editors: barry rigal & peter gill – layout editor:akis ...db.worldbridge.org/bulletin/06_2...

Saturday, 8 July 2006Issue No. 6 Editors: Barry Rigal & Peter Gill – Layout Editor: Akis Kanaris

Schedule• Saturday July 8

08:00 – 09:45 Breakfast08:45 – 17:30 Outing to Bratislava18:00 – 19:30 Dinner20:00 Teams Tournament Part II23:30 Snack

• Sunday July 908:30 – 09:45 Breakfast10:00 – 12:00 Sports12:00 – 13:00 Lunch13:15 – 14:15 Lecture14:30 Treasure Hunt18:15 Snack18:30 – 22:00 Pairs Tournament 522:00 Barbecue Dinner

Sporting news from all around the camp. No less than 11teams took part in the Sporting Triathlon of Beach Volleyball,Football, and Basketball. (Yes, it was supposed to be aquadrathlon, but the swimming pool became unavailable.)The teams demonstrated some imagination in their choice

of names – who would have expected that there would bothbe a team called Emma's favourites and Emma's leastfavourites?Anyway, the joint winners were Ravioli, and Team All-In. In

third place was We Luuv Pizza, ahead of the Sleep Walkers.Team Joe Woooh took on the strong-man role, supportingthe rest of the competitors.Team Ravioli; Eyal Ben-Zhi, Rawad Hadad, Karl Asplund, Ros-

aline Barendregt, Dan Recht, Stewart Haring, Lea Moller-Ped-ersen,Arturas Kuprijanas, Gerbrand Hop.Team All-In: Joachim Larsen, Dennis Bilde, Lars Nielsen, Jason

Feldman,Alex Morris, Nabil Edgtton, Luke Gardiner.Also ran: We Luuuv Pizza, The Sleepwalkers, Emma's

Favourites, Le Blue, Mexx, Emma's Least Favourites, PittsburghSteelers, Crazy Frogs, Joe Woooh.Photographic credit: Hrefna Jonsdottir.

Good Sports

Scholar Athletes ?

2

7th WORLD JUNIOR BRIDGE CAMP Piestany, Slovakia

"On any deal the sum of the number of tricks which each side canmake in its best trump suit is approximately equal to the sum ofthe number of trumps each side has."

Jean-René Vernes in the 1950s

The Law has been expounded in books by Tony Sowter and,more famously, by Larry Cohen (To Bid or Not to Bid, andFollow the Law) and then criticised recently by MikeLawrence and Anders Wirgren.

1. Complete the Bidding QuizAt the end of the lecture look through to see if you wish to

change any of your answers. Only then will we give the an-swers.

2. ExerciseCheck a random set of deals to see how accurate the Law

is on that set. Look for a deal where each side has at least aneight card trump fit. Analyse the deal assuming North-Southplay the hand in their best trump suit, and assuming best de-fence, count the number of tricks N-S can make, and the num-ber of trumps. Do the same for East-West. Then add thetricks and the trumps and see how close the answers are.

3. Colour coding for vulnerability:Love All:White; Opponents Vulnerable: Green; Game All: Or-

ange; Us Vulnerable: Red.Fit tip: If one side has 9 trumps the other has at least 8: the

point being that in the three other suits, they have 26-4 = 22cards. So they must have at least an eight-card fit.

4.The Tables for Total Tricks: Partscore bidding:Example: competing in the majors at orange, no doubles, our

score:Tricks

Us Them If we bid If they bid:16 trumps: 7 9 2 -100 2 -140

3 -200 3 -140

8 8 2 +110 2 -1103 -100 3 -100

17 trumps: 8 9 2 +110 2 -1403 -100 3 -140

18 trumps: 8 10 2 +110 2 -1703 -100 3 -170

9 9 2 +140 2 -1403 +140 3 -140

Summary: It does not pay to bid three over three whenthere are 16 trumps, but it does when there are 17 ormore. So it pays to bid three over three when you have ninetrumps.

5. At all vulnerabilities except red it is sensible to bid tothe level of the number of your own trumps.i.e. with ten trumps bid four, with eleven trumps bid to the

five level.At red, downgrade one trick.

6. Other adjustments: increase by one trick for a double-fit.Downgrade by one trick for a slow trick in the enemy suit(QJx, J10xx or almost any four cards)

7. Conventions Developed from the Law: Pre-emptive Rais-es, Transfer Breaks, Support Doubles, Disciplined length inpre-empts.

Bidding Quiz

In all the examples below both sides in a team match areplaying a natural system based on four card majors, weak no-trump (12-14), weak twos (6 card suit, 6-10 points), and alldoubles shown are for take-out.You are South. LHO = LeftHand Opponent; RHO = Right Hand opponent.If vulnerability is not given, indicate whether your answer

depends on the vulnerability.

1. Game All. Dealer South

West North East SouthLHO Partner RHO You

1]1[ 2] 2[ ?

[ Q84 ] AK95 { KQ4 } J84

2. Love All. Dealer North.


1NT Pass 2}Dble(i) 2] 2NT (ii) Pass

3} Pass Pass ?

(i) Showing clubs(ii) Artificial way of showing better raise to 3}

[ J843 ] Q10543 { K32 } 4

3. Game All. Dealer South.


1{1] 1[ (i) 2] 2[ (ii)3] Pass Pass ?

(i) Five cards(ii) You have not discussed "support doubles"

[ K932 ] 3 { KQ532 } A82

Lecture ThreeThe Law of Total Tricks & Its Effect on Modern Bidding

by Patrick Jourdain

4. Love All. Dealer West.

West North East SouthLHO Partner RHO You1] 1[ 2{ (i) Pass

Pass Dble Pass ?

(i) Non-forcing

[ 4 ] KJ832 { 10762 } J104

5. Love All. Dealer South.


1{1] Dble (i) 2] 2[3] Pass Pass ?

(i) Four spades

[ KJ32 ] Q4 {AQ832 } K3

6. Dealer North.


1[ 2] ?

[ KQ8732 ] 84 { 732 } 96

7. Dealer West. Love All.


5} Dble Pass ?

[ A43 ] QJ1054 { 963 } 82

8. Dealer North. Love All.


2] 3} ?

[ A853 ] Q7 { Q103 } K832



1} Dble 4} ?

[ A1053 ] A32 { Q65 } K75


West North East SouthLHO Partner RHO YouPass 1[ Pass Pass2} 2] 3} ?

[ 10974 ] 74 { 86543 } 32

3

7th WORLD JUNIOR BRIDGE CAMP3 - 10 July 2006

11. Dealer South. Love All.


1{Pass 1[ Pass 2[Pass Pass 3] ?

[ 10642 ] 8 { AJ63 } AK75Problems 7-11 are taken from the book referred to in the

lecture notes.

Sports NewsWIMBLEDON TENNIS

In the semi-finals, Roger Federer (Switz)crushed Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) and RafaelNadal (Spain) defeated Marcos Baghdatis(Cyprus), Baghdatis having earlier eliminatedHewitt.In the Womens' semis, Mauresmo beat Shara-pova and Clijsters defeated Henin-Hardenne.

MLBThe All-star game is next Tuesday, with Nomar Garcia-

parra and A.J. Pierzynski have been added to the respectiveNL and AL squads. The Mets dominate the NationalLeague team, Boston and Chicago the American League.

NBAIt's been reported that the Chicago Bulls

have sent Tyson Chandler to the New Or-leans Hornets for PJ Brown and JR Smith.

TOUR DE FRANCEOscar Freire won a bunch sprint ahead of yellow jersey

holder Tom Boonen to win stage five. Robbie McEwenfrom Australia won stages two, four and six to wear thegreen jersey of the points leader. Germany's MatthiasKessler won stage three.Spaniard Alejandro Valverde pulled out after breaking his

collarbone.France's Jerome Pineau remains King of the Mountains.In the General Classification, Tom Boonen leads by 12

seconds from Robbie McEwen, with Aussie Michael Rogersthird.

GOLFB. Dredge and Sweden's N. Fasth lead the Eu-

ropean Open. Daniel Chopra leads from JoeOgilvie and Vijay Singh at the Western Open inIllinois.

CRICKET Michael Vaughan has been ruled out of the Ashes series

due to knee surgery, but his career is not over.

RUGBY LEAGUEA late try by Darren Lockyer helped

Queensland beat NSW 16-14 to clinch a 2-1series win.

4


Here are three hands from the first Pairs Tournament at theCamp.The camp attracts all types of players, from the relativebeginners to the world champions. This is one of bridge’sunique aspects - that world champions and newcomers canplay the game and enjoy themselves, with the newcomers hav-ing some chance of success on any given hand.As you might have expected, the bridge at the Camp varies

from world class to rather random. What is amazing is thatdespite the varied skill levels, from relative beginner to ex-pert, everyone has fun and enjoys the intellectual stimulationof the greatest game the world has so far devised.Twenty years ago, before Oswald Jacoby invented the Jacoby

2NT response, Board 7 would have been a very difficult slamto bid, because North needs to find out about South’s single-ton diamond opposite North’s three diamond losers. For abrief period about a decade ago, there was only one type ofJacoby 2NT bid, with South responding 3{ on gthis sort ofhand, to show a singleton. Nowadays there are several typesof responses to the 2NT raise. Let’s look at the SwedishWorld Champion and her Canadian partner Daniel Lavee.

Board 7. Dealer South. Both Vul.

[ A 4] A J 10 9 6{ J 8 7} A K 4

[ J 7 6 [ 9 5 3 2] 4 ] 8 7{ A Q 10 6 3 { K 9 4 2} 8 7 6 3 } J 9 5

[ K Q 10 8] K Q 6 3 2{ 5} Q 10 2

N

W E

S

West North East SouthSivelind Lavee

1]Pass 2NT Pass 3}Pass 3{ Pass 3[Pass 4NT Pass 5}Pass 6] All Pass

This was a remarkable feat of memory by Daniel Lavee. Hehad never heard of the Swedish version of the 2NT response,until Sara Sivelind taught it to him in 20 seconds. 2NT was alimit raise or better, 3} showed any minimum opening, 3{was an enquiry, 3[ showed a singleton diamond, 4NT was1430 Blackwood and 5} showed one key card. As Sara ex-plained: “Just basic Swedish Standard, in Sweden everyoneplays this way.” I would add:“No wonder the Swedes are thenew World Champions.”Fifteen year old Luke Gardiner from New Zealand and Joe

Mela from England bid the slam just as efficiently.

West North East SouthGardiner Mela

1]Pass 2NT Pass 4{Pass 4NT Pass 5{Pass 6] All Pass

Mela had gone through Gardiner’s system notes. 4{ showedthe singleton diamond, making it easy for Gardiner to visu-alise the slam. Plus 1430 was worth 69%.

West North East SouthLukotka Sigurdarson

1]Pass 2NT Pass 3{Pass 4NT Pass 5{Pass 6] All Pass

American or European Jacoby?by Peter Gill

Luke Gardiner, New Zealand

Daniel Lavee (Canada) & Sara Sivelind (Sweden)

I had to watch about ten tables before Robert Lukotka fromSlovakia and Johann Sigurdarson from Iceland produced theauction according to modern Scientific American , which I hadbeen waiting to see.Marios Kyranides from Cyprus simply responded 4NT to

1], avoiding the complications which might arise in scratchpartnerships.Could the experts maintain the high standard?

West North East SouthGrue Bar-Yossef

1]Pass 2NT Pass 3}Pass 3[ Pass 4{Pass 4NT Pass 5}Pass 6NT All Pass

The explanations to E/W began:Joe Grue:“3} showed a singleton club.”Israeli international Yotam Bar-Yossef:“No it didn’t”Joe:“Well our bidding has gone off the rails then.”See, it can happen to anyone. Grue was given a temporary

reprieve by a non-diamond lead, but after careful discardingwith both defenders retained all their spades as he cashed hiswinners, he had no clues to suggest departing from the bestpercentage play of finessing the spade ten, and thus wentdown two for a 1% score. It reminds me that in 1984 when Iplayed against super-expert Bill Root, he told me that in suchsituations he always simply took the best percentage play.Al-ways.The experts cannot see through the back of the cardson every hand; they can only do so when there are clues toguide them.

West North East SouthWortel Byrne

1]Pass 2NT Pass 3{Dble Pass Pass 4]

All PassAgainst established partnerships, such doubles usually give the

well-rehearsed partnership more space to exchange informa-tion. In Camp events however, such things as lead –directing

5


doubles have a better chance of success. Rising Dutch starMeike Wortel, who is in the 2006 Dutch Women’s Team, gave ita long think over 4] and perhaps decided that Michael Byrne’s4] must signify wasted values such as {Q or {K in a minimumor even sub-minimum hand. Youth players do open sub-mini-mums, don’t they? A 16% score for another pair of experts.I think that the time has come for a name change.When dis-

cussing system, perhaps you might say “American Jacoby” forthe 2NT response after which the opener bids singletons,Swedish Jacoby for Sara Sivelind’s complex variation, or Euro-pean Jacoby for some other variant in which the 3} responseshows a minimum hand.This should reduce the massive num-ber of partnership mix-ups I saw on Board 7. My apologies toall those pairs who were on different wavelengths in their re-sponses to 2NT but failed to get a mention in the Bulletin; butyou have to be a ‘famous’ expert to get your bad hands writ-ten up. 4441 hands can be difficult to bid.

Board 14. Dealer East. Nil Vul.

[ 10 7 6 4] A J 9 5{ K 7} K Q 8

[ Q 8 [ A J 9 3 ] 7 6 3 ] K 10 4 2{ A Q J 9 3 2 { 10} 9 6 } A 10 5 4

[ K 5 2] Q 8{ 8 6 5 4} J 7 3 2

West North East South1} Pass

1{ Dble Pass 1[2{ Pass 2] Pass3{ All Pass

N

W E

S

Joe Mela, England

Meike Wortel, Netherlands

6


Many pairs stopped safely in 2{ or 3{ and made nine tricksthere.All the Norths that I saw on lead to a diamond contractled a spade. On auctions such as this one where West clearlyhas six or seven diamonds, the 13 tricks will usually comefrom 6 or 7 trumps, three side aces, two side kings and one ortwo other trick.Thus, rather than lead “safely” from four smallin the unbid suit, I am convinced that attacking with }K is thebest lead. Now, if the defence switches to hearts in time, 2{may be held to eight tricks.The problem with leading the weaksuit is that declarer will often have shortage opposite dummy‘shigh spade cards, as on the actual hand. That way he gets todevelop discards for his slow heart or club losers.

West North East South1} Pass

1{ Dble Rdbl PassPass 1] Dble 1[2{ Pass 2NT Pass

3NT All PassThis auction started off very well for E/W but ended up

badly.West did well to pass the first time, but it was tough topass 1[ around to partner, then defend 1[X. Still, perhapsthat is the right thing to do.The redouble was a red-bloodedbid in true youth bridge traditions, and almost worked. 3NTfailed. My opinion of the rescue bid into 2NT is that it shouldremain anonymous.

West North East SouthChristiansen Berendregt Green Yener

1NT PassPass Dble All Pass

I had just watched two tables fail in 3NT, each by one trick..Personally I would never open 1NT with a small singleton,even if I were a youth player. I am not a purist, and have foundfrom trial and error that a singleton king in a 1NT openingoften turns out OK, a singleton queen sometimes turns outOK,, a singleton ace occasionally turns out OK, but my expe-rience is that 1NT with singleton jack or lower is a big loser.However my opinion is not that critical here; what matters

is what happened at the table The weak 1NT got hit, and.}3lead went to the queen, ducked. }K was won by the ace, {10played to the jack and Rosaline Berendregt’s king - it wouldnot have been a good time for a fancy duck – though oine cansee when that play might work! She continued with }8 at

heart three. Ben Green from England rose with ]K, thenplayed a spade to the king.The crucial }7 was cashed, thenRosaline overtook Yuval Yener’s ]Q with the ace, cashed thejack and scored plus 100. A strange hand, because 3NT byE/W made at some tables, but the only time a contract wasdoubled and defeated was an E/W 1NT contract.

Board 10. Dealer East.All Vul.

[] A K 6 5{ J 7 4} K 9 7 5 3 2

[ K J 9 8 5 4 [ Q 10 7 6 3] Q 7 ] 9 3{ 10 { Q 8 5} A Q 6 4 } J 10 3

[ A 2] J 10 8 4 2{ A K 9 6 3 2}

West North East SouthSivelind Lavee

Pass 1{1[ Dble 3[ 5]

Pass 5[ Pass 6}Pass 7] Pass PassDble All Pass

The Transatlantic dynamic duo continued to bid as if theyhad played together before.When Sara Sivelind cue bid her void, Daniel returned the

favour and the grand slam was reached. Perhaps it’s slightlyfortunate that ]Q drops. But the fact that E/W competedonly to the three level with 11trumps strongly suggests thathearts are 2-2, for with more shape they may have competedto a higher level.When Daniel bid 6}, he knew that the op-ponents had eleven spades and thus had the inference abouta friendly heart break..7] doubled making was worth only 97% on the Bridgemate

Scoring Device at the time, but we suspect it ended up as99%, even in a youth field. Sara and Daniel came 8th out of 80pairs with a 60% session.

N

W E

S

Ben Green, England

Rosaline Berendregt, Netherlands

7


After Midnight

Eyal Ben-Zhi, Israel

The bridge in the "after midnight" games at the Camp some-times takes on a surreal touch. On Monday night you werepassing your hand to the opponent, and this time in Tuesdaynight's point-a-board tournament, a knockout event with fiveboard matches, Eyal Ben-Zhi from Israel had a bit of fun.

Board 3. Dealer South. E/W Vul.

[ Q 10 8 6 5] K 8{ A J 5} A 9 4

[ J 3 2 [ A 7 ] Q 9 5 ] A 10 7 4 3{ K 10 8 { Q 9 4 3} 7 6 3 2 } J 5

[ K 9 4] J 6 2 { 7 6 2 } K Q 10 8

West North East SouthUna Owen Haring Arvidsson Ben-Zhi

1}Pass 1[ Pass 1NTPass 3NT All Pass

As Eyal Ben-Zhi explained, at a normal hour South wouldpass, but by the time you reach the semi-final of the late nightgame, passing isn't really an option, and at point-a-board scor-ing, the most you can lose is just one point on each board.Faced with an unattractive collection of rebids, 1NT was theleast horrible call, and the auction duly reached game, as usualin a late night game.

N

W E

S

West's choice of leads was as unappealing as South's choiceof rebids. ]5 emerged to the eight, ten and jack. [4 went tothe two, ten and ace and East had a problem. For a start,should one think at this hour of night? He gave it a try. He has11 HCP, dummy 14 HCP and declarer about 13 HCP. Thatleaves partner with about 2 HCP, most likely [J or [K, giventhat declarer did not lead [K or [J at Trick 2.Therefore it isa near certainty that declarer has ]Q. From 9652 partnerwould lead 2nd or 4th, not ]5, so partner surely has threesmall hearts, possibly with a spade or club entry. Further-more, there are blockage problems if West has ]Qxx.There-fore East has to lead back a small heart to dummy's king, play-ing declarer for ]QJx and retaining communications…When dummy's ]K won the third trick, Ben-Zhi almost fell

out of his seat in shock, trying to stop laughing. He soonclaimed 11 tricks. His nonsense opening bid had won theboard in a strange way, putting Ben-Zhi's team into the Final.Curiously, the presence of ]8 in dummy means that thehearts were blocked, and that West had to lead ]Q, ]9, {10or {8 to beat 3NT. Luckily for Ben-Zhi, about the only playerat the table with a taste for such weird leads and bids was sit-ting in the South seat.The Final was tied 2.5 all, and in the playoff board, Ben-Zhi

felt impelled to make yet another psychic bid, but two psy-ches is one too many, and lady luck decreed that the secondpsyche backfired, so that his team lost the Final.

Teams TournamentThe Teams Tournament this Saturday evening is a contin-

uation of yesterday’s event.Your team can have four, five orsix team members, but at most two can come from thesame country.

TUESDAYDeparture times, i.e. exact time and location from which

your flight or train leaves, should have been recorded onthe notice-board by Friday at 6pm. But it is not too late.

DO IT NOW!!

Attached to this bulletin is the voting form forthe WBF Youth Award. Please complete it and re-turn to one of the camp organizers.

LOST!If anyone has seen a

small blue bag containingmany vital papers, lost byone of the players, pleasehand it into the reception.

8


When the 1999 World Junior Teams had to be rearrangedfrom Colombia to the USA, Fort Lauderdale hosted theevent.The two top teams were clearly going to be Italy andUSA, with Israel and Denmark running close behind. Here aresome of the deals from the eventIn the round robin match between Denmark and Italy in the

World Junior Teams a textbook hand in suit preference sig-nalling came along. Unusually, it was the hand on lead makingthe suit preference signal rather than the hand following suit.

Dealer North. None Vul.

[ K 10 9] 10 9 8 3{ K 10 2} A 7 5

[ Q J 6 3 2 [ A 8] 6 5 ] K 7 2{ A 7 5 { Q 9 6 4} J 4 3 } 10 9 8 2

[ 7 5 4] A Q J 4{ J 8 3} K Q 6

West North East SouthPass Pass 1}

1[ Dbl Pass 2]Pass Pass 2[ PassPass Dbl Pass 3]

All PassMorten Madsen of Denmark as East thought long and hard

before pushing his opponents, with his call of Two Spades, andrightly so.The defence had seven tricks against that contract,but when North doubled a second time just to show cards,South rather illogically decided against trying to take thepenalty.The opening lead of the queen of spades held the trick. Now

Kaspar Konow as West deliberately set up dummy's ten ofspades by leading a suit-preference jack at the second trick,since he knew that his partner's delayed support was verylikely to be based on precisely a doubleton spade. Hence hehad to prepare the way for a spade ruff. Madsen as East wonhis ace perforce and duly led a diamond (the higher of theminor suits) in order to ensure he got his ruff.There was stillthe queen of diamonds coming to the defence for the settingtrick.Notice that if East plays a club after winning his ace of

spades, declarer gets in to draw trumps at once, and the de-fence lose their ruff.One of the signals that experts use very occasionally is

called the oddball, or alarm clock.The idea is that the sacri-fice of a high honour is used to wake up partner to the ideaof an unusual switch, frequently to obtain a ruff. On the dealthat follows from the World Junior Championships East and

N

W E

S

West managed precisely that feat, in a situation where in theabsence of such methods the defence would have been al-most impossible to find.

Dealer South. E/W Vul.

[ A J 10 3] 7 4 3 2{ 9 2} 9 8 6

[ K 8 7 5 2 [ –] 8 6 5 ] J{ A 5 { K Q 10 8 6 4 3} K J 5 } Q 10 7 3 2

[ Q 9 6 4] A K Q 10 9{ J 7} A 4

West North East South1]

1[ 3] 4{ 4]All Pass

Although Five Diamonds was laydown for E/W, it was verydifficult for East to appreciate this after his partner had over-called in spades – suggesting to him that the partnership as-sets might be better on defence than offence. Perhaps Westhas to bid Five Diamonds at his second turn. Still, at least onepair managed to find the right defence to their opponents'game to avoid adding insult to injury. Juan Carlos Castilla andJuanita Ochoa were the pair. Ochoa followed with the queenof diamonds under her partner's ace against Four Hearts,denying the king and suggesting that her partner wake up. JuanCarlos dutifully played a spade for down one.Well done!When Israel played Canada in the Round Robin of the

World Junior teams, they put together a set of virtually flaw-less bridge. Consider the following board where a potentialCanada gain vanished into the night.

Dealer North. None Vul.

[ K Q 9 7] K 2{ 9 3} A Q J 8 5

[ J 10 6 [ 8 5 4] 9 5 ] A 8 6 4{ A Q 10 6 5 { J 4} 4 3 2 } K 10 7 6

[ A 3 2] Q J 10 7 3{ K 8 7 2} 9

N

W E

S

N

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S

Fort Lauderdale 1999 – World Junior Teams

West North East SouthAmit Wolpert Zack Zeidenberg

1} Pass 1]Pass 1[ Pass 1NTPass 2NT Pass 3NT

All Pass

In the other room, when Israel held the North-South cards,they bid to 1NT after mentioning all their long suits. How-ever where Canada were North-South on the auction shownWolpert tried 2NT as North, perhaps because his team need-ed a swing, and Zeidenberg raised to game.The diamond leadto the jack gave Zeidenberg the chance for an excellent play– and he took his best chance, by ducking the jack. Back camea diamond, and Amit cashed his diamond winners – necessaryeven though it set up a diamond trick for declarer – and thatin turn allowed East to discard an encouraging club.Withoutthat clue both major suits might well have seemed to be pos-sible switches, in which case declarer has nine tricks, but Amittrusted his partner's signal and shifted to a club. Now the de-fence had a club and the ace of hearts to come.Well done,everyone – one down and 5 IMPs to Israel instead of 7IMPsthe other way.The match between Israel and USAII appeared to have scup-

pered the former's chances of qualifying, although in fact theymade it to the semi-finals when Chinese Taipei was disquali-fied for fielding an overage player. Chris Willenken of theAmerican team found a nice play here to pick up a gameswing.

Dealer West. Both Vul.

[ A J 10 5 3] Q 9 8{ 8 5 4} 10 8

[ 8 6 [ K Q 7 2] K 10 7 6 2 ] 5 4 3{ 10 6 { K 7 2} 9 6 3 2 } K Q 7

[ 9 4] A J{ A Q J 9 3} A J 5 4

West North East SouthPass Pass 1} 1NTPass 2] Pass 2[Pass 2NT Pass 3NT

All Pass

Both tables declared 3NT from the South seat on a transferauction, after East had opened One Club, and both Wests un-trustingly led a heart rather than a club.The Israeli declarertried to maximize his chances in hearts; he ducked in dummyand won the heart cheaply in hand.Then he used his entry totable by taking the ace of spades to finesse diamonds, andpressed on with that suit. But South could win his king of di-amonds to set up the hearts, with plenty of ways to regain thelead, and he still had a heart left to reach his partner, to setthe hand one trick.

N

W E

S

9


By contrast, at his table Chris Willenken as South focusedcorrectly on the problem of entries to dummy. He was pre-pared to sacrifice the slim chance of an extra heart trick tomaximize his chances of getting to dummy twice. He put upthe queen of hearts at the first trick, and when it held, he nowhad two entries to dummy to play diamonds for five tricks.That was enough for the contract.Counting is one of the most important exercises at bridge,

but sometimes you have to combine the exercise with a fairamount of inference and conjecture.

Dealer East. Both Vul.

[ J 8 7 2] K J 7 6 5{ A 7 3} 8

[ 5 3 [ 10] A 10 9 8 ] Q 4{ Q 6 4 { J 10 5 2} K 10 7 6 } A Q 9 5 4 3

[ A K Q 9 6 4] 3 2{ K 9 8} J 2

West North East SouthPass 1[

Pass 3} Dble 4[All Pass

In the semi-final match between Israel and Italy both tablesmade Four Spades, but the Italian declarer Mallardi had thetougher task. He reached Four Spades after the Israeli Easthad the chance to double an artificial club call. On a club leadto the ace and the accurate switch to the jack of diamonds,declarer won in hand and drew two rounds of trumps. Nowit looks to be a blind guess as to how to play the hearts, butthere were inferences from the fact that West had led a lowclub that he did not have two of the top three honours in thatsuit. Since East, a passed hand, apparently had six decent clubsto the ace and queen, and the jack of diamonds, he had noroom for the ace of hearts or he would have opened the bid-ding. So Mallardi led a heart to the king for his tenth trick.

N

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Chris Willenken, USA

10


The final of the World Junior teams turned out to be a wellplayed match in general.The following board turned out to bea victory for neither side, but it highlighted a difference be-tween the 'scientific' and the 'practical' approach.

Dealer North. N/S Vul.

[ K Q] Q 8 6 5{ 8 7 5} K 5 4 2

[ J 9 8 4 2 [ 10 6 5 3] J 10 7 2 ] K 9 4{ 3 2 { Q J 10} A 9 } 10 6 3

[ A 7] A 3{ A K 9 6 4} Q J 8 7

West North East SouthPass Pass 1{

Pass 1] Pass 2NTPass 3NT All Pass

Both tables played 3NT by North on a spade lead.Carmichael followed the routine line here by knocking outthe ace of clubs and winning the spade return to run theclubs. This would have squeezed a defender who held fivespades, the king of hearts and three diamonds. But it did notwork this time, since all West had to do was hold his spades,while East could let a spade go in comfort.At the other table D'Avossa by contrast found the remark-

able line of cashing both spades at the first two tricks beforeexiting with a club. This diabolical line works if the defencerectifies the count by cashing all their spades; now when de-clarer runs the clubs, East is squeezed in the red suits! ButWillenken as West could see this coming. He did excellentlyto play the jack of hearts at trick four instead of cashing thespades, and this defeated the hand since East had a spade dis-card he could afford on the run of the clubs.

N

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Mario d’Avossa, Italy

Answers to the Bidding Quiz

1. Trumps 8(7)+8: Pass. You have extra high-cards, butno shape. Let partner compete with extra trumps, if ap-propriate.

2. Trumps 9+9: Bid 3], since you know you have a nine-card fit and your opponents appear to have a nine-card fittoo.

3. 9+9 trumps: 3[.You cannot be sure your opponentshave nine trumps, but you know your side does, and youhave nothing wasted in hearts.

4. Trumps 7+8: Pass. Passing a penalty double with onlyfour bad trumps is scary, admittedly, but you have a goodlead – and nowhere to escape to!

5. Trumps 8+8/9: Pass. Contrast what you might bidwith [KQ32 and two small hearts.Then your pure valuesmight persuade you to compete to 3[ – breaking theLAW, but as we all know, the LAW is a supplement tojudgement not a replacement for it.

6. Trumps 10+8?: Bid 4[ at all vulnerabilities except red(and feeling cowardly) when you might bid only 3[.

7. Trumps 9+10: Pass.Again, no one could criticize a 5]bid unduly - it certainly might work. By contrast with}Qxx and ]AJ10xx your values would be far less trans-ferable and pass would be clearer.

8. Trumps 8+8: Pass.This one is very close to a 3] bid.The problem is that your }K may be worthless on offencebut a sure trick on defence. With a clearer club holding(say the ace, or your }K in another suit) bidding would bemore attractive.

9. Trumps 8+9: Double here to show extras, optional.Partner can bid if shapely, but if he passes you should goplus, with no game certain to make your way.

10. Trumps 9+9: 3[. You may be weak, but your trumplength (and potentially useful ruffing value) is as much aspartner has a right to expect.

11. Trumps 17 (But if partner has only 4 spades he has atmost 3 hearts or he would have responded 1]): so bid 3[.

Problems 7-11 are from Larry Cohen's “To Bid or Not toBid”.

The third pair game saw a consistent performance by theeditors (finishing 27th, 28th and 29th) with bragging rightsgoing to yours truly. But I can’t really take credit for anything.My partner, Sofia Ryman (who is getting very tired of tellingpeople that Jenny is her younger sister not her older sister)played very nicely. Most of the missed opportunities weremine…but not all of them. See what you think about the fol-lowing.

Board 18. Dealer East. N/S Vul.

[ A 10 7] Q 10 3 2{ A J 10 6} Q 8

[ 9 5 4 3 [ Q J] 7 4 ] K 9 8 6{ Q 5 4 3 { 9 8 7} J 7 3 } K 9 4 2

[ K 8 6 2] A J 5{ K 2} A 10 6 5

West North East SouthReps Ryman Green Rigal

Pass 1NTPass 2} Pass 2[Pass 3NT All Pass

Reps’ 3rd /5th lead of the {4 (I would have guessed to leada heart myself at Pairs) let me put in the {10 and hold thetrick, though there is a case for playing low from dummy attrick one I suppose, to free up the entry position. Now the]Q, covered all round let me lead a spade to the ten, a spec-tacularly unsuccessful play, but by no means an unreasonableone – it’s my article so I get to pass judgment on my ownplays.Back came a top heart, so I won in hand, tested spades to

find the bad news, then exited with the ]10 and anotherheart.This was the ending:

[ –] 2{ A J } Q 8

[ 9 [ –] – ] 8 { Q 5 { –} J 3 } K 9 4 2

[ 8] –{ –} A 10 6 5

N

W E

S

N

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11


On the last heart I pitched a club from hand, forcing West topitch a club, and thus bare his }J.When a club came back Iran it to my queen, cashed the {A pitching my spade, and re-peated the club finesse for 11 tricks.While I was proud of myself for my recovery, it occurred to

me that East had missed his chance for a coup: he had need-ed to exit with the }K at trick 10. that would have messedup the communications for the play in the club suit and heldme to ten tricks.The difference between 630 and 660 was al-most half a top.

Board 5. Dealer North N/S Vul.

[ A K 10 9 4] Q J 10 8{ Q 5} 10 4

[ Q J 6 2 [ 8 7] A ] K 9 7 5 3{ K J 8 6 4 2 { A 9 3} 5 2 } Q J 9

[ 5 3] 6 4 2{ 10 7} A K 8 7 6 3

West North East SouthNielsen Ryman Dower Rigal

1[ 2] Pass3{ All Pass

One of the keys to defence is to trust partner; on this deal,North’s lead of the [A gets an upside-down [3 from part-ner as declarer follows with a deceptive [6. nonethelessNorth can probably afford to cash the [K, and now South’s

N

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I Let My Chances Pass Me By…

JULY 5

Patrick Jourdain went for a walk onWednesday and saw large crowds at thechurches.

The reason is that Wednesday was aSlovak National Holiday, called St Cyriland St. Methodius Day. Born inThessaloniki in Greece, the brothers Cyriland Methodius devised the Glagolithicalphabet and arrived on 5 July 863 inGreat Moravia, where they wrote the firstSlavic Civil Code amongst other things.

12


[5 strongly suggests a doubleton.What now? Well, if Southcan’t beat the {9, a third round of spades will accomplishnothing, indeed it might even persuade declarer to find thetrump queen when otherwise he would have failed to do so.The key here is that if South could not beat the {9 he doesnot want a spade continuation – so should not encouragethe spade play!At the table a shift to the ]Q let declarer eventually pitch a

club and avoid a trump loser for +130. but if the defence con-tinue spades declarer will probably ruff with the {9. Southoverruffs and leads out three rounds of clubs.That looks as ifit will promote the {Q for down two, but in this position Eli-ran Argilazi held the damage to down 100 by ruffing high asWest, then ran the {J to avoid a second trump loser.Finally, my error, which I could attribute to a blind spot, but

that would perhaps be over-charitable. I reached 4] hereafter some absurd overbidding on my part, and now had toover-play it as well as over-bid it.

Board 13. Dealer North. Both Vul.

[ Q J 7] A Q 6 4{ K J 7 3} J 7

[ 6 4 3 2 [ A 9 8 5] K J 8 ] 9{ A 5 4 { Q 9 8 6 2} Q 9 3 } K 6 2

[ K 10] 10 7 5 3 2{ 10} A 10 8 5 4

N

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S

West North East SouthSinclair Ryman Doxiadis Rigal

1{ Pass 1]Pass 2] Pass 3}Pass 4] All Pass

Sinclair led a low spade to the ace and ten (I did not think Ishould unblock the [K or that might tip off the defence,though it would have made my life far easier.). Back came aclub and I elected to win in hand, cross to the ]A, take thediscard on [Q and lead a second club.West won the }Q andtried to cash the {A. at this point I ruffed a club and nowfound myself in dummy:

[ –] Q 6{ K J 7} –

[ 6 [ 9] K J ] –{ 5 4 { Q 9 8 6} – } –

[ –] 10 7 5{ –} 10 8

Were the hearts 2-2, or did West have the ]KJ? I’m not surethere are any clues, but I decided to cross to hand by ruffing adiamond and led a heart up.West alertly rose with the ]K andreturned a trump, locking me in dummy to concede a diamondat the death.The elegant way to make the hand is to play the{K and ruff a diamond, and now lead winning clubs.WhetherWest ruffs in or not he scores just one trump trick. Of coursethat line fails when the trumps are 2-2 with the doubleton kingonside – but at least that way I’d be able to have a story to tellmy children, how to lose two trump tricks with the mostfavourable lie possible! Going down one cost something like50 MPs, with a top 66. No wonder we did not win.

N

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Andrew Sinclair, Scotland

Lars Nielsen, Denmark

Joe Grue dropped in on the bulletin to provide us with animproved and expanded analysis on a deal written up by PeterGill – "Impossible!" you say?Grue was East defending 3[x, on a heart lead.

Board 10. Dealer East All Vul.

[ 7 4 3] 10 8 7 4 3{ K J 6} K 2

[ K 9 6 [ Q J] J 9 6 ] A K Q 5 2{ 10 7 4 2 { Q 8} J 8 6 } A 10 4 3

[ A 10 8 5 2]{ A 9 5 3} Q 9 7 5

West North East South1] 1[

2] 2[ 3} 3[Pass Pass Dble All Pass

West led ]6 to the queen, ruffed. Edgtton played }5 to theking and ace, Grue switching correctly to [Q which Edgttonwon with the ace.After cashing }Q and ruffing a club, Edgt-ton ruffed another heart.A diamond to the king allowed an-other heart ruff. Peter correctly describes this as an elope-ment - but it is an imperfect one.This is the position:

N

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S

13


[ 7 ] 10 8{ J 6} –

[ K 9 [ J] – ] A K{ 10 7 4 { Q} – } 10

[ 10] –{ A 9 5} 9

At the table when South played his last club, it was ruffed byWest's [9.West drew the opponents' trumps with the king,but had been reduced to leading diamonds, to declarer's ben-efit. 3[X was cold now, and when East chose to exit with{10, declarer made an overtrick for plus 930.The winning defence in this position is far from obvious –

but I think West should have found it. Given that East wouldsurely have shifted to a low trump from [Q10,West must ruffthe club high so that he can underlead in trumps to his part-ner – to cash two spades and set the contract!Let's revisit the deal after a heart lead ruffed, a club to the

}K and }A and a shift to the [Q. we win the [A, play }Qand ruff a club, then ruff a heart and now lead the fourth clubwithout crossing to the {K to ruff one more heart and short-en her trumps. West ruffs in and draws another round oftrumps, then plays the ]J to take out declarer's last trump.This time we have reached a four card ending with South andWest down to all diamonds, dummy with three diamonds anda losing heart, and East down to the doubleton {Q and twowinning hearts.To make the hand, declarer must play the kingand ace of diamonds, a line that succeeds if either the {Q or{10 falls doubleton, and perhaps the indicated line given East'sdouble of 3[.Taking the diamond finesse in the ending wouldlead to -500, however.

N

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3rd Pairs Tournamentby Barry Rigal

Joe Grue, USA

Nabil Edgtton, Australia

14


Rank Team Names Players VPs

1 Whatever 27 M. Rohrberg, J. Hop, D. Padon, D. Bilde 652 Los Dilettantos (39) K. Reps, G. de Tessieres, O. Bessis,A. Smirnov 633 Nyuszo B. Bozzai, S. Mikcik, S. Poulat, K. Lazar 604 Mexx I J. Fastenakels, R. van Mechelen, E. Sjöberg, M. Groenenboom, B. Drijver 575 Sweet Sixteen S. Ryman, J. Fournier, D. Banh,W. Somerville 576 Tre Kronor P. Franceschetti, M. Canonne, O. Lien, E.Arvidsson, K.Asplund 567 EEeEE S. Haring, E. Ben-Zvi, J. Larsen, R. Barendregt 568 Framany M.Würmseer, Q. Levoy,Y.Valo, D. Görtzen 569 U Sweit Aas J. Donn, B. Sörling,A. Greenberg,A. Paparo, G. Delle Cave 55

10 Black Mamba J. Grue, M. Karamanlis,A. Birman,T. Bessis 5411 Ring of fire M. Michielsen, D. Happer, B. Green, M.Wortel 5212 The beauties and the beasts L. Nielsen, M. Krogsgaard, C. Puillet, J. Carbonneaux 5213 Sara's boys S. Sivelind, E.Argelazi, D. Lavee,Y.Yener 5214 Team 29 A. Cohen, M. Stahlman, O. Cohen, M. Baronaite 5115 I crashed my car on the A. Sinclair,A.Wilkinson, S. Stockdale, B. Guyot 50

way here16 Sleep Walkers N. Rodwell, G. Hop, P. Molina, M.Athanasatou 5017 Auto A. Edgtton, N. R. Ege, M.Whibley,Y. Bar-Yosef 5018 Psychokwak D.Ancelin, M.Ticha,A. Lebatteux, D. Israeli 4719 Team 20 L.Tofte, N. Edgtton, J. Nielsen, L. Gardiner 4620 Team 31 J. Corry, R. Rubinstein,A. Helmich,T. Boekhorst 4621 Team 18 J. Mela, K. Dwyer, M. Byrne, L. Sorensen 4522 I sveikata M. Melin, R. Posochovas, M.Wortel, R. Nistor 4423 Una Faccia, Una Razza G.Trigeorgis, K. Doxiadis, M. Kyranides, I. Baroni,V.Vroustis 4424 McLaren Mercedes S. de Roos, G. Malisauskaite, E. Ginossar, R. Fellus, E.Toutenel,A. Borzi 4225 Team Name A. Dubay, R. Philipsen, C. Lazar, M. Balint 4126 The loco lunatics A. Morris,T. Kristensen, J. Feldman, L.T. Moller Pedersen 4027 Katrina and the Waves K. Lomas,A. J. Sorensen, S. Goltermann, B. Considine 3928 The cows H. Jonsdottir, C. Bruno, G. Gislason,V. Lau 3829 Higgs Fiels Boson I. Jones, E. Sieg, M. Mortensen, D. Chang 3730 Whatever 36 P. Gosney, M. Kemenova, R. Lukotka, J. Sigurdarson, G. Hauksson 3631 Ravioli R. Hadad, J. Fournier, I. H. Björnsdottir, G. Kristinsson 3532 Los Dilettantos (24) A. Pagani,T. Schoenfeldt, M. Melander, P. Jourdain, S. Back, B. Rigal 3533 Team 17 V. Broersen, M. Petersen,V. Nab, K.Ticha 3434 34 M. Hrinak,A. Darkadakis,V.Vidalat, R. Brady,A. Kunijanas 3335 19 E.Vatsolaki,A. Maugeri, E. Liekens, E. S. Kristbergsson 2836 Pinky + the Brains R. Connolly, K. Nash, B. van Beijsterveldt, M. Cory 2837 Horseradish S. Bech,V. Chubukov, S. Houlberg, J. Lin 2738 Team 22 E. Mayefsky, D. Synnott, R. Boyd, D. Recht 2539 Rubber ducks M. Sorensen,A. Price,T.Tromholt,A. Collura 15

TOURNAMENT RESULTSTEAMS – Part 1


WORLD BRIDGE FEDERATION

2006 WBF YOUTH AWARD

NOMINATION FORM

The WBF has established four awards to be made to participants at the Junior camps. These are not to begiven for performance at the Bridge table, but in order to reward attitude and diligence, international good willand sportsmanship.The winners of these awards earn the right for their country to have additional ex quotaand free places at the next junior camp. In order to decide who is to receive the 2006 awards, the Youth com-mittee invites all participants, officials and members of staff at the camp to make nominations.These must be inwriting, using this page. Please hand it to Stefan Back or Andrea Pagani or Thomas Schoenfeldt no later thanSunday noon.You can make nominations for any or all categories, but not for someone from your own coun-try. Please give your reasons, as the selection of the winners will be based on them.These awards are, we hope,quite an honour and not to be taken lightly. Since we use them for promotional publicity, please take them se-riously.

The undersigned (name, surname)..................................................................................................

of (country).........................................................................................................................................

wishes to nominate (name, surname).............................................................................................

of (country).........................................................................................................................................

to receive one of the 2006 WBF Youth Awards.

My reasons for the nomination are:

The nominator

(signed)......................................

(name).......................................

editors: barry rigal & peter gill – layout editor:akis ...db.worldbridge.org/bulletin/06_2...

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