Match of the Day | Juniors
Round 6 Turkey v. France |
From material supplied by Barry Rigal The return home of Julien Geitner due to bereavement meant the French team were without their most experienced partnership. Turkey were four places above France when the two met on Vugraph in Round 6. It was Turkey who gained the first big swing:
Two Diamonds was Multi; 2NT an enquiry.
North-South can easily make Three No-trumps, but both Wests finished in Four Spades doubled. On a trump lead from North (the NINE is the clever lead to retain control if you fear a running club suit) West is held to seven tricks for a penalty of 500. However, both Norths began with the king of diamonds. When Yanuz saw dummy he shifted to ace and another trump. Rombaut now tried a heart from hand and the defence duly cashed all their winners for the expected score of 500 to Turkey. But suppose declarer rattles off all his trumps. North has to keep at least two clubs and will have difficulty in the five-card ending. If he keeps the ace of each red suit and three clubs, declarer can actually make three club tricks by unblocking the king and throwing in North. North can do better by some unblocking of high cards, but we feel declarer might make one extra trick if he reads the ending. In the Closed Room Sebbane made an expensive error at trick two when he played a club. Sunamak took the chance to ruff both his diamonds and discard a heart on the ace of clubs. This allowed the doubled game to make for 590 and a 14 IMP swing to Turkey. Three boards later France got right back into the match:
Again both tables ended in the same spot, though by different routes. East led a spade taken by West's queen. At trick two Sunamak for Turkey switched to a club to the jack and ace. If declarer sets up a club trick now and overtakes the diamond later, he has nine easy tricks. Sebbane complicated matters by starting with five rounds of diamonds before exiting with a club. The defence were able to make a club, two spades, and a heart, but then had to concede the ninth trick to declarer. Rombaut, West for France, had seen Daux's lead of the TEN of spades, and knew declarer had the jack. At trick two Rombaut found the excellent switch of the FOUR of hearts. Declarer, not unnaturally, tried the jack from hand, which was covered by the queen and ace. Knowing he had a spade entry to hand, declarer decided not to overtake the diamond, cashing the ace and jack, then playing a low spade. Rombaut went up with the king, cashed his ten of hearts, and then played a club to the jack and ace. Superficially declarer had nine tricks, but he had to enter hand with the jack of spades, and say goodbye to the ace of spades! In the ending East had a club winner and a heart winner to go with the three tricks the defence had already made. This was 12 IMPs to France. A couple of partscore swings to Turkey opened a gap again but France had a chance to close it on this deal:
In the Closed Room the defence took the obvious five tricks against Three Spades to collect 50. In the Open Room the anaemic Michaels Cuebid by North gave France the chance to take a penalty of 300 out of South's Four Spades. But Rombaut decided to go for the bigger prize of Five Diamonds. On any lead but a heart declarer has no problem. He knocks out the trump king, and even if he loses a club still has time to discard his third heart on the fifth club. However, South, Alper, found the great lead of a heart. Declarer won, took the trump finesse, which lost, won the next heart and drew trumps. If Daux checked the count he will have realised that as North promised nine cards in the majors, and had shown up with three diamonds, he must have at most one club. Superficially you can bring in the suit if this is the singleton ten or king. Daux actually ran the queen of clubs, which lost, and North cashed the heart to defeat the game. If Daux had realised that South had no more heart to play, he should have seen that the winning line, whatever North's club, is to play the nine of clubs to the ace! If that doesn't fetch the king South will win the next club and because he is unable to cash a heart, you still have time to discard the heart on the fifth club. If Daux had found this play, his contract would actually have made with an overtrick. As it happened France took their chance on the next deal to get back into the match:
Two Clubs was Stayman showing both majors.
Three Clubs was a transfer to diamonds. In the Open Room, if South had led his singleton club against Three Diamonds declarer can probably not avoid defeat. But South began with a spade to the jack and queen, giving Daux a chance. At trick two a trump went to the queen, king and ace. North played a second spade. If East refuses the finesse, and plays the Scissors Coup of the heart KING he can prevent either defender obtaining a ruff! This is a bit double dummy and Daux went wrong at once, taking the spade finesse. South won and switched to his bare club, to obtain a ruff when North was in with the heart ace. So 3¨ went one off. As it happened this small loss could be happily stood given the result at the other table where Sebbane was declarer in Four Hearts doubled. (Rigal called the technique of bidding game when the opponents protect a partscore the principle of TTASL Teach Them a Sharp Lesson). Of course it was a matter of honour for the Turks to double. On a passive diamond lead declarer has plenty of work to do to make his game despite having only three obvious losers. However, East led a trump, which North won cheaply to lead a spade, and now there was nothing the defence could usefully do to prevent ten tricks and 590 to France. France gained 10 IMPs and the score in the match at half-time was 29-27 to Turkey. The second half had one dramatic swing, where both teams had the chance to gain at least 17 IMPs! This was it:
For France, Rombaut and Daux bid: 2§-2ª-3©-3ª-3NT-4§-4¨-4NT-5ª-7ª-Pass For Turkey, Sunamak & Yavuz bid: 1©-1ª-2§-3ª-4¨-4ª-6©-7NT The auction did not finish at Seven No-trump because North, reading that his king of diamonds lay behind the ace, decided to double. Perhaps his intention was to prevent a club lead. On a red suit lead, declarer can only make his grand slam via the backward finesse in clubs no squeeze works because North is sitting behind all the menaces in dummy. The backward finesse is a possibility if East reads North for all the missing high cards on his double. However, South led a club. Declarer played low from dummy and that was the thirteenth trick. Seven Spades is a far superior contract because declarer has the extra chance of ruffing a suit out. South led his singleton heart. Declarer won in dummy and drew trumps, but what should declarer throw on the third trump? He does not want to give up the chance of a diamond finesse or ruffing out the fourth club, so he correctly chose to throw a heart (the lead had anyway prevented playing for the suit 4-2). North also threw a heart, confirming the belief that he held five. Now it seems to us that the simplest line is to cash ace, king of clubs and the top heart, then ruff a club and finish off the trumps. If nothing favourable has happened you still have the diamond finesse. Declarer's actual choice was to cross to the diamond ace, cash the heart, return with a heart ruff, and finish off the trumps. In the ending, East has two clubs, a diamond and a trump. Provided South keeps the ten of diamonds, and North keeps whatever suit dummy keeps, the defence triumphs. However, on the last trump South threw his precious ten of diamonds to keep three clubs! Dummy kept three clubs, so North was squeezed. He does best to bare the club queen, leaving declarer with a guess, but he actually threw ¨K. East's diamond was now master but the stress of the situation had proved too much. He had not kept track of the pips and eventually took the club finesse. This was 18 IMPS to Turkey when it could easily have been 17 to France, the biggest swing of the tournament so far. The final score was 53-38 to Turkey, or 18-12 in Victory Points. |
Results | Contents |
Juniors Round 6, Round 7 |
Match of the Day France v Turkey Juniors R5 Norway v Poland Slam Success Early Duck by Ranko Grba Deception by Jon Sveindal |
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