Vivendi
Rosenblum Cup Final / 1st Quarter |
Chagas v Angelini The ANGELINI team from Italy made a great start to the final of the Vivendi Rosenblum, with a series of gains on the early boards. A couple of overtrick IMPs on the first board was followed by something rather more substantial.
Lorenzo Lauria led his third best spade to the nine and ace. Miguel Vilas Boas had a tough decision now. With only one sure dummy entry, it is little better than a guess as to which minor suit finesse is working. Vilas Boas chose to lead a low diamond to the jack at trick two, relying on the §K to be onside, with his extra chance being that the diamond might be allowed to win. When the jack lost to the king and the club proved to be offside, he was one down; -100
Massimo Lanzarotti preferred to use fourth suit forcing rather than repeat his hearts and this led to the final contract being played from the other side. Marcelo Branco led the ª2, ducked to the queen. Gabriel Chagas returned the ª5 to dummy's ace, and Lanzarotti found himself with much the same problem as that faced by Vilas Boas in the other room. He decided to cross to the ace of hearts to run the ten of clubs - his extra chance being that East might be short in clubs and win the first round. Had the club been allowed to hold, declarer would have had a tough decision to make and might well have gone down. However, Chagas won immediately and now Lanzarotti had the necessary communications to make his game; 12 IMPs to ANGELINI. Yes, 5§ would have been a rather better contract.
3§ is beatable on a spade lead and diamond switch, the diamond ruff being the fifth defensive trick. In practice, the switch was not found so 3§ made for a useful looking result for CHAGAS. Alas, that was wiped out and more by events in the other room.
One imagines that Chagas will not be too happy with his choice of action on this deal, 4ª looking wrong in theory as well as practice. Buratti led a trump and Branco won and drew a second round. There was really nothing to the play and Branco was soon two down for -500 and 9 IMPs to ANGELINI.
Branco opened another weak two bid, 2¨ this time. Andrea Buratti overcalled 2© and again Chagas made a very dubious leap to game, bidding 5¨. When that ran back round to Buratti, he doubled. Superficially, 5¨ is only one down, but that assumes that North cashes a top card in each of his suits and allows declarer to take two club ruffs in the dummy. Buratti actually led a top club then switched to a diamond. Branco, who must have been wondering what was happening with his partner at this point in the set, won in hand and led a heart up to establish his communications. Had Buratti held only a singleton trump, that would have resulted in one down, but on the actual hand he was able to win the heart and play a second trump and now there was no escape for Branco. He was two down for a second consecutive -500 on a partscore deal. In a sense, the Brazilians were lucky on this deal in that they managed to have a dreadful result at both tables. Well, that is better than having two dreadful results on different boards, but is not really the sort of luck which wins world championships. This was the auction in the other room:
Is double of 2¨ the normal action on the North cards or is it too dangerous with only a doubleton spade? Clearly it is too dangerous if partner is going to bid 3ª on that South hand, however, my sympathies lie with North. I do not know whether it was an option in the Brazilian methods, but if I had to make a positive call on the South hand I would want it to be a responsive double rather than Campos's choice. 3ª drifted three down for -300 and 13 IMPs to ANGELINI, who already led by 36 IMPs.
The 1ª bid was the equivalent of a forcing no trump response. On this auction, it was natural for North to look for an alternative to the obvious diamond lead, although the 2¨ bid could have been made on a three-card suit, as here. Buratti chose the queen of clubs. Branco won the ace and returned a club to the jack. Now Buratti switched to a diamond, realising that this was his only hope of defeating the contract. This just gave Branco a third diamond trick, however, and he won the nine then crossed to hand in diamonds to clear the clubs; +630.
This time diamonds had not been bid so it was normal for Vilas Boas to lead one. Alfredo Versace won in dummy and ran the §8 to the jack. Back came another diamond and he won and crossed to dummy in spades to repeat the club finesse. the odds in the club suit are very close but we believe that this is the correct line in theory, just not on this particular layout. Versace had to go one down now and CHAGAS was finally on the board with a badly needed 12 IMP gain.
With spades the only suit definitely promised by North/South, it was not a very attractive choice of lead for Versace. Instead he chose to lead a passive heart. Now Joao Paulo Campos's only route to nine tricks was to get the clubs right for four tricks. Alas, the normal percentage play in the suit is to finees on the second round and that is what Campos did. That meant one down for -100.
1NT was 11-14 and 2§ Stayman. We are not sure about 2ª but suspect that it was an enquiry rather than specifically showing spades. Whatever was going on, there was certainly some implication that the North hand might either have four spades or be checking for a possible 5-3 heart fit. The West hand still has no particularly attractive opening lead. Eventually, Branco chose a low spade and that was curtains for the defence. Lanzarotti also got the clubs wrong, but he had nine tricks anyway. The 12 IMPs lost on the previous deal had gone straight back again. A few boards later, ANGELINI made 1NT at both tables, once with an overtrick, and once when the contract should have failed by a minimum of two tricks after the opening lead. That was worth another 5 IMPs to the Italians.
In the Closed Room, the Lauria/Versace bid to 3NT on their combined 25-count. This is a poor contract at best and on the actual lie had no chance; two down for -200. Chagas opened the East cards with 1§ and Branco responded 1NT. They clearly play this as pretty well guaranteeing four clubs because Chagas rebid 2§ and played there. He won the diamond lead, ruffed a diamond, cashed the top trumps and took a second diamond ruff. Then he played out the spades and made nine tricks; +110 and 7 IMPs to CHAGAS. At the end of the quarter, ANGELINI led by 53-19 IMPs. |
Results | Contents |
Rosenblum Cup F Open Pairs SF3, SF4, Z3, Z4 Ladies Pairs SF3, SF4 Senior Pairs Q3 Continuous Pairs |
Vivendi Rosenblum Cup Final I Vivendi Rosenblum Cup Final II Zia at his Best |
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