Open Teams R15, France v Italy

Too little, too late

by Brent Manley

In the penultimate round of the qualifying for the Open series, Italy was comfortably seated at the top of Group A. France was not assured that they would move on to the round of 16 – and they had to make progress against one of the world’s top teams.

Board 3. Dealer South. E/W Vul.
	♠ 8 7 3 ♥ J 7 4 ♦ 8 7 6 3 ♣ J 8 7
♠ Q J 6 2 ♥ 10 5 ♦ A Q 2 ♣ A K Q 2		♠ A K 10 5 ♥ A K 9 8 6 2 ♦ J 5 4 ♣
	♠ 9 4 ♥ Q 3 ♦ K 10 9 ♣ 10 9 6 5 4 3

Faigenbaum and Pilon sailed right into 6♠ with the East-West cards, and it looked as though they might suffer a double-digit swing if Duboin and Sementa bid the grand slam at the other table. They didn’t come close.

West	North	East	South
Duboin	Bompis	Sementa	Quantin
			Pass
2♦*	Pass	3♣*	Pass
3♦*	Pass	4♣*	Pass
4♠	Pass	5♣	Pass
5♠	All Pass

Duboin’s opener described a balanced hand with 18-20 high-card points. 3♣ was puppet Stayman, and 3♦ confessed to possession of at least one four-card major. From that point, communication broke down and the Italians stopped short of even a small slam. That was 13 IMPs to France

Board 8. Dealer West. None Vul.
	♠ A K 9 8 6 ♥ Q 5 4 2 ♦ 8 ♣ 8 4 2
♠ Q J ♥ A J 10 9 8 7 6 ♦ 6 ♣ A Q 10		♠ 10 5 2 ♥ 3 ♦ A 10 7 4 2 ♣ K 7 6 5
	♠ 7 4 3 ♥ K ♦ K Q J 9 5 3 ♣ J 9 3

West	North	East	South
Faigenbaum	Lauria	Pilon	Versace
1♥	1♠	Dble	2♦
4♥	All Pass

Faigenbaum did not fool around, jumping right to the heart game. He lost two high spades and a trump for plus 420. At the other table, Marc Bompis and Jean-Christophe Quantin did not have to defend a game contract.

West	North	East	South
Duboin	Bompis	Sementa	Quantin
1♥	1♠	Dble	2♦
3♥	Pass	Pass	3♠
All Pass

Duboin won the ♥A at trick one and switched to a diamond at trick two. Sementa won the ♦A and played the ♣K and a club to his partner’s hand. Another club trick brought the defense total to five, and there was one more to come. Duboin played the ♥J, ducked by Bompis, and Sementa ruffed with the 10. That was two down but an 8-IMP loss for Italy.

Board 11. Dealer South. None Vul.
	♠ A 8 7 5 4 ♥ A K 9 ♦ J 7 4 ♣ 7 2
♠ K J 10 6 3 ♥ 6 5 3 ♦ Q 6 ♣ K J 4		♠ Q ♥ Q J 7 2 ♦ K 9 8 5 2 ♣ Q 10 9
	♠ 9 2 ♥ 10 8 4 ♦ A 10 3 ♣ A 8 6 5 3

The bidding was identical at the two tables.

West	North	East	South
Faigenbaum	Lauria	Pilon	Versace
Duboin	Bompis	Sementa	Quantin
			Pass
Pass	1♠	Pass	1NT
All Pass

Against Versace, Faigenbaum started with the ♥6, ducked at trick one. Pilon won the ♥J and returned the suit. Versace played a club from dummy, ducking when Pilon played the 10. Pilon cleared the heart suit, and Versace played another club, going up with the ace to play a third round. When the suit split in his favor, Versace had three clubs, two hearts, one spade and one diamond. Plus 90.

Duboin started with a spade despite North’s opener. Quantin ducked in dummy, and Sementa won his singleton ♠Q. At trick two, he played the ♦K, knocking out Quantin’s quick entry to hand. As you can see, declarer can unblock the ♦J from dummy on the second round of diamonds to get that entry back – easy to spot when you are looking at all the cards. With his ♦A gone, Quantin did not try to develop clubs. Instead, he played the ♠9 from hand, covered by the 10 and ace. He played a club from dummy, ducking the 10, but Duboin overtook with the ♣J and played a heart. Quantin played low, Sementa won and continued the suit. Now Quantin played a club to his ace and a diamond. Duboin was there with the setting tricks.

It was a pretty flat match, ultimately decided by the missed slam. France entered the final round of qualifying with a 26-9 win over Italy to use for momentum. Ultimately, however, the French were disappointed, losing out on a tiebreaker with Romania for the fourth and final spot in their group.