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President:PATRICK D JOURDAIN8 Felin Wen, RhiwbinaCardiff CF14 6NW, WALES UK(44) 29 2062 [email protected]

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THE INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE PRESS ASSOCIATION

This Bulletin is published monthly and circulated to around 400 members of the InternationalBridge Press Association comprising the world’s leading journalists, authors and editors of news,books and articles about contract bridge, with an estimated readership of some 200 million people

who enjoy the most widely played of all card games.

Bulletin No. 570 July10, 2012

BULLETINwww.ibpa.com

Editor: John Carruthers

The jury for this year’s Master Point Press Book of the Year Award is: PatrickHuang, Taiwan; Fernando Lema, Argentina; David Morgan, Australia; Barry Rigal,USA; P.O. Sundelin, Sweden; Ron Tacchi, France; and Paul Thurston, Canada. Thisyear, our shortlist comprises six entertaining and instructive titles, three byprevious winners of the award, so it promises to be a closely-contendedaffair.

Bridge at the Edge: Boye Brogeland and David Bird. This book chroniclesBrogeland’s often quirky, always bold and most-often winning expoits at thebridge table. At 40 years of age, Brogeland has won two World Championships:a Bermuda Bowl and a World Junior Pairs and three European titles: an OpenTeams, a Mixed Teams and a Junior Teams, as well as scores of lesser events.David Bird has just passed Terence Reese as the most prolific bridge authorever, with something over 110 titles to his name, so this is a very strongpartnership. When reading this book, you’ll ask yourself many times, “How onearth did he know to do that?”

It’s All in the Game: Bob Ewen and Jeff Rubens. Bob Ewen wrote a terrific bookon opening leads about 40 years ago and Jeff Rubens is the prolific publisherand editor of The Bridge World, the foremost bridge magazine in the world.Subtitled The Fun Side Of Winning Bridge, this book is a bit of a departure forboth authors, presenting expert-level bridge as the serious, but at the sametime funny, game it is. They tell some of the funniest bridge stories aboutsome of the great ‘personalities’ of the game.

The Contested Auction: Roy Hughes. Hughes has been twice-nominated for theBOTY shortlist, winning in 2007 for Canada’s Bridge Warriors. His writing iscogent and literate and his analysis is thorough and astute. Now Hughes turnsto the theory and practice of competitive auctions, a critical component ofthe modern game. Beginning by establishing what the bidding system needsto accomplish, Hughes goes on to discuss every type of contested auction,and recommends useful methods and agreements from which the readercan select. This is a state-of-the-art discussion, covering many topics in detailthat have at best seen cursory treatment in print up to now.

The Deadly Defence Quiz Book: Wladyslaw Izdebski, Roman Krzemien and RonKlinger., the authors of last year’s nominated Deadly Defence, follow up with aquiz book so that one can assess how well the lessons of the first book have

Continued on page 24...

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Brian Senior, Nottingham, UK

Ram Soffer, Tel-Aviv, Israel

Patrick Jourdain, Cardiff, Wales

Micke Melander, Sundsbruck, Sweden

Mark Horton, Bath, UK

Jos Jacobs, Maarn, Netherlands

Herman De Wael, Wilrijk, Belgium

Maureen Dennison, Isleworth, UK

Ib Lundby, Aså, Denmark

That it was worth the wait seemed to be theconsensus of opinion about Dublin. The EBL scored agoal with the venue and hospitality of their hostsdespite the lateness of Ireland’s being chosen as thesite for the 51st Europeans.

For this edition, the Open field was divided into twosections, each of which played a round robin. Thenthe top nine teams from each section played a final,with each team playing the qualifiers from the othersections. Only scores against qualifying teams werecarried forward. The top six from this second roundrobin would qualify for the 2013 Bermuda Bowl inBali, Indonesia.

The top six in each of the Women’s and Seniors seriesalso qualified for Bali, but as there were fewer teamsin each of those than in the Open, a complete roundrobin was played in each series.

Open Teams Qualifying

RR1 Spain v Ukraine (BS)

Looking at the number of trumps in declarer’s hand,you might not imagine that it was possible for East tomake four hearts doubled by way of an endplay toavoid a trump loser, but that is what Spain’s MiguelGoncalves achieved on this deal - it helped his teamto a 20-10 VP win over Ukraine. He managed to catchjust the right dummy and layout. Of course, noteveryone bid the hand the way he did.

Board 17. Dealer North. Neither Vul.

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

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

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

West North East South

Corral Chumak Goncalves Rovyshyn— 1{ 4] DoubleAll Pass

Oleg Rovyshyn led a diamond, which Goncalves ruffed.He played the queen of spades. Rovyshyn won theace of spades and switched to his trump. It may seemeasy to play low from dummy but North will not putup the queen and now you will eventually lose a trumptrick as you cannot shorten yourself sufficiently oftenfor an endplay. Goncalves, however, called for dummy’sace, ruffed a diamond, then played king of spades andruffed a spade followed by a third diamond ruff.

Now came the decision point. Goncalves needed toendplay his opponents twice. If North held the spadenine, a spade exit would leave him endplayed to eithergive a ruff or lead from the king of clubs, and he couldlater be endplayed again with a club. But if South hadthe spade nine then a spade exit would only result inone endplay as South could exit with a club.

Goncalves judged that North might have bid fourspades rather than passed the double with a tenuoustrump holding if he held four spades, so judgedcorrectly to play ace and another club. North wonand gave a ruff and now a spade exit put South onplay to lead into the king-jack of hearts at trick twelve.That meant ten tricks for plus 590 and 12 IMPs toSpain — Gonzalo Goded played in three diamondsfor plus 130 in the other room.

RR2 Russia v Poland (RS)

Bridge is extremely popular in Poland, and their openteam is always a candidate for one of the top places.(Not to mention their youth and senior teams, and latelythe women as well. - Ed.)This time it is led by the famouspair Balicki-Zmudzinski. Russia have much less of abridge tradition, but they do have a very good team,capable of beating anyone on their day.

The two teams met in Round 2 of the Open Series.The following deal was a setback for Poland.

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Board 3. Dealer South. EW Vul.

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

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

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


Balicki Gromov Zmudzinski Dubinin— — — PassPass Pass 1NT Pass2{ Pass 2] Pass3NT All Pass

South led the jack of spades against the normal contactof three notrump, and declarer ducked North’s queen.At trick two, North continued spades; declarer wonand South signalled suit-preference with the three. Aheart was played to the nine and ten, and North dulyfound the strong switch of the jack of clubs.

Declarer could still have made it by winning the clubace and cashing the heart ace and four diamonds,finishing in hand, when South is strip-squeezed inspades and clubs. However, he played a diamond tothe ten and cashed the red aces. Now there was noway to make the contract and declarer ended up downtwo.

At the other table the Polish North switched to adiamond after winning the ten of hearts. Now declarerhad time to establish the hearts with the ace of clubsserving as a late entry.

Board 12. Dealer West. NS Vul.

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

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

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


Balicki Gromov Zmudzinski DubininPass Pass 1NT Double2} Pass 2{ Pass3{ Pass 3NT All Pass

Zmudzinski continued his desperate tries to get IMPsback, semi-psyching one notrump after two passes.Afterwards he could pass two clubs - the easy wayout - but he decided to bid on, knowing that threenotrump may be makeable. Balicki bid three diamonds,asking to pick a major, and trusted his partner’s threenotrump response. The natural lead of a small heartcould have set this, but Dubinin was afraid to lose acheap trick, and led the ace, crushing his partner’squeen. Now three notrump was a make, and it wasplus 400 to Poland. Zmudzinski’s tactics did work afterall.


KhiuppennenNarkiewicz Kholomeev BurasPass Pass 3NT Double4} Double Pass 4]Double 4[ Pass PassDouble All Pass

The Russian East opened a normal gambling threenotrump, but his partner couldn’t risk playing threenotrump doubled with queen-low in diamonds. Fourclubs should have been the final contract, but forsome inexplicable reason North decided to double.South thought his partner was showing points, andbid four hearts. West doubled joyfully, and the escapeattempt at four spades was no better. The details ofthe play may be spared. The final score was plus 1100to Russia, and Poland lost 12 IMPs where they couldhave gained 10.

RR4 England v Austria (BS)

Board 16. Dealer West. EW Vul.

[ K Q 6 4 2] K Q 8{ A 2} 6 4 2

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

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


Fucik Bakhshi Purkarthofer TownsendPass 1NT Pass 2{Pass 2] All Pass

England’s David Bakhshi opened one notrump andplayed in two hearts after a transfer response fromTom Townsend. Austria’s Gunther Purkarthofer led theeight of spades and Bakhshi won the ace then led tothe king and continued with the queen, ruffed andover-ruffed. Bakhshi led a diamond and won the acewhen Jan Fucik put in the king. A fourth spade wasruffed, East pitching a diamond, and declarer continued

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with a second diamond. Purkarthofer overtook hispartner’s jack to play another diamond, ruffed bydeclarer’s eight.

Now Bakhshi played the king of hearts to the ace andPurkarthofer switched to the three of clubs. Bakhshiwent up with the king, losing to the ace, and Fucikreturned the jack. This was the position:

[ 2] Q{ —} 6 4

[— [ —] J 5 ] —{ — { 9 8} J 10 } Q 9

[ —] 10 9{ —} 8 5

To defeat the contract, East had to overtake and allowWest to win the third club then lead his low heart tothe bare queen. When East failed to do so, he had towin the third club himself and lead a diamond at tricktwelve. When dummy ruffed with the nine, West hadlost his trump trick whether he overruffed or not.Granted, the defence could have done better, butBakhshi had pulled off that rarity, a Smother Play, tomake his contract.

RR4 Sweden v Israel (RS)

Board 8. Dealer West. Neither Vul.

[ 10 7] 10 9 5 4 2{ J 9} Q 10 7 4

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

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


Nyström O. Herbst Upmark I. Herbst2} Pass 2{ Pass2[ Pass 2NT Pass3{ Pass 3[ Pass4} Pass 4] Pass4NT Pass 5} Pass5NT Pass 6} Pass6{ Pass 7[ All Pass


Padon Fredin Birman Fallenius2} Pass 3} Pass3[ Pass 4] DoublePass Pass Redouble Pass4NT Pass 5} Pass5NT Pass 6} Pass7[ All Pass

There were a few subtle differences in the biddingafter both pairs opened with a strong two clubs. TheSwedes preferred a waiting two-diamond response,which gave them more bidding space. The Israelis useda positive-three club response, after which four heartswas a cuebid in support of spades. South’s double washelpful, giving East the chance to clarify his heartholding - redouble showed a first control. Both teamswere using identical responses to four notrump (whichare nowadays quite standard): five clubs showing oneor four 4 key cards and six clubs showing the clubking. Here, Nyström neatly bid six diamonds, askingfor third-round control in the suit, while Padonimmediately bid the grand slam. Both declarers wonthe trump lead in hand, played the ace-king of diamonds,ruffed their losing diamond, and claimed.

The board was also an honourable push in othermatches as well…

RR4 Iceland v France (BS)


Einarsson Rombaut Jorgensen Lorenzini2{ Pass 2] Pass3{ Pass 3[ Pass4} Pass 4] Pass4NT Pass 5{ Pass5NT Pass 6} Pass7[ All PassWest North East South

Quantin Ingimarsson Bompis Magnusson2} Pass 2[ Pass3[ Pass 4} Pass4{ Pass 4[ Pass5{ Pass 5] Pass6} Pass 7[ All Pass

Both East/West pairs did very well to bid to theexcellent grand slam which was missed at many tables.Einarsson’s two diamonds was either a weak two in amajor or game-forcing with a major, and two heartswas pass or correct. Now three diamonds showedthe game force with long spades plus a diamond suitand, after Jorgensen had shown spade preference,Einarsson drove to slam, discovering along the waythat his partner held one key card and the king ofclubs.

Quantin opened with a strong artificial two clubs andBompis made a control-showing response. After

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Bompis had shown his clubs then admitted to spadetolerance, an exchange of cuebids left him in a positionto jump to seven - Quantin had to have the top spadesand his six-club bid confirmed that the club king wouldbe a trick. Two quite different bidding methods hadmanaged to get East to be declarer.

Magnusson led the king of hearts against Bompis, whowon, unblocked the ace of clubs and played threerounds of diamonds, ruffed with the ten and over-ruffed. The heart loser went away on the king of clubsand Bompis had 13 tricks for plus 1510.

Lorenzini led a trump. Jorgensen won in dummy(West), cashed the ace of clubs and one top diamond,then crossed to the ace of hearts to take his heartpitch on the club king. Now he took his diamond ruffand was home when trumps were 3-2 for a flat board.

Also from the same match…

Board 9. Dealer North. EW Vul.

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

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

[ 3] Q 10 7 6{ 6 2} Q J 10 9 6 3


Einarsson Rombaut Jorgensen Lorenzini— 1{ 1[ DoubleRedouble 2NT Pass 3}Pass 3NT All PassWest North East South

Quantin Ingimarsson Bompis Magnusson— 1{ Pass 1]Pass 2[ Pass 2NTPass 3} All Pass

Jorgensen overcalled where Bompis did not andperhaps we should not be surprised that the East handdid not match a Frenchman’s idea of what a vulnerableovercall looks like. The overcall, combined withLorenzini’s negative double, added momentum to theNorth/South auction so that Rombaut was unwillingto stop short of game.

In the uncontested auction, Ingimarsson could jumpto show a strong but not necessarily game-forcinghand and now Magnusson requested that he bid threeclubs then, when he did so, passed. Against three clubs,Bompis cashed the king of clubs then switched to adiamond. There were ten tricks now for plus 130.

Jorgensen led a spade against three notrump andEinarsson won and returned the suit to the jack andqueen. Jorgensen continued with a third spade whiledummy pitched a diamond and a club and Einarsson aclub. Rombaut won the spade and ran the diamonds.This was the ending:

[ 9] A 9{ —} 5 2

[ — [ 6 5] J 8 4 ] K 5{ — { —} A 8 } K

[ —] Q 10{ —} Q J 10

Rombaut cashed the nine of spades, pitching a clubfrom dummy, and Einarsson threw a heart. Now camea club to the bare king and Jorgensen cashed the spadewinner. Dummy threw another club and, whenJorgensen now played the two of hearts, Rombautcalled for the queen and had his ninth trick for a well-played plus 400 and 7 IMPs to France.

RR6. Sweden v Spain (BS)

The Swedish Open team won its Round 6 matchagainst Spain by 24-6 VPs, but on this deal it was Spainwho gained an 11 IMP swing.

Board 14. Dealer East. Neither Vul.

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

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

[ K J 3] Q 5 2{ J 10 7 5} Q 9 2


Goded Fredin Vincent Fallenius— — 1} Pass1] 1[ 2[ DoublePass Pass 3] Pass4{ Pass 5] Pass6] All Pass

In the other room, Sweden stopped in game butGonzalo Goded and Hervé Vincent, for Spain, bid tothe small slam when Goded was willing to co-operatewith Vincent’s slam try with a four-diamond cuebid

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and now Vincent jumped to five hearts to ask for goodtrumps, which of course Goded could supply.

Peter Fredin led the five of spades, third and fifth, andGoded ruffed in dummy. There was a possible lineinvolving trying to ruff all four spades in dummy, butthat needed a lot of good fortune so Goded discountedit. Instead, he played ace, king and a third club, ruffingwith the four, then ruffed a spade. Fredin tried to hidethe spade layout by following with the seven, but theauction plus the fall of the jack strongly suggested theactual 6-3 split.

Goded crossed back to hand with the king of diamondsand took a third spade ruff then played ace, king andjack of hearts, pitching two diamonds from the dummy.Fallenius won the heart queen but was down to onlydiamonds so had to put dummy in to cash the clubwinners; plus 980 and 11 IMPs to Spain. The beauty ofGoded’s line was that it did not depend on the positionof the queen of trumps, merely that South hold anythree trumps or queen-doubleton, and only threespades. Neatly done.

RR7. Wales v Poland (PDJ)

Rested by sitting out Round 4, Team Wales followedwith a draw against Poland and a win over France. Inthe match against Poland, Gary and Dafydd Jones (afather and son combination) were the only pair ineither the Open or the Women’s to reach the rightspot on this deal:

Board 2. Dealer East. NS Vul.

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

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

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


Gary Dafydd— — 1} Pass1{ Pass 2[ Pass3{ Pass 3] Pass3[ Pass 4{ Pass4[ All Pass

The universally-popular contract was three notrump,sunk by a heart lead. When the defence were in withthe ace of spades, a heart continuation set up the suitand declarer had no ninth trick before the defenceenjoyed their hearts.

There might be a case for declarer winning the firstheart with the ace and trying to sneak through a lowdiamond to the queen. If that wins the extra entryallows declarer to take two club finesses and set upthe spades.

All that was academic when the Joneses reached fourspades. That proved a simple contract with 11 trickswhen the club finesse worked. That was worth 10IMPs and the draw.

RR7 Poland v France (MM)

Many pairs had difficulty getting the right hand to bedeclarer on Board 3 in Round 7 in the Open Series.For Zmudzinski/Balicki it was a walk in the park, bringinghome 12 IMPs to Poland in their match versus France.

Board 3. Dealer South. NS Vul.

[ A 9] A Q J 2{ 10 8 5} K 10 9 5

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

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


Quantin Narkiewicz Bompis Buras— — — Pass1{ Pass 1] Pass1[ Pass 2{1 Pass3{ Pass 3NT All Pass1. 4th suit forcingWest North East South

Zmudzinski Bessis Jr Balicki Bessis Sr— — — Pass1{ Pass 1] Pass1[ Pass 2{1 Pass2[2 Pass 3}3 Pass3NT4 All Pass1. 4th suit forcing2. 4 spades/5 diamonds, no full club stop, no

extra values3. Asks for partial club stop4. I am pleased to oblige

Bompis/Quantin´s first three bids were natural, thoughone diamond guaranteed at least a three-card suit. Twodiamonds was game forcing and asking for thedistribution, whereupon three diamonds showed 5-4-x-x.

In the other room, Zmudzinski/Balicki used the PolishClub, which has a natural diamond opening. Two spadesnow specifically showed 5-4-x-x without any extras

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or length and no full club stopper. Three clubs askedfor a stopper and three no trump then showed at leasthalf of a stopper; voilà, the contract was secured bythe right hand. It didn’t require a rocket scientist toseriously consider leading a club versus the threenotrump contract as the bidding had been.Zmudzinski’s two spades at their table left room forBalicki to explore and that was enough! Well done.

RR7 Denmark v Monaco (MH)

Thanks to BBO more than 3,000 kibitzers werefollowing my featured match.

Board 7. Dealer South. Both Vul.

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

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

[ K 7 4 3] 7{ A Q 4 2} A 10 4 2


Hagen Fantoni Konow Nunes— — — 1NT1

Pass 2} Pass 2[Pass 3NT All Pass1. 12-14, any balanced or semi-balanced hand,

including 5332, 5422, 4441, 6m332

West led the jack of diamonds and declarer won withthe ace and played a spade to the eight and nine. Thediamond return went to dummy’s king and declarerplayed a spade to the king and ace. West continuedwith the ten of diamonds and declarer won and playedanother spade. East won and switched to a heart anddeclarer won in dummy and played king of clubs, jackof clubs, plus 600 to North/South.

At the critical juncture, when West was in with thespade ace, it was clear that East held the spade queen.Thus, if declarer had held the heart jack, even ifsingleton, he’d taken a very odd line of play since playingon hearts would build at least two tricks in the suit, nomatter how the cards were distributed, and in theactual case, three tricks. Therefore, East must hold thejack of hearts and a shift to hearts would have broughtfive tricks to the defence.


Helgemo Schaltz Helness Blakset— — — 1{Pass 1] Pass 1[Pass 2NT All Pass

At the other table, Lars Blakset’s conservative actionwould have resulted in a 6-IMP pickup for Denmarkhad Hagen found the indicated heart play. Instead itwas10 IMPs to Monaco when Martin Schaltz madeeight tricks for plus 120.

Later in the same match…


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

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

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


Hagen Fantoni Konow Nunes— — — 1NT2{1 2[ 3] 3[All Pass1. Weak overcall in either major

East led the ace of hearts and continued the suit. Westwon with the queen and returned a club to the kingand ace. Declarer played a spade to the king and ace,won the club return and played a spade to the queen.When the jack fell he drew the last trump and claimed,plus 140.


Helgemo Schaltz Helness Blakset— — — 1NT2{1 2[ 2NT 3{Pass Pass 3NT All Pass1. Hearts, or spades and a minor

South led the king of diamonds and when that held,he switched to the five of spades for the three, tenand six. Now only one card in North’s hand is certainto defeat three notrump - the queen of clubs. Therewas no prompter on hand, and although North didswitch to a club, it was the six. Declarer played lowand South won with the jack and played the queen ofspades. Declarer won with the ace and cashed sixrounds of hearts. The last one forced South to barethe ace of clubs and he was thrown in, to lead intothe split diamond tenace, plus 600 and 12 IMPs toMonaco.

RR8 Austria v Monaco (BS)

How would you like your chances, as West, of makingsix hearts on this deal? North leads the seven of clubs,which you duck to South’s queen. South switches toa trump. Play on.

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[ J 9 6 5 4 2] J{ Q 10 7 2} 7 4

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

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


Multon Purkarthofer Zimmermann Fucik— — — Pass4] Pass 4NT Pass5] Pass 6] All Pass

Franck Multon faced the problem in Monaco’s Round8 match against Austria in the Open series. While ittakes a bit of seeing, the contract is now unbeatable asthere is a squeeze, in which South is put to the swordin three suits and North in two. (Yes, South shouldperhaps have worked out to shift to a spade to breakup the ending; as the cards lie, even a diamond issufficient to destroy the timing.)

Declarer drews trumps, North pitching spades, thenplayed a fourth round and South had to discard eithera spade or a diamond, leaving one of these two endings(this being the one achieved at the table):(A) [ J 9 6

] —{ Q 10 7 2} 4

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

[ K Q] —{ J 9 6 3} K 10

South had unguarded spades, so declarer cashed theace of clubs then played ace and ruffed a spade. Thelast two hearts now squeezed North. On the last heart,to keep his spade guard, North had to come down totwo diamonds. Dummy’s spade ten went away, and thenSouth was squeezed in the minors. If he kept the clubguard, the eight of diamonds would make the last trick.

This is the alternative position (see top of next column):

Here, if South throws a diamond, it obliges North forthe time being, to keep all four diamonds. On the nineof hearts, North throws the club and dummy a spade.South can pitch a spade now, but declarer continues

with a club to the ace, followed by three rounds ofdiamonds, ruffing in hand.(B) [ J 9 6

] —{ Q 10 7 2} 4

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

[ K Q 3] —{ J 9 6} K 10

Now the last heart is cashed and North, who threw aspade on the club ace, must come down to a singletonspade to keep his diamond guard. Away goes dummy’sdiamond and now South must also throw a spade tokeep the king of clubs. So the ten of spades wins trick13.

Multon thus earned his team a big swing. Yes, if Southswitches to either a spade or a diamond at trick twoone of the above possible endings is eliminated andcareful defence defeats the slam, but that does notdetract from Franck’s play.

(While South was contemplating his discard, declarerexplained the forthcoming squeeze to him and Southresponded blankly, ‘No squeeze!’ He knows better now.)

RR9. Hungary v Sweden (BS)

On Friday afternoon, Hungary and Sweden werescheduled to meet in the last match of the day. Swedenwere leading the field in group A, whereas Hungarywere having mixed fortunes so far in their pursuit ofqualification. So they certainly could not afford a bigloss in this match. However, on the first board, theSwedes dealt them a severe blow:


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

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

[ Q 5] 10 6 5 4 3{ J 6 3 2} 10 7


Fredin Homonnay Fallenius Winkler— Pass 1{ Pass1NT 4} Pass Pass4] All Pass

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Over the natural one diamond, one notrump was a15-plus game-forcing relay. After four clubs, Fredinfound a practical solution for his nasty problem: hisfour-heart bid proved to be a quite playable spot, inspite of the 5-1 trump break. When North cashedtwo top clubs and exited with his singleton diamond,Fredin could win in hand and now, knowing that Southwould be out of clubs, draw all the trumps, giving Southhis trump trick before taking the remainder of thetricks. Sweden plus 420. Even on a neutral shift at trickthree, the contract can be made, as was shown atseveral other tables in play. You win the spade return,cash the heart king and, noting the fall of the jack, playa trump to your nine…


Lakatos Sylvan Szilágyi Wrang— 1} 1{ Double1] 2} Pass Pass3} Pass 3[ Pass4[ All Pass

When North opened and rebid his clubs, East/Westhad much more bidding space left for themselves sothey were able to locate a playable 4-3 spade fit. Asthere were no losers in the side suits, apart from thetwo top clubs, the club continuation at trick three bySylvan immediately sank the contract. Down two,another plus 100 to Sweden and 11 IMPs.

RR9 Israel v Lithuania (BS)

Israel’s Lotan Fisher played safely (and well) to ensurea handy swing to his team on this deal from Round 9of the Open.


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

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

[ 10] 10 9{ 9 8 6 3} A J 8 5 3 2


Olanski Schwartz Vainikonis Fisher— — — 3}Double All Pass

Fisher opened three clubs with the South cards andwas left to play there doubled. Wojtek Olanski cashedthe king and ace of hearts, the ace of spades and aceof diamonds, collecting count signals from VytautasVainikonis. Having cashed all the possible non-trump

winners, Olanski continued with a heart, giving a ruffand discard. Fisher looked for the best way to ensureonly two down. His solution was to ruff with dummy’sfour then underruff with the two, cash the threewinners in dummy and ruff a diamond before exitingwith a low club.

Whatever the club position, he was now assured ofmaking the ace and jack of clubs in the ending; downtwo for minus 300, but 8 IMPs to Israel as Dror Padonand Alon Birman bid and made the vulnerable heartgame in the other room.

RR10 Monaco v Russia (MM)


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

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

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


Khiuppenen Helness Kholomeev Helgemo— — 2[ 3]Pass 3[ Pass 4]All PassWest North East South

Nunes Gromov Fantoni Dubinin— — Pass 1]Pass 2} 2[ PassPass 2NT Pass 3}Pass 3NT All Pass

Gromov had nine top tricks and an easy ride in threenotrump. Fantoni led a spade, which went to the four,king and ace. Eight red winners followed, leavingGromov in the dummy when Fantoni was down toqueen-ten-third in spades and the ace of clubs.Gromov called for a low club which ran to Fantoni´sace, who could now only cash his queen of spadesand exit in the suit, for eleven tricks to Russia.

At the other table, Helgemo became declarer in fourhearts. That was a far more complicated contract toplay, since there only where nine winners, hearts werebreaking 4-1, and the clubs were wrongly placed.Khiuppenen started with the king of spades, won byHelgemo in dummy. Four rounds of trump followed,on which dummy parted with a club on the fourthround, while East threw two spades and the nine ofdiamonds on the last one. This left the following:

10

[ J 2] —{ —} K 9 4

[ 3 [ Q 10] — ] —{ 10 { —} J 8 7 } A Q 10

[ 9] 9{ —} 6 5 3

Helgemo now threw East in by running the nine ofspades to the ten. Kholomeev then cashed his queenof spades where Helgemo simply discarded a club.With no exit cards left for East, Helgemo simply hadto get a club and a trump trick to score his contract.Nicely saved by Helgemo, given that they didn’t manageto get to the best contract on the board.

RR10 Poland v England (BS)


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

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

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

Both Easts opened a strong notrump and declaredsix notrump on a spade lead. Balicki received the leadof the seven of spades. He won in dummy, cashed thetop diamonds and top spades, then tried to split theclubs. Though the missing heart honours were bothonside, it was too late to attempt to establish a hearttrick as South had a club to cash when in with theheart ace; down one for minus 50.

For England, David Gold received the lead of the fourof spades, low from an even number. He won the aceand played the jack of clubs followed by a second club,seeing North discard a discouraging heart. Obviously,the signal need not be honest, but a heart pitch willnot all that often be from the queen here, so Gold’snext play was a heart to the ten.

When the heart ten won, Gold played the ace ofdiamonds and a diamond to the king to see if the jackwould put in an appearance. When it did not, hecashed the two club winners, throwing both heartsfrom dummy. North threw a spade and his last heartand Gold read the ending accurately. He cashed the

queen of diamonds, crossed to the king of spades andexited with the diamond ten to North’s jack, endplayinghim to lead into the queen-ten of spades at the end.Nicely done.

RR13 Bulgaria v Italy (JJ)

In Group A of the Open Series, two top matches werescheduled for Monday morning: Bulgaria v. Italy, theclash between the current leaders, and Turkey v.Sweden, lying third and fifth respectively. Right on theopening board, there was a game swing in bothmatches.


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

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

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


Versace Mihov Lauria Karakolev— 1} Pass 1]Pass 2{ Pass 3}Pass 3NT All Pass

Against this auction, Lauria made an interesting openinglead: the queen of clubs. This had a devastating effecton declarer who decided to play low from dummy.When Lauria continued with a low club, dummy playedlow again so Versace won his king and led a diamondto declarer’s jack and East’s king. Lauria then simplyplayed on diamonds so the contract had to fail asdeclarer could never come to nine tricks any more.Italy plus 50.


Aronov Bocchi Stefanov Madala— 1{ Pass 1]Pass 1[ Pass 1NTPass 2NT Pass 3NTAll Pass

With South declarer, on a spade lead, the defenderswere in a worse position than at the other table. Westled a spade to East’s queen and East returned the suit.Declarer now crossed to the ace of hearts for thefirst club finesse, which lost to West’s king when Eastfailed to insert the queen. As the ace of diamonds wasthe entry for cashing the remaining two top spadesand taking the second club finesse, nine tricks and plus400 to Italy was the outcome.

On the same deal…

11

RR13 Poland v Netherlands (MM)


Verhees Narkiewicz van Prooijen Buras— 1{ Pass 1]Pass 1[ Pass 1NTPass 2NT Pass 3NTAll Pass


Zmudzinski de Wijs Balicki Muller— 1} Pass 1[Pass 1NT Pass 2}Pass 2{ Pass 2[Pass 2NT Pass 3]Pass 3NT All Pass

Both tables got to three notrump, but de Wijs in theclosed room was declarer from the “right hand” wherethe contract actually always can make regardless ofhow the defence play. De Wijs received a heart lead,which went to the ace. A club to dummy’s jack andWest’s king followed.

Zmudzinski now returned the two of diamonds, lowfrom declarer and eight from Balicki, who then playedthe king of diamonds, dummy parting with a heart andboth other players playing low. Balicki went into thetank and, after a long thought, continued with thequeen of spades, which effectively removed one ofthe entries between the hands for declarer. It reallydidn’t matter that it set up a trick in dummy, since ifdeclarer used it, he had to overtake the jack of spadeswith the king.

De Wijs had so far lost three tricks. He now playedthe ace of diamonds in an attempt to see if the queenwould fall, when it didn’t he finessed in clubs and couldcash his eight tricks but had to lose two more sincehe had cashed the ace of diamonds. One down.

At the other table Buras was declaring in South; healso got a small heart lead (the nine of diamonds wouldhave been killing, but double dummy). Buras continuedwith a club to dummy´s jack and West´s king. Verheesnow returned a small spade which ran to East´s queen.Van Prooijen then played the ten of hearts, not beingable to see how the suit was distributed and that wasall declarer needed.

Verhees won with the king of hearts and realized thathe had to attack diamonds and returned the two. ButBuras jumped up with his ace and could claim theremaining tricks when the queen of clubs was withEast and he took a second finesse in the suit. Ten IMPsto Poland.

RR14 Belgium v Germany (HDW)

Eric Debus of Belgium was proud of his action-producing double on this board from round 14:


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

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

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


Debus Fritsche Van Mechelen Rohowsky3} Double 5} 6{Double 6] Pass 6[All Pass

Three clubs showed an eight-card pre-empt in clubs.This allowed Rutger Van Mechelen to jump to the five-level. Since most pairs have abandoned the four clubsopening to a Namyats heart pre-empt, the Belgianswere a little in front on this bidding.

Eric’s double on the next round indicated that hewould be willing to defend at the seven-level, but whenRutger failed to co-operate, he had to switch tactics.

The club support made the lead of the club three lessof a gamble, and Rutger had no trouble finding thediamond return for one off.

Incidentally, nine declarers made six spades, while onlytwo other players in South suffered the three of clubslead and went down. Four more declarers played sixspades from North (some of them doubled), but theyall went down after the lead of a diamond. Only fivepairs went all the way to seven clubs, for scoresbetween -500 and -1100.

Round Robin Qualifiers for the Final

Group A

Rank Team VPs

1 Italy 3202 Israel 3093 Bulgaria 3054 Sweden 2995 Germany 292.56 Turkey 2837 Ireland 2748 Greece 2739 Norway 270.5

Group B

Rank Team VPs

1 Monaco 3402 England 2973 Russia 2964 Poland 287

Continued onpage 14...

12

IBPA Column ServiceTim Bourke, Canberra

Members may use these deals as they wish, without attributing the author or IBPA.

621. Dealer South. EW Vul.

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

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

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


— — — 1]1[ 2] Pass 4]All Pass

West led the queen of spades. Declarer took this inhand with the ace, drew trumps and then played theking of clubs. East won this with the ace and, seeinglittle future in spades, shifted to the ten of diamonds.Now there was no way for declarer to avoid the lossof three diamond tricks.

“A slightly better plan would have seen you home,”said North. “After winning the ace of spades, youshould have continued with the king and nine ofspades, throwing the king of clubs from hand. Westwins the third round of spades. Suppose he exits witha trump. You will win in hand and then cross to dummywith a trump to the ten to lead the queen of clubs.You will make two spades, six trumps and two clubs.This could only go wrong if East had been dealt threespades to the ten or could ruff the third spade.”

“Alternatively, you could duck the first spade, planningto discard the club king on the spade king later.Although West could foil this plan by shifting to a club,it would require second sight for him to do so. Thisplan could also fail if East had only two spades andthree or four hearts”

622. This deal occurred in a local nine-table duplicate.Usually, West led the seven of clubs, East winning withthe king and continuing with the ace.

Dealer South. EW Vul.

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

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

[ A K Q 8 6 4] A 4{ K Q 8 4} 9


— — — 1[Pass 1NT Pass 3{Pass 3[ Pass 4[All Pass

The seven unsuccessful declarers all ruffed the secondclub and continued with the ace-king of diamondsfollowed by the eight of diamonds, planning to ruff itin dummy. However, the relevant Wests produced thejack of trumps and played a third round of clubs. WhenWest discarded on the first round of trumps, theunsuccessful declarers could not believe theirmisfortune when East turned up with a trump trick.

The two successful declarers made the simple, cost-nothing, play of cashing the ace of trumps beforetackling diamonds. They were able to score theirdiamond ruff in addition to five trumps, the ace ofhearts and the three top diamonds.

623. Dealer North. Both Vul.

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

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

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

13


— 1} 1{ 1]Pass 2] Pass 4]All Pass

Most players avoid Moysian fits, probably because theylack the confidence to manage them. On this occasion,an expert declarer showed how to succeed after Westled the three of diamonds to East’s queen and Eastshifted to the queen of spades.

The declarer took this with the ace and counted histricks; three trumps, five clubs and two spades. Playingthe three top trumps would bring the contract homewith an overtrick if the suit broke 3-3. However, as a4-2 break will occur about half the time, declarerdecided to protect against such a division. He playedthe ace of trumps followed by the five of trumps -this protected against further diamond plays by thedefence. As a result, he was able to win the spade return,draw trumps and throw two losers from hand on theclubs.

624. Dealer South. Both Vul.

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

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

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


— — — 1NTPass 6NT All Pass

West led the queen of diamonds and, after dummywent down, declarer counted ten top tricks. Thecontract depended on making four tricks in spades.Some might know the best play in spades frommemory but most will have to work it out at the table.

Things would be easy if spades break 3-2. So declarerlooked at how to manage the 4-1 breaks. Playing theking of spades first would fail spectacularly if Westbegan with a singleton in the suit. On the other handif East began with a singleton, he would succeed bynext leading a spade towards dummy and coveringWest’s card. So, that line offered a 50-50 chance onthe 4-1 breaks..

Declarer saw that cashing the ace first would be nobetter; he would succeed against single queen or jackwith East (by continuing with the king and then lowto the 10) and also against single queen, jack or ninewith West, by leading a low spade from dummy and

covering East’s card. This still wins against only five ofthe ten possible 4-1 breaks,

“What about leading a low card from hand, intendingto run it if West follows low?” was the declarer’s nextthought. “It loses only to a singleton nine offside and asingleton five or two onside. So it succeeds in sevencases out of ten of the 4-1 breaks!”

When West covered the seven of spades with thequeen, declarer called for dummy’s ace. Next he led alow spade from dummy intending to cover East’s card.No matter what East chose to do, declarer wouldmake four spade tricks and his contract.

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14

5 Netherlands 281 Switzerland 2817 France 2698 Romania 2689 Iceland 255

Open Teams Final

RR18 (F1) Ireland v. Russia (JJ)

In the first round of the finals, the host country hadto face Russia. The local supporters were hoping thattheir favourites, placed 14th in the new table, woulddo well against 5th-placed Russians. On the first board,we saw some sparkling defence:


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

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

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


Rudakov Hanlon Khokhlov McGann— Pass Pass 1}Double Pass 1{1 Pass1NT Pass 2} Pass2] Pass 4] All Pass1. Negative

The Russians easily reached the normal contract,against which McGann led his top spades. When hecontinued with another spade, dummy had to ruff high.Declarer now crossed to his hand with the king ofclubs and led a heart up to dummy’s queen, whichheld the trick. This was the position:

[ —] 8{ 10 7 6} Q J 6 4

[ — [ Q 10] J 3 ] 10 6 5{ A K J 8 5 { 3} A } 8 3

[ 6] A 9{ Q 9 4 2} 10

Khokhlov’s next move was a low heart from dummy.When North followed suit with the eight, declarer

played low, hoping for the ace to come down doubleton.When South won the trick with his nine, the contractwas one down. Had North had three hearts ratherthan South, which seems with the odds, Khokhlov’splay would have been the winner. Ireland plus 50.

The same contract was easily reached in the otherroom as well:


Carroll Khiuppenen Garvey Kholomeev— 3} Pass PassDouble Pass 3[ Pass3NT Pass 4] All Pass

South led a top spade but shifted to a club at tricktwo. Declarer won dummy’s ace and led a top heart.When South immediately took his ace and persistedwith clubs, declarer’s problems were soon over. Irelandplus 420 and 10 IMPs.

RR18 (F1) Norway v Monaco (RS)

A few rounds before the end of the preliminary stage,Norway were on the brink of elimination, but a verystrong finish helped them to reach the top nine inGroup A after all. As a reward, straightaway they hadto meet the leaders, Monaco, including of course twoof their former teammates. In the Open Room,Helgemo-Helness played against Hoftaniska-Charlsen.

Board 14. Dealer East. Neither Vul

[ 10 6 5] 3{ J 10 5 2} Q 9 6 5 2

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

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


Helgemo Hoftaniska Helness Charlsen— — 1{ 1[Double 2[ 3] Pass4] Pass Pass DoubleAll Pass

Charlsen led the ace of spades and followed up with asmall spade(!), taken by declarer’s queen. Actually thisdidn’t cost the defenders a trick, since declarer had toruff the third spade and he was no longer able to catchthe jack of hearts. Still, it made it a bit easier for declarer.

Helness played the ace of clubs, ruffed a spade, cashedthe king of hearts and led a club, won by South’s king.The following position had been reached:

15

[ —] —{ J 10 5 2} Q 9 6

[ — [ —] Q 8 ] A 10 7{ A Q 9 { K 8 4 3} 10 8 } —

[ 8 2] J 9 2{ 7 6} —

South is on lead, and there is no winning defence. Adiamond lead looks best. Declarer wins in dummy andruffs a club. If South over-ruffs and leads a trump,declarer just draws trumps and North is squeezed inthe minors. Instead, South can discard his last diamond,but to no avail. Declarer leads a small diamond, and hehas to be careful and play the ace when South ruffs.Now a spade return allows declarer to take the restby a cross-ruff, while a trump return exposes Northonce again to the minor-suit squeeze.

At the other table, Brogeland-Nybo stopped in threehearts - 10 IMPs to Monaco.

RR19 (F2) Italy v Netherlands (JJ)

The top-of-the-bill match in Round 2 of the finals wasundoubtedly the encounter between Italy andNetherlands. On Board 7, we saw a clear difference instyle between the two teams, which immediately ledto a big swing:


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

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

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


Verhees Bocchi Van Prooijen Madala— — — PassPass 1[ All Pass

From a theoretical viewpoint, opening one spade inthird position on the North hand is quite okay. Youwon’t score many points by doing so, however, if thelayout is friendly and partner cannot invent a response.This was Bocchi’s fate. Club to the ace, heart back todeclarer’s ace, spades from the top and the jack ofhearts quickly meant ten tricks. Italy plus 170.


Duboin Drijver Sementa Brink— — — PassPass 4[ All Pass

Drijver took the bull by the horns when he openedfour spades third in hand. When Sementa led the sevenof hearts, the contract was in great danger afterdummy’s nine held the trick: a genuine Greek gift asthis provided dummy with an entry for Drijver to takea losing trump finesse.

East won the spade queen and returned the three ofhearts for his partner to ruff, Duboin read this as asuggestion/request to return a low club for anotherheart ruff. When West did return a low club, Drijverwon a surprise stiff king and proceeded to rattle offall his trumps, squeezing East in three suits.

Sementa suffered the additional indignity of beingforced to part with all his clubs in order to hold on tohis the king-ten of hearts and the ace of diamonds. Attrick 11, he then was thrown in with his diamond aceto lead away from his king of hearts and thus presentdeclarer with his contract. A spectacular performanceindeed! Plus 620 and 10 juicy IMPs.

RR19 (F2) Germany v England (MH)

Board 11. Dealer South. Neither Vul.

[ A J 10 7] J 9 2{ Q 9 6 5} J 7

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

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


Smirnov Forrester Piekarek Gold— — — PassPass Pass 1}1 Pass1[2 Pass 2{3 Pass2] Pass 3NT All Pass1. Natural; 11-14 HCP balanced; any 18+ HCP2. 7+ HCP; (3)4+ spades, may have five-card

minor3. 16+ HCP - relay with 3+ spades, game-forcing

South led the five of clubs and declarer won withdummy’s ace and ran the jack of diamonds to South’sace. Gold switched to the six of hearts and declarerducked North’s jack, won the club switch and playedon hearts, cashing three winners when the suit divided,South discarding a club and North a diamond. Declarercashed the king and queen of clubs and played the

16

king of diamonds and a diamond, endplaying Northfor a well deserved plus 400.

RR20 (F3) England v Bulgaria (BS)

Board 19 of the Open Final Round 3 was passed outat several tables but not in England v Bulgaria.


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

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

[ A 10 9 8 7] 6 5{ Q 10 6} A 5 2


Aronov Gold Stefanov Forrester— — — 1[Pass 2[ All Pass

In the other room, Mihov/Karakolev got to threespades on the North/South cards and, on a trumplead, had an easy route to nine tricks for 140. WhenTony Forrester opened one spade for England, DavidGold was alive to the fact that the partnership style isto open very light. He judged very well that aconstructive two-spade raise was sufficient on his 11-count, and that ended the auction.

There would be no story had Victor Aronov foundthe same trump lead as in the other room, but hefound the much more effective lead of a low diamond.Julian Stefanov won the ace and returned a diamondand Aronov led a third round for him to ruff, giving asuit-preference signal as is normal, of course.

Stefanov duly continued the good work byunderleading his ace of hearts to Aronov’s king andnow the defence was able to ruff out dummy’s fourthdiamond, eliminating a crucial trick for declarer.Forrester over-ruffed and could see that there wasan unavoidable club loser - the heart ace was surelyon his right as Aronov would never have led fromking-to-four diamonds if also holding both the ace andking of hearts.

There was only one hope, a misdefence (or a wrongview, being generous). Forrester crossed to the kingof spades and led the heart nine off the dummy andStefanov spoiled what had been a top-class defenceup to then by rising with the ace. Now Forrester hada discard for his club loser and the contract was homefor plus 110 and just 1 IMP to Bulgaria instead of 5IMPs.

RR22 (F5) Germany v Russia (JJ)

This was board 14 in Round 5 of the Open SeriesFinals:

Board 14. Dealer East. Neither Vul.

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

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

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

Gromov-Dubinin had bid four spades and made 11tricks for a score of plus 450 to them. In the ClosedRoom, the Germans had higher aspirations…


Khiuppenen Fritsche Kholomeev Rohowsky— — 2} 2[Pass 3{ Pass 3NTPass 4} Pass 4{Pass 4NT Pass 5{Pass 6] All Pass

Two clubs had shown a weak two in diamonds andEast led the diamond king. Jörg Fritsche won dummy’sace and started playing off his trumps. On thepenultimate trump, West was already in trouble. Hecould not discard any of his clubs so he had to throweither his last diamond or a spade. As he threw a spadeand thus held on to his diamond, the rest was relativelyeasy: club king, club to the jack, club ace for a diamonddiscard, then a spade from dummy to pick up the suitfor one loser.

[ Q 8 6] 7 6{ 10} K 6

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

[ K 9 7 4] —{ —} A J 9 7

Had West instead thrown a diamond on the fifth trump,the last trump would have finished him off as he thenwould have had to part with a black card. After that,declarer either has an extra club trick to get rid of hissecond spade loser, or he can establish the spades forjust one loser.

17

The backroom analysts were discussing whether therewas any defence to the slam. A spade lead appears todisrupt the timing for the squeeze. Not so; declarerputs up the king! Now West must win or the contractis easy, and after that the play devolves into a simpleblack-suit squeeze on West.

RR23 (F6) England v Italy (MH)

On this deal from Round 6 of the Open Final, it was aquestion of whether declarer or the defenders couldmost-effectively negotiate this deal in slam…

Board 5. Dealer North. NS Vul.

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

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

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


Gold Bocchi Forrester Madala— Pass 1}1 Pass1] Pass 1NT Pass2{ Pass 2[ Pass4NT Pass 5NT Pass6[ Pass 6NT All Pass1. 1+}, 11-13 balanced;

2+}, 17-19 balanced;2+}, (10)11+ unbalanced;4+}, 10-15 4-4-4-1

South led the three of diamonds and when declarerplayed low from dummy North put in the nine ofdiamonds. When that held, he switched to the jack ofclubs – he cannot lead a diamond without isolatingthe menace.

Declarer won with the ace and cashed four roundsof hearts, discarding a diamond and a club as Southpitched his minor suit sevens. Now declarer came tohand with a club and went back to dummy with aspade to cash the last heart. This was the criticalmoment. North had to throw a diamond in order tokeep the spades under control. If declarer takes theview that spades are not breaking and throws oneaway South can happily release a club, but then tworounds of spades ending in declarer’s hand completea classic non- simultaneous double squeeze. However,that is by no means the only layout on which declarerwill prevail, but catering for those other possibilitiesmeant discarding a diamond - and now there wereonly eleven tricks.

In another match of top teams…

Israel v Monaco (MH)


Padon Fantoni Birman Nunes— Pass 1}1 Pass1{2 Pass 1[3 Pass2{4 Pass 2]5 Pass3] Pass 3[ Pass3NT Pass 4} Pass4{ Pass 4] Pass4NT Pass 5] Pass6NT All Pass1. 12-22 better minor2. Transfer3. Natural, but denies 3 hearts4. XYZ: GF relay5. Good hearts in context

Three hearts set hearts for now and some cue biddingand a key card ask saw West decide to play in notrumps.

North led the two of hearts and declarer won withdummy’s jack and played the four of diamonds. Southplayed the three (at double dummy the seven or tenis required so that South can retain the lead and playa second diamond to break up the tension in that suitwhile both defenders retain a guard) and declarer putin the jack, losing to North’s king – rather than puttingon dummy’s two and coming back to the situationthat Tony Forrester faced. However, at this table, Southcould certainly have held both the king and queen ofdiamonds, after all, a 25% chance.

When in with the diamond king, if North had switchedto any of the other suits declarer would have been inwith the same chance of making, but Fantoni returnedthe six of diamonds, covered by the ten and ace.Declarer cashed the top clubs and then played hearts,but no one was under pressure and he had to fail.

And in yet another match…

Germany v France (RS)

Both teams were still fighting for a ticket to theBermuda Bowl.

On Board 5…


Rehder Bompis Gromöller Quantin— Pass 1NT Pass2} Pass 2[ Pass3} Pass 3NT Pass4NT Pass 5] Pass6NT All Pass

West thought that his 19-count was good enough toforce a slam facing a weak no-trump. South led apassive seven of hearts. Declarer has 11 top tricks.

18

Obviously 3-3 spades will be enough, but an expertdeclarer will be looking also for squeeze possibilities.Unfortunately, they are impossible to realize against aperfect defence. First of all declarer would like to ducka trick, rectifying the count. Apparently a doublesqueeze is possible, but a diamond return would ruinit. Michael Gromöller won the first trick in the dummyand led the nine of clubs, covered by the jack andducked.

Leading away from the king of diamonds was too risky,so North continued clubs. Declarer won and cashedthe other top club, on which West discarded a diamondand North a heart. Next came the king-queen of spadesand four hearts from dummy. This was the positionwhen the last heart was led:

[ J 10] —{ K 9} —

[ 7 [ A 4] 9 ] —{ A J { 8} — } 5

[ —] —{ Q 10 7} Q

The nine of hearts was led, and North was forced torelease his diamond control. The problem was thatdummy was also squeezed. Declarer had to guesswhether spades had been 3-3 all along, or else a non-simultaneous double squeeze was now operating. Inmy opinion, once it was discovered that clubs broke5- 2, declarer could have assumed that 4-2 spadeswere more likely and played accordingly. On the otherhand, it would be embarrassing to go down in a simplehand with 12 top tricks…

Gromöller discarded a club, and it was all over forhim. Minus 50 and 11 IMPs to France. A spade discardwould have executed the double squeeze. South mustdiscard a diamond, and the ace of spades finishes him.

A few boards later…


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

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

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


Rehder Bompis Gromöller Quantin1NT Pass 2} Pass2[ Pass 3} Pass3NT Pass 4{ Pass4] Pass 4[ Pass5{ Pass 6[ All Pass

Germany’s artificial methods led them to an ambitiousslam, while France quietly stopped in game. North ledthe nine of hearts, taken by dummy’s ace. Rehder hadto find the doubleton ace of diamonds somewhere tohave any chance, and even then it’s not clear what todo with his fourth diamond in case trumps are 3-1.

Declarer played a club to the ace and ruffed a club,noting the fall of South’s jack. Then he guessed correctlyto lead a diamond to the queen. A spade was played tothe ace, and a small diamond was led from dummy,South winning perforce with his ace. A heart returnwas taken with the king, and this was the final position:

[ —] —{ J 10} K 10 8 4

[ Q J 9 [ K 4 3] — ] 4{ 9 { K 7} Q 7 } —

[ 10 7] Q J 8 3{ —} —

Declarer must win the rest, and he cannot touchdiamonds until South’s trumps have been drawn.Fortunately a squeeze comes to the rescue. Spade tothe queen, club ruffed with the king and spade to thejack. The last trump squeezed North in the minors.Germany won 11 IMPs back, but France still managedto win the match by 16-14.

The Qualifiers for Bali:

OPEN TEAMS FINAL

Rank Team VPs

1 Monaco 3042 Netherlands 2903 Italy 2864 England 2795 Poland 276.76 Germany 273.5

1. Monaco: Fulvio Fantoni, Geir Helgemo, Tor Helness,Franck Multon, Claudio Nunes, Pierre Zimmermann,Jean Charles Allavena NPC, Krzysztof Martens, Coach2. Netherlands: Sjoert Brink, Bas Drijver, Bauke Muller,Ricco van Prooijen, Louk Verhees, Jr, Simon de Wijs,Eric Laurant NPC, Ton Bakkeren Coach

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3. Italy: Norberto Bocchi, Giorgio Duboin, LorenzoLauria, Agustin Madala, Antonio Sementa, AlfredoVersace, Maria Teresa Lavazza NPC, Massimo Ortensi,Coach4. England: David Bakhshi, Peter Crouch, TonyForrester, David Gold, Derek Patterson, Tom Townsend,Simon Cope, NPC, Ben Green Coach5. Poland: Cezary Balicki, Krzysztof Buras, GrzegorzNarkiewicz, Piotr Zak, Jerzy Zaremba, AdamZmudzinski, Piotr Walczak NPC, Marek WojcickiCoach6. Germany: Joerg Fritsche, Michael Gromöller, JosefPiekarek, Martin Rehder, Roland Rohowsky, AlexanderSmirnov, Helmut Hausler NPC

Women’s Teams

RR1 England v France (BS)

There was a draw in the Euro 2012 match betweenFrance and England and I imagine that both of theseold rivals would have settled for a similar outcome intheir first-round match here in Dublin. The first fivedeals were all flat. The first swing was only a small onebut it featured some nice defence.


[ K 8 3] J 6{ 10 8 5 4} K 8 4 3

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

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


Willard Brock Cronier SmithSenior Reess Dhondy Gaviard— — 1] All Pass

Both Souths led the king of diamonds and bothdeclarers won and led a club up. North won the cluband returned a diamond, in each case completing acount signal. Both Nicola Smith and Danièle Gaviardnow cashed the ace of clubs before playing the thirddiamond, appreciating that they wanted to avoid beingput on lead at a time of declarer’s choosing.

Now came the parting of the ways. Heather Dhondyruffed the diamond and then led the queen of spadesto Vanessa Reess’s king. She ruffed the diamond returnand was over-ruffed and now Gaviard exited with theten of spades. Dhondy won the jack and played theking of hearts to the ace. Gaviard got off play with theten of clubs to dummy’s jack and the last spade wentaway.There was a heart to lose for one down.

After ruffing the third diamond, Bénédicte Cronierled the king of hearts, hoping to force her opponentsto open up spades for her. Smith won her ace andfound the perfect defence, returning her low heart tothe jack and queen. Cronier put her back in with aheart but now Smith took both hearts and exited withthe ten of spades. That ensured that Brock would notput up her king so Cronier won the queen but couldthen only cash the ace and concede the last two tricksto Brock’s spade king and diamond ten for down two;minus 200 and 3 IMPs to England.

RR12. France v Israel (MD)

When the opponents in the other room overbid tothree notrump, failing a trick, it is doubly satisfying tofind a brilliant defence to take 800 from one spadedoubled against their other pair. It included that rarebird, a squeeze on dummy.


[ K 10 3] Q 8 4 3 2{ 8 3} Q 8 4

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

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


Gaviard N. Tal Reess D. Tal— Pass Pass 1}1] Pass Pass DoublePass Pass Redouble Pass1[ Double All Pass

North led the five of spades to the jack, ducked, andSouth continued the trump attack. Declarer won withthe ace and Noga Tal unblocked the king. DanieleGaviard played the diamond king, ducked, and thenthe queen, taken by the ace.

Dana Tal led another diamond, ruffed by North. Nextcame the two of hearts to the king and ace and Southdrew dummy’s last trump with her master queen ofspades. Dana now cashed the ace of clubs and ledanother. Declarer ruffed with her last trump, and wasallowed to win the next trick with the ten of hearts,but North took the heart continuation.

Meanwhile, on the third round of hearts, dummy wasunavoidably squeezed between her winning diamondand her club guard and that meant three down and13 IMPs.

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RR16 England v Germany (PDJ)

This board was one of the keys to Englands’s 24-6win:

Board 11. Dealer South. Neither Vul.

[ A Q J 8 7 5] 6{ A} Q 8 6 5 2

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

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


Stockdale Alberti Brown Gladiator— — — 1]Pass 1[ Pass 2{Pass 3} Double 3]Pass 3[ Pass 3NTAll Pass

As both majors are 3-3, either 6-1 fit will provide tentricks, but it was common for North/South to end inthree notrump. At one table, Nevena Senior as Northwas declarer in three notrump, receiving a club leadto the ten. The spade finesse lost but when Eastcontinued clubs declarer had her nine tricks.

At the table illustrated, East, Fiona Brown, had doubledNorth’s fourth-suit three clubs for the lead and West,Susan Stockdale, duly obliged. East claimed her ace,declarer contributing the ten, and switched to thediamond jack, killing the spade suit in dummy. Declarerwas forced to play on hearts. When the finesse lostand West switched to spades declarer could onlyreach eight of her nine tricks and eventually had tolead away from her diamonds to give the defence theirfifth trick.

Trick one was a genuine dilemma for declarer. Supposeshe unblocks the club king. Now the defence cannotprevent the spades being established but at trick twoEast will switch to hearts. Declarer can win andestablish spades but again can only reach eight tricksbefore the defence have five. In effect a club to theace at trick one catches declarer in a Morton’s Fork.That was 10 IMPs to England.

RR17 Netherlands v England (MH)

This was the last board of England v The Netherlands- it played a significant part in the outcome:

Dealer West. Both Vul

[ 10 9] A 9 2{ K 7 2} Q J 9 7 5

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

[ Q 8 7 5 4 3] —{ J 8 6 5} K 4 3


Brock Michielsen Smith Dekkers1}1 Pass 2] Pass2NT Pass 3] Pass3[ Pass 4} Pass4{ Double 4] Pass4NT Pass 5[2 Pass6NT All Pass1. Could be as short as one club2. Two key cards and the heart queen

North’s double of four diamonds was enough topersuade West to protect her diamond holding. HadNorth led a club, even three no trump would havebeen too high, but on the two of hearts lead, declarerwas still in the game.

However, with the diamond finesse known to be wrongdeclarer had to rely on a defensive error. None wasforthcoming and the contract was one down, minus100.


Zwol Senior Arnolds Dhondy1{ Pass 2] Pass3] Pass 4} Pass4{ Pass 4NT Pass5]1 Pass 6] All Pass1. Two key cards, no heart queen

Here, van Zwol’s heart raise was music to Arnolds’ears. Senior had declined to double four diamondsand Dhondy led the five of spades. Declarer spent along time over this trick. No one likes to risk it all attrick one and eventually declarer put up the ace andplayed a heart to the king, South discarding the four ofspades. Declarer continued with the queen of heartsand North took this one as South parted with thefour of spades.

North exited with the queen of clubs and declarerwon with the ace and started playing trumps. Southhad to hold on to two spades, and also had to keepdiamonds to prevent declarer ruffing out her partner’sking. This was the four-card ending:

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[ 10] —{ K 7} 9

[ K 6 [ J] — ] 3{ A Q { 3} — } 8

[ Q 8] —{ J 8} —

Declarer crossed to the ace of spades and when shecontinued with the six of spades, North was in trouble.Forced to retain the nine of clubs, she parted withthe seven of diamonds. Declarer ruffed and played herdiamond. South did her best by playing the jack, butdeclarer made no mistake, going up with dummy’s aceto land her slam in spectacular style, plus 1430 and17 IMP to The Netherlands.

RR12. France v Israel (MD)

Always a danger team, the French Ladies had a serioushiccough in their medal chase when they met Israelin Round 12. The very first board had its amusing side,giving South the chance of a Crocodile Coup!


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

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

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

In the Open Room, East doubled the club openingand the final contract was two spades down two, 100to North/South. Matilda Poplilov preferred to overcallher suit and declared two hearts.

Declarer ducked the jack of clubs lead and ruffed thecontinuation. She then led the ten of spades, ducked,followed by the ace and another to Willard’s king. Thatplayer continued with the diamond two to the aceand Bénédicte Cronier returned a second diamondto declarer, who now played the ace and another heart.

Had Willard crocodiled her partner’s heart queen, shecould draw dummy’s last trump but then she wouldbe end-played to lead into declarer’s diamonds. So sheducked it and, as it was, it was Cronier who wasendplayed to give the contract!


WOMEN’S TEAMS

Rank Team VPs

1 England 3512 France 3423 Turkey 333.54 Netherlands 3335 Poland 323.56 Israel 317.5

1. England: Sally Brock, Fiona Brown, Heather Dhondy,Nevena Senior, Nicola Smith, Susan Stockdale, JeremyDhondy NPC, David Burn Coach2. France: Bénédicte Cronier, Daniele Gaviard, JoannaNeve, Catherine d’Ovidio,Vanessa Reess, Sylvie Willard,Romain Tembouret NPC3. Turkey: Vera Adut, Acar Asli, Belis Atalay, Berrak Erkan,Ozlem Oymen, Dilek Yavas, Yalcin Atabey NPC4. Netherlands: Carla Arnolds, Laura Dekkers, MarionMichielsen, Jet Pasman, Anneke Simons, Wietske vanZwol, Alex van Reenen NPC, Hans Kelder Coach5. Poland: Grazyna Brewiak, Katarzyna Dufrat, DanutaKazmucha, Natalia Sakowska, Joanna Taczewska, JustynaZmuda, Miroslaw Cichocki NPC, Cezary Serek Coach6. Israel: Ruth Levit-Porat, Michal Nosatzki, MatildaPoplilov, Nathalie Saada, Dana Tal, Noga Tal, Michael BarelNPC

Senior Teams

RR1 Denmark v Poland (IL)

Once upon a time, when the king of diamonds wasonly a jack, Peter Schaltz was only a junior - but myfavorite partner. During the play, I did my very best toteach him about the game, but mostly in vain. Amongother tips, I told him not to lead a suit against a suitcontract if both declarer and dummy were void inthat suit. ”That’s only for idiots and experts!”, Iexplained. Well, Peter wouldn’t listen - I guess that bythen he already considered himself to be an expert!And he still does - have a look at this deal fromDenmark’s match against Poland in the Senior Teams…


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

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

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

In the Closed Room the Poles went one down in fourhearts, but Peter smelled blood in the Open…

22


Møller Lasocki Schaltz Russyan— — — 1]2[ 3] Pass 4]Pass Pass Double All Pass

West must lead a black card to be sure of defeatingfour hearts, and Møller didn’t fail as he presented thenine of clubs. Low from dummy and jack from Schaltz,who cashed the ace as well. South ruffed the clubcontinuation with the nine of hearts (better to discarda spade). Declarer continued with the heart jack, whichheld the trick, and the heart queen to Schaltz’s kingand…

[ A J 5 2] 10 5{ 9 6} —

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

[ K 9] 8 3{ A Q J 4} —

With his ex-partner’s advice in mind about expertsand idiots, Peter now played a club, which declarerruffed in dummy after discarding a diamond (betterto discard a spade). After a diamond finesse South triedto cash the king of spades and play another spade, butSchaltz ruffed - two down and 500. Expert or idiot,Peter? Judge for yourself, but in the diagram Eastshould perhaps have played his partner’s suit insteadof the club. That would always lead to two down, nomatter what South did at that point.

RR9 Sweden v France (MM)

A real masterpiece arrived when Sweden and Francebattled out a hard-fought contest in the seniors.Undoubtedly this hand will be one of the finest playedat these championships.


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

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

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

Firstly…


Billgren Poizat Sanzen Lasserre— Pass Pass 1NTPass 2} Pass 2{Pass 3NT All Pass

A normal bidding sequence, although it was verytempting to intervene with West’s hand. Both Northand South surely had their bids, but the final contractwas not good enough. Actually three notrump wasmakeable by double-dummy play: ducking hearts onlyonce, then ducking a diamond without giving West thelead, and finally endplaying East in spades. However,with silent opponents nobody is going to play like this.The French declarer ducked hearts twice and endedup one trick short. Minus 50.


Piganeau Morath Leenhardt Bjerregård— 1{1 Pass 2}Pass 3} Pass 3{Pass 3[ Double PassPass 3NT Pass 4}!Pass 4] Pass 5}Pass Pass Pass

1. Precision

Morath/Bjerregård play Precision with five-cardmajors and a 14-16 notrump. Therefore, one diamondwas either a weak no-trump in the range of 11-13HCPs or natural. A series of natural bids followed, butSouth was not sure at all that partner actually had astopper in hearts on this sequence.

“Pass now for heaven’s sake,” was the comment fromSwedish NPC Tommy Gullberg when The Carrot(North) bid three notrump since he could see nineeasy tricks on a spade lead.

Having a quick look at the hands, it is difficult to workout how they were going to make five clubs. Bjerregårdreceived a spade lead, which went to dummy’s kingand East’s ace. Leenhard then gave declarer a chancewhen he returned the two of diamonds. He couldhave played any other suit and the defence would stillhave been in control. Bjerregård went up with the aceof diamonds, cashed the king and ruffed a low diamondin dummy. Declarer continued with a trump to theking and another diamond ruff in dummy, but this timeruffing with the queen not risking being overruffed,East discarding a spade. Two rounds of trumps followed,leaving the following position (see top of next page):

On the last round of trumps, declarer discarded a lowheart from dummy and poor Leenhardt also had todiscard a heart since he would have given up controlof spades if he had thrown one away. Bjerregård thenplayed a heart to dummy’s ace and a low spade fromdummy. East had no escape. He tried playing low, but

23

when declarer had the eight he could claim hiscontract.

[ Q 10 2] A 6{ —} —

[ — [ J 9 7] Q J 10 4 2 ] 9 7{ — { —} — } —

[ 8 5] 8 5{ —} 3

That was 10 IMPs to Sweden.


SENIOR TEAMS

Rank Team VPs

1 France 3372 Poland 3283 Scotland 3254 Denmark 320.55 Germany 3206 Belgium 314

1. France: Patrick Grenthe, Guy Lasserre, FrançoisLeenhardt, Patrice Piganeau, Philippe Poizat, PhilippeVanhoutte, Philippe Cronier NPC2. Poland: Julian Klukowski, Apolinary Kowalski,Krzysztof Lasocki, Victor Markowicz, Jacek Romanski,Jerzy Russyan, Wlodzimierz Wala NPC, Wojtek SiwiecCoach3. Scotland: Willie Coyle, Derek Diamond, JohnMatheson, John Murdoch, Victor Silverstone, Iain Sime,Harry Smith NPC, Patricia Matheson Coach4. Denmark: Thomas Berg, Knud-Aage Boesgaard,Geert Jorgensen, Steen Moller, Hans Christian Nielsen,Peter Schaltz, Bo Loenberg Bilde NPC, Jan NielsenCoach5. Germany: Michael Elinescu, Ulrich Kratz, ReinerMarsal, Bernhard Strater, Ulrich Wenning, EntschoWladow, Kareen R Schroeder NPC, Karin WenningCoach6. Belgium: Faramarz Bigdeli, Hubert Janssens, DavidJohnson, Alain Kaplan, Guy Polet, Jacques Stas Dear John,

Re: Henry Bethe’s letter asking about results from the1970 World Ladies Pairs in Stockholm…In the WBFDaily Bulletin, #21, dated 4th July 1970, page 5, LadiesPairs final results, Allison/Collier are listed as finishingin 15th place, with a score of 10,385, in a field of 72pairs. The medallists:1st Farrell/Johnson (11,419)2nd Gordon/Markus (11,332)3rd Blom/Silborn (11,147)

Regards, Peter Hasenson, London

The Editor reserves the right to abridgeand/or edit correspondence

Email: [email protected]

Correspondence

IBPA Outing in Dublin

It’s a very happy group of IBPA members thatwent on the outing during the European

Championships in Dublin this June...and forobvious reasons!

NEWS & VIEWS

NEC & Yeh

The dates for the next year’s NEC will be April 16 to21, 2013 and the Yeh Bros Cup will be from April 23to 27, 2013, both in Yokohama, Japan.

Teams Registered for WMSG

As of July 9, 2012, the number of teams registered forthe World Mind Sports Games in Lille, France fromAugust 9-23 are: Open - 63; Women - 44; Seniors - 33

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24

AGENDAIBPA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Thursday morning, 16th August, 2012 – Lille, France

1. Remembrance of members deceased since last AGM.2. Minutes of the EGM and AGM held on 24th October, 2011in Veldhoven (see Bulletin 563,page 2 & 3) and matters arising.3. Officers’ Reports: President, Chairman, Secretary4. Appointees’ Reports: Editor, Liaison Officer, Membership Secretary.5. Treasurer (former Treasurer Heather Dhondy): Accounts for the year ending 31st December 2011,budget and proposal regarding subscriptions for the year 2013. Auditor’s report for 2011 (Richard Fleet).6. Elections: Officers proposed for election to the 2014 AGM are: President: Patrick Jourdain(Wales); Chairman: Per Jannersten (Sweden); Exec Vice-President: Jan vanCleeff (Netherlands); Organisational Vice-President: Dilip Gidwani (India);Secretary: Herman De Wael (Belgium); Treasurer: Richard Solomon (New Zealand).Proposed for annual election are: Hon. General Counsel: Bill Pencharz (England);Hon. Auditor: Richard Fleet (England)Automatically continuing without election are the Presidents Emeritii:Tommy Sandsmark (Norway); Henry Francis (USA).7. Election of Executive members:Proposed for a 3-year election to 2015: GeO Tislevoll (Norway); Nikolas Bausback (Germany); Ron Tacchi(France).Already elected to 2014: John Carruthers (Canada); Barry Rigal (USA); Gavin Wolpert (USA).Already elected to 2013: David Stern (Australia); Brent Manley (USA); Tadashi Yoshida (Japan).Note: Appointees in post: Awards Chairman: Barry Rigal (USA); Editor:John Carruthers (Canada). Membership Secretary: Jeremy Dhondy (England).8. The IBPA Annual Awards9. Any other competent business.

Patrick Jourdain (President)

been absorbed. The book’s entwined themes are deceptive defence and spectacular defensive plays and 100problems of varying difficulty are presented. This book and its predecessor will help you learn how to think aboutthe most difficult aspect of the game.

Defend or Declare?: Julian Pottage. A new book by Pottage is a treat indeed - his Play or Defend? won the BOTYaward in 2003 and this book follows on that theme and with the same methodology. Seventy-two problems arepresented in an unusual format: the reader is presented with all four hands and asked whether he prefers to bedeclarer or defender. The problems are of uniformly-high calibre and some are quite extraordinary.

The Amazing Queen - Winning with Your Queens: Clement Wong. Clement Wong is a true Renaissance man - as well aswriting the bridge column for the Hong Kong Economic Journal for 20 years, he has competed and captained internationallyfor Hong Kong. He hold degrees in law, engineering and business and is a barrister, management consultant, civil engineer,media columnist and university lecturer. His 1993 Bols Tip, Queening Your Defence, was the inspiration for this bookbased on skillful bidding and play surrounding the queens. The deals are all from actual play.

BOTY - continued from page 1

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