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The World Individual Masters
by Phillip Alder
The individuals were divided into two three-session events. The 24 women played 23 three-board rounds, and the 36 men played 35 two-board rounds, using different deals.
The women's event was won by Catharina Midskog from Sweden, who beat Anne-Frédérique Lévy from France by 2.6 matchpoints. Third was Ru Yan from China.
The rumor went around that Lévy could have won on the last board. She and her partner, Tatiana Ponomareva from Russia, were momentarily in three notrump. Their opponents, Gabriella Olivieri from Italy and Wenfei Wang from China, sacrificed in four spades. Judging correctly that the penalty would be insufficient, they went on to five diamonds, which made. However, if they had bid four notrump, they would have made that, and plus 430 is better than plus 400. But it would have gained Lévy only one matchpoint and cost Midskog nothing, so it would not have changed the result.
Midskog scored nine out of ten matchpoints on this board from the final session.
| Board 15. Dealer South. North-South vul. |
| | ♠ 10 5 3
♥ Q 5 4
♦ Q 10 5
♣ K 8 6 4 |
♠ J 9 4
♥ J 9
♦ 8 6 3 2
♣ J 10 7 2 |  |
♠ K Q 6
♥ 7 6
♦ A K 9 7 4
♣ A Q 9 | | | ♠ A 8 7 2
♥ A K 10 8 3 2
♦ J
♣ 5 3 |
| West | North | East | South
|
| Wang | Sicka | Gromova | Midskog
|
| | | | 1♥
|
| Pass | 2♥ | 3♦ | 3♥
|
| Pass | Pass | Pass
| |
Victoria Gromova from Russia should have doubled two hearts, not overcalled three diamonds. Her hand is easily strong enough, and three diamonds permits no flexibility. If West has a few values with, especially, a five-card spade suit, the higher-scoring strain will be found after a double, but not after three diamonds.
South thought about doubling, an amorphous game-try in hearts, but decided against it. (Not that Bimal Sicka from India would have accepted with her hand.)
A club lead would have been fatal, but Wenfei Wang understandably opened with a diamond. East won the first trick and, after seeing declarer's diamond jack, shifted to the spade king, ducked by declarer. Now came the spade queen. South ducked this too, wishing to keep West off lead and avoid a club switch.
Declarer took the third spade, cashed her heart ace, and led the heart eight to dummy's queen. Now came the diamond ten, covered by the ace and ruffed high by declarer. A low heart to dummy's five allowed South to pitch a club on the diamond queen.
In this way, Midskog lost only two spades, one diamond and one club.
Three hearts was the contract at five of the six tables. The odd-women-out tried an imaginative three spades by East, going down only two after soft defense.
Three hearts went down one three times, each time after the spade-jack lead, and made twice, once after a low-spade lead and once, as we just saw, after a diamond lead. So, plus 140 was worth 9 matchpoints out of 10. Levy was one of the declarers who went down and received only 2 matchpoints.
The open event was won by Tor Helness from Norway. He took the lead about two-thirds of the way through the second session and never lost it. He finished 38 matchpoints, or just over two boards, ahead of fellow Norwegian Geir Helgemo. Third was Andrei Gromov from Russia, another board behind.
Helness was most proud of this board from the third session. First, decide what you would have done.
| Board 14. Dealer East. None vul. |
| |
♠ K 10 7 6
♥
♦ Q 10 8 5 2
♣ A 7 4 3 |
| |
|
|
| |
♠ A Q 3
♥ 10 8 2
♦ A J 9
♣ K 10 9 8 |
| West | North | East | South
|
| Wang | Pellegrini | Liaqat | Helness
|
| | | Pass | 1NT(a)
|
| Pass | 2♣ | Pass | 2♦
|
| Pass | 3♦ | Pass | 3♠
|
| Pass | 4♣ | Pass | 4♦
|
| Pass | 4♥ | Pass | 4♠
|
| Pass | 4NT | Pass | 5♥
|
| Pass | 6♦ | All Pass
| |
(a) 15-17 points
Helness upgraded his hand because of the excellent intermediates. Carlos Pellegrini from Argentina used Stayman, then bid a natural and game-forcing three diamonds. When South continued with three spades, denying values in hearts, the North hand became more powerful. Pellegrini started a control-bidding (cue-bidding) sequence, then used Roman Key Card Blackwood. He signed off in six diamonds when he found that the diamond ace or king was missing. (South had shown the spade ace in the auction.)
West, Qiao Jing Wang, led the spade four. How would you plan the play?
While you think about that, here is a bidding problem. With neither side vulnerable, you pick up in fourth position:
| | ♠ 10 8 7 6
♥ A 9 6 2
♦ Q 10 5
♣ 10 8 |
The bidding starts like this:
| West | North | East | South
|
| | 2♠ | 3♦ | 4♠
|
| ?
| | | |
What would you do?
Now back to the declarer-play problem. This was the full deal:
| Board 14. Dealer East. None vul. |
| | ♠ K 10 7 6
♥
♦ Q 10 8 5 2
♣ A 7 4 3 |
♠ 4
♥ K J 9 6 5 3
♦ 7 6 4
♣ Q 5 2 | |
♠ J 9 8 5 2
♥ A Q 7 4
♦ K 3
♣ J 6 | | | ♠ A Q 3
♥ 10 8 2
♦ A J 9
♣ K 10 9 8 |
Helness was confident that the opening lead was a singleton. But by looking at the dummy and taking his high cards into account, declarer could see a possible late spade loser, a possible diamond loser and a probable club loser. He decided to embark on a dummy reversal.
He won the first trick with his spade ace, ruffed a heart in the dummy, and led a diamond to his nine. When that held, South ruffed a heart with dummy's diamond ten and played a club to his eight, losing his club trick without letting East get on lead.
West returned a trump to the king and ace, giving this position:
| | ♠ K 10 7
♥
♦ Q
♣ A 7 4 |
♠
♥ K J 9 6
♦ 6
♣ 5 2 | |
♠ J 9 5 2
♥ A Q
♦
♣ J | | | ♠ Q 3
♥ 10
♦ J
♣ K 10 9 |
Declarer ruffed his last heart in the dummy, played a club to his king, drew West's last trump, discarding a spade from the dummy, and claimed plus 920.
This expert display of declarer-play was worth 15 matchpoints out of 16.
Now back to the bidding problem.
| | ♠ 10 8 7 6
♥ A 9 6 2
♦ Q 10 5
♣ 10 8 |
| West | North | East | South
|
| Helgemo | Helness | Bessis | Fu
|
| | 2♠ | 3♦ | 4♠
|
| ?
| | | |
This was another example of Helgemo's imaginative approach to the game. Many players would be thinking Law of Total Tricks, and although partner is presumably void in spades, if he has six diamonds, we are getting to the five-level with only nine trumps. But of course that does not allow for the fact that on this deal, we are not sure who has what. And probably Helgemo noticed that Zhong Fu bid four spades with almost no pause for thought.
Anyway, Helgemo bid five diamonds pretty quickly. It went pass - pass - five spades. What would you do now?
Helgemo thought for a while, then passed. The tray returned with two more passes. This was the full deal:
| Board 17. Dealer North. None vul. |
| | ♠ Q J 9 5 4 2
♥ Q 4
♦ 8 7 3
♣ Q 4 |
♠ 10 8 7 6
♥ A 9 6 2
♦ Q 10 5
♣ 10 8 | |
♠
♥ K J 10 7
♦ K J 9 6 4 2
♣ J 5 3 | | | ♠ A K 3
♥ 8 5 3
♦ A
♣ A K 9 7 6 2 |
The destiny of the matchpoints rested on the opening lead. Thomas Bessis from France led a diamond, after which declarer Helness took all 13 tricks without difficulty.
Plus 510 gave North-South 11 matchpoints. But if East had found a heart lead, plus 450 would have been worth only 2. That made an 18-matchpoint swing between Helgemo and Helness.
The swing was even greater on this deal, also from the second session.
| Board 14. Dealer East. None vul. |
| | ♠ K Q J 9 3
♥ A
♦ 7 6 2
♣ 8 5 3 2 |
♠ 4 2
♥ 10 9 7 6 4
♦ 9
♣ A K J 10 7 | |
♠ 10 7 6
♥ K J 8 5 2
♦ K J 5 4
♣ 6 | | | ♠ A 8 5
♥ Q 3
♦ A Q 10 8 3
♣ Q 9 4 |
| West | North | East | South
|
| Wang | Kirmse | Fu | Del'Monte
|
| | | Pass | 1♦
|
| 2♣ | 1♠ | Pass | 3♠
|
| Pass | 4♠ | All Pass
| |
Maybe Wang should have overcalled two notrump to show his heart-club two-suiter. His selection of two clubs backfired when he and his partner, Zhong Fu, who was lying third at the time, did not find their big heart fit. Note that five hearts doubled is down only two, a cheap save against game.
Andreas Kirmse from Germany almost passed out three spades. His club holding looked dangerous, and partner could have jumped to four spades with some extras. But eventually he raised to game.
East led his club, West taking three tricks in the suit, East discarding the heart eight followed by the heart five. Now West shifted to a heart.
Declarer won with his ace, ruffed his last club in the dummy, East throwing his heart jack, and drew trumps., West pitching his last club. After some thought, North led another spade, East and South throwing diamonds and West the heart ten. It was decision time.
East had not opened two hearts, so presumably had only five. If so, West started with 2=5=1=5 distribution. What was his singleton?
After a lot more thought, Kirmse played a diamond to dummy's queen, which would have been right if West had the singleton jack, but was wrong if West had any of the three low singletons -- and was wrong here.
Down one gave North-South a zero. Plus 420 would have been worth 11. That made a 22-matchpoint swing for Ishy Del’Monte from Australia, and would have put him 7 matchpoints ahead of Fu, instead of 15 behind.
Finally, an unusual deal in that Bob Hamman was misled by the defenders.
| Board 5. Dealer North. North-South vul. |
| | ♠ 10 9 4 2
♥ K 5
♦ Q 4 3 2
♣ A Q 2 |
♠ J 7 6 5
♥ Q J 3 2
♦ A K J
♣ K 6 | |
♠ Q 3
♥ A 9 8 7
♦ 9 8 7 6 5
♣ 9 5 | | | ♠ A K 8
♥ 10 6 4
♦ 10
♣ J 10 8 7 4 3 |
| West | North | East | South
|
| Baldursson | Del'Monte | Hamman | Karwur
|
| | Pass | Pass | Pass
|
| 1♦ | Pass | 1♥ | Pass
|
| 2♥ | Pass | Pass | 3♣
|
| Pass | Pass | 3♦ | Pass
|
| 3♥ | Pass | Pass | Pass
|
At six of the nine tables, West opened and closed the auction with one notrump, going down two after a spade lead.
Jon Baldursson from Iceland downgraded his hand and opened one diamond. Karwur did well to balance with three clubs, a contract that would have made. And Hamman, visualizing a double fit, pushed on to three of a red suit.
South led the spade ace against three hearts, then shifted to the club jack. North took two tricks in that suit before playing back a spade. South led another club, giving a ruff-and-discard. Declarer ruffed in the dummy and ran the heart queen, Del'Monte playing low smoothly.
Now East made a normal misguess, continuing with the heart jack, covered by the king and ace. Declarer played a diamond to dummy's ace and discarded a diamond on the spade jack to give this position:
| | ♠ 10 9
♥
♦ Q 4
♣ |
♠ 7
♥ 3
♦ K J
♣ | |
♠
♥ 9 8
♦ 9 8
♣ | | | ♠
♥ 10
♦
♣ 10 8 7 |
Hamman, thinking North had left one spade, the heart ten and queen-doubleton of diamonds, ruffed a spade in his hand. Now South did well, smoothly discarding a club.
Sticking to his plan, East exited with his last heart, but - quelle domage - South claimed the rest of the tricks for down three.
That gave North-South all 16 matchpoints. If Hamman had got out for down one, he and his partner would have received 14 matchpoints.
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