to Stelio's seven. Stelio cashed the §Q then switched back to spades, dummy winning the ace. Now Szegedi played a diamond to the ace and cashed the diamonds. At the end he could throw Furio in with the third club to lead away from the queen of diamonds. Nicely done for a great +600 and 10 IMPs to Hungary. The Hungarians gained a partscore swing on the next deal to move into the lead by 31-30 then consolidated the lead on this next one:
Sgedi's 3§ pre-empt could not be described as 'down the middle', but anything goes in third seat at this vulnerability, and he bought a pretty decent dummy whe nobody had anything to say. Furio started with a sneaky low diamond and Szegedi inevitably got that wrong, the ten losing to the queen. Stelio switched to the queen of spades to Furio's ace and a second spade was won in dummy with the king. Szegedi took the trump finesse now and when it lost Furio switched to a low heart. The brothers took their three heart tricks so that was down two for –100. Sbarigia was not willing to abuse the normal requirements for a three-level opening to quite this extent, even in third seat at favourbale vulnerability, so Szabo/Riesz were left to explore the East/West cards to their hearts' content, eventually alighting in 4ª. Sbargia cashed the ace of clubs then switched to a low heart, which did Riesz no harm at all. He could ruff a club, cross back to hand with a heart and ruff the last club before playing ace and another trump; +620 and 11 IMPs to Hungary.
Both Wests opened with a weak 2©. Stelio's 2ª response was conventional but Furio had a bad hand and could only go back to 3©. Riesz might have pre-empted by raising to 3© but chose to go quietly. He proved to have chosen the winning tactic, because against him North/South stopped in 3ª, while Stelio's more active approach saw his opponents get to the spade game. Even though both declarers lost to the bare king of trumps, they had ten tricks; +170 for Lo Presti, but +620 and 10 IMPs for Mraz.
Both Easts opened 2NT and both Wests transferred. Stelio showed a lack of interest in hearts but Furio went back to the security of his six-card suit. That may have been a mild slam try but, if so, Stelio was not interested. Four Hearts made twelve tricks after a diamond lead; +480. Riesz simply completed the transfer and Szabo's 4© continuation was for sure a non-forcing slam try. Riesz had very good controls and two strong trumps so asked for key cards, then blasted a slam when he liked the reply. A spade lead would beat 6NT but that is not so easy to find. After the atcual passive heart lead, Riesz cashed the second heart then led towards the §J and soon had twelve tricks for +990 and 11 IMPs. Hungary now led by 74-42 and were in threatening to put a serious dent in Italian ambitions for these Championships. However, Italy regained some ground on the next deal.
Mraz found another imaginative Hungarian third-seat pre-empt. When Stelio was prepared to double for take-out, not worrying that he held length in the wrong minor when five-four in the majors, it was clear for Furio to jump to the heart game. Had the diamond pre-empt been for real, a diamond ruff would hav edefeated this contract quite easily, but on the atual layout it takes a low diamond lead to defeat the agme, preserving communications so that South can win the ©A and get his partner in to give the ruff – hardly a plausible defence. Mraz actually led a club at trick one and Furio won the queen then playe don trumps for +620. In the other room, Lo Presti opened light in third seat but at the on elevel. When Riesz overcalled 1©, Szabo followed an invitational sequence and Riesz judged not to bid the game. Perhaps Riesz should have gone on, as game is excellent on the auction, and he does have some distribution plus a well-positioned diamond holding. Or perhaps he felt that West could have made a stronger try after 2© got doubled if game was to be good? Anyway, the Hungarians stopped in 3© and made the same ten tricks for +170 but 10 IMPs to Italy. Hungary won the match by 74-53 IMPs, converting to 19-11 VPs, and were lying second, just behind Poland, while Italy were fourth and still well in contention. |
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