| 21st European Youth Team Championships | Page 6 | Bulletin 2 - Friday 13 July 2007 |
Poland vs Turkey (Girls 1st Round) In the first round of the Girls one of the favourites, Poland, faced Turkey. The Polish girls were playing N/S in the Open Room and E/W in the Closed Room. Not much happened on the early boards and Poland was leading by 3-2 IMPs when this came along:
Open Room
Closed Room
In the Open Room Sakowska opened Four Diamonds, South African Texas, showing a long and solid spade suit. Gimme hope, Joanna (Krawczyk)? No hope there, only Four Spades, since Krawczyk didn’t expect her partner to have an ace along with the running spade suit. That’s why she wasn’t too excited, even though she had quite good values. The Poles were quite lucky here, as the Turkish pair in the Closed Room went for the small slam, which was doomed to go down when the trumps split badly. Four Clubs set clubs as trumps, Four Diamonds was a cue-bid and Five Hearts showed two key cards out of five. N/S in the Open Room recorded +650 but one down from the Closed Room was worth 13 IMPs for the Poles. The Polish girls had a firm grip over the match, as they were leading by 31-9 after 11 boards. Then came another large swing for the leading team.
Open Room
Closed Room
Engin had her engines going up to Four Diamonds. The Poles really won the board in the auction, since in the Closed Room E/W took out insurance and were left to play there, while Krawczyk bid Five Hearts in the Open Room.The defence can take five tricks for 500 in Five Diamonds, but in practice N/S didn’t cash their winners, leaving declarer with no less than ten tricks in her basket. Therefore the Poles gained even more in the play; N/S +100. That was worth another 11 IMPs for Poland. The Turks had not given up yet. On the next board they fought back a bit.
Open Room
Closed Room
North’s club opening in the Open Room showed either 12-14 NT, 15+ with clubs or any hand with 18+ HCPs. West simply bid her longest suit and when North doubled to show exactly three hearts South took the low road and passed. In theory, the defence can take six tricks, just enought to beat the contract. In practice it was a different story. Declarer won the heart lead in dummy and then ran the ten of spades. North won the king, but then erred by shifting to a low club. Declarer won the king and played a club back. From here on there was no way to prevent declarer from taking eight tricks; N/S –180. At the other table declarer did well to take eight tricks in Three Diamonds for N/S +100. Nonetheless, that was 7 IMPs to Turkey. With five boards to go, the score had moved on to 43-22 in the Poles’ favour.
Open Room
Engin might have bid Four Spades as a cue, instead of killing the auction by bidding Five Diamonds. With East as declarer Six Diamonds can be made by drawing trumps and then eliminating the major suits before a club is played from dummy. Declarer just covers North’s card, which forces South to play a club into the tenace or play a heart for ruff and discard. However, Ergin took twelve tricks in a fancy fashion. She followed the winning line, but instead of playing a low club from dummy she advanced the queen from hand. With the king in South’s hand that move worked as well; N/S –620. With West as declarer North can lead a club, which holds the declarer to eleven tricks. Closed Room
Sarioz did well by bidding Four Hearts, which gave the Turks the possibility to take out the insurance in Five Hearts. The defence had to have five tricks; N/S –500 and that was another 3 IMPs to Turkey. One could expect the girls to be careful bidders, but from time to time in the match it was almost as if they were playing matchpoints... However, Sakowska’s pass over her partner’s take-out on the following board was a bit risky but reasonable. There weren’t that many options, were there?
Two Spades showed 5-9 HCPs and generally six cards. Sakowska led a heart to the jack and king. Krawczyk played back a club to the ace and then the A-10 in hearts took two tricks over dummy’s Q-2. The defence had to win three more tricks; two down, N/S +300. Closed Room
After the three-card support double, Sarioz knew she had to play in a 4-3 fit. Even Three Hearts can be made, since the defence has to give declarer some help. On a spade lead, for instance, you can win the ace and then play a trump towards the hand. If West plays low (insignificant) you clear the trumps and then play a club to West. West does best by shifting to a spade, but you ruff and play the club ace and another club. If East wins the king she can cash the queen of spades, but it will establish dummy’s ten. So let’s say she exits with a diamond. It makes no difference if declarer takes the ace or letting it run, because sooner or later West will have to be allowed to play diamonds. If East unblocks the king of clubs, West will win the queen but has now only diamonds left. In practice, for some reason, Sarioz recorded down one; N/S –50 and Poland gained 8 IMPs. On the penultimate board Sakowska was unsuccessful.
Open Room
Her semi-balanced no trump opening put her into difficulties as she had no support for any of her partner’s three suits. Three Hearts was forcing and showed five spades and four hearts. From my point of view, bidding Three Spades was a mistake. A wiser move would have been to try Three No - Trump. At least it would have avoided giving Krawczyk unrealistically high expectations. Finding trump support, North was unstoppable. North’s Five Diamonds, showing a void, didn’t really cheer Sakowska up. Sakowska could have rectified her earlier controversial judgements by bidding Five Spades, but since they had missed the chance of using Blackwood Sakowska misguessed again in the bidding, as she went on to the small slam. The Turks stopped in Three No Trump in the Closed Room. This was the auction: Closed Room
There was not much to the play, since the clubs split 3-3 and declarer could easily establish a spade trick; N/S +400. That was 10 IMPs to Turkey. On the last board Poland landed the last blow by scoring another 13 IMPs and that gave us the final score of 65-35. Due to slow play the VPs were corrected to 20,5-8,5. |
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