The stars of the future are surely amongst the players taking part in the Generali World Masters Junior event. Many of them have already made their mark on the world stage, both in Junior Championships and Camps. Canada's Josh Heller has already made his presence felt here, by turning up to play without a biro, thereby reducing your Editor to just one, and if that runs out of ink.

There was just time in the mad dash between the playing rooms and the VuGraph to catch the first set of boards.

Board 1. Dealer North. Love All ª Q 8 4 2 © Q J 7 3 ¨ A K 9 5 2 § — ª J 7 5 ª K 10 9 6 © 10 8 6 5 2 © — ¨ J 7 4 ¨ 10 6 3 § K 3 § Q J 10 5 4 2 ª A 3 © A K 9 4 ¨ Q 8 § A 9 8 7 6

Your ace tipster was relying on his Italian selection to get him out of jail, but Jean-Paul Meyer has already torn up all his betting slips! The first board of the event was a bidding test for North-South, and was easily passed by the Italian-Argentinean pairing. Biondo preferred Three Clubs to a reopening double, and when his partner returned the compliment they were playing hearts from the safest side.

East led the queen of clubs, and declarer won, discarding a spade, and cashed the queen of diamonds. If he now cashes the ace of spades and then takes the top diamonds to discard a spade from dummy he can cross ruff his way to thirteen tricks, but he slightly mistimed things by cashing the diamonds first, so now twelve tricks were the limit. +980 was not quite a top, as one pair recorded +1330.

Board 4. Dealer West. Game All ª A 5 2 © Q 10 9 4 2 ¨ Q § K 10 5 3 ª Q J 10 7 ª K 9 8 6 4 © 8 © J 7 ¨ A K 9 8 ¨ 7 5 4 2 § A J 8 4 § 9 6 ª 3 © A K 6 5 3 ¨ J 10 6 3 § Q 7 2

This was not especially exciting, declarer losing just a club and a diamond, but full marks to the East-West pair that found their way to Four Spades. Declarer can be held to eight tricks if South starts with a low diamond, but that is never going to happen. In the event, the defenders lost their way and allowed declarer to arrive at ten tricks, but they were getting a zero whatever they did.

The Editor's nap selection had made a solid start, and he soon moved into the lead.

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Men2, Men3 Women1, Women2 Juniors1, Juniors2	The Next Generation The Big Red One The Longest Day