SWING IS KING

In round No.5's match on VuGraph China scored a maximum victory over Chinese Taipei after 19 swingy boards, so everybody in the audience expected more IMPs going one way or the other when a far from boring last board was diplayed on the screen.

Board 20. Dealer West. All Vul.   ª K 10 9 5 4 © 7 ¨ K Q J 5 3 § 8 5 ª 8 7 © A 9 2 ¨ A 7 § A K 10 9 6 2 ª A Q J 2 © K 10 5 3 ¨ 10 § Q J 7 4   ª 6 3 © Q J 8 6 4 ¨ 9 8 6 4 2 § 3

At both tables the bidding started the same way, with both teams finally reaching the grand after some bold jumps. Here's e.g. Chinese Taipei:

West	North	East	South
Chang		Zheng
1§	1ª	Dbl.	Pass
3§	Pass	4¨	Pass
4©	Pass	7§	All Pass

And there comes China:

West	North	East	South
Zhang		Shao
1§	1ª	Dbl.	3¨
4§	4¨	4NT	Pass
5¨	Pass	7§	All Pass

Both East players liked their hand very much - especially after North's 1ª overcall and partner's jump to 3§. So sooner or later they both bounced into 7§ and after a nervous moment both declarers wrapped up thirteen tricks due to the successful spade finesse. A grand slam push! All right, but is this really worth a story? Yes indeed, because it was the only push in the whole field! Elsewhere this hand created huge swings due to six different contracts. Let's therefore move on to the other tables and check the results over there: Let's start with two more grands. Thailand reached the grand even without a jump to 3§:

Yinglei Chen, China

West	North	East	South
Trimankha		Limsinsopon
1§	1ª	Dbl.	Pass
2§	Pass	4§	Pass
4©	Pass	5¨	Pass
5©	Pass	7§	All Pass

This was worth a full 20 IMPs as USA 1 got lost in 4© down one, when West decided to show his three card heart suit after partner's negative double:

West	North	East	South
1§	2§	Dbl.	2¨
2©	Pass	3¨	Pass
3NT	Pass	4©	All Pass

Israel also followed the "Far East"-approach:

West	North	East	South
Amit		Vax
1§	1ª	Dbl.	Pass
3§	Pass	4¨	Pass
4©	Pass	4NT	Pass
5¨	Pass	7§	All Pass

When Brazil stopped in 6§, bidding the grand gave Israel 13 IMPs:

West	North	East	South
Machado		Brum
1§	1ª	Dbl.	Pass
3§	Pass	3ª	Pass
4§	Pass	4¨	Pass
4©	Pass	4NT	Pass
6§	All Pass

One can easily see, that if the opponents give East the space to splinter his diamond singleton on the second round, it works out very well, as partner now knows that all points East holds are working.

Still Brazil was a bit unlucky to lose IMPs on the board as bidding to six was good enough for Norway and Canada to pick up 12 and 13 IMPs respectively.

Norway started with a creative 1 NT-opening, which made life a little more difficult for East:

West	North	East	South
Harr		Kvangraven
1NT	Pass	2§	Pass
2¨	Pass	3§	Pass
3¨	Pass	3©	Pass
3ª	Pass	4§	Pass
4¨	Dbl.	4NT	Pass
5¨	Pass	5ª	Pass
6§	All Pass

It seems that East started with Stayman, then tried to find out West's distribution with relys of 3§ and 3ª, later on showed interest in a club slam and finally blackwooded all the way to only six, when West told him that he did not have ªK.

Argentina in the other room also thought that the long club suit wasn't worth mentioning. When North found a 2ª-intervention, all East could do was to double only to hear his partner jump to 3NT(+2) and pass this out:

West	North	East	South
1NT	2ª	Dbl.	Pass
3NT	All Pass

Canada's East player did not have the splinter available and stopped in six although North "bid the ªK":

West	North	East	South
Demuy		Heller
1§	1ª	Dbl.	Pass
3§	Pass	3ª	Pass
4©	Pass	6§	All Pass

The trouble is, that West will take the 3ª cue bid as 3NT orientated as it does not show the excellent club fit. After 4© now it seems the too much bidding space is already lost to investigate the grand in detail.
For their opponents, USA 2, East/West took a very conservative view at their cards, which even left room for North/South to allocate their diamond fit:

West	North	East	South
1§	1ª	Dbl.	Pass
2§	2¨	2ª	3¨
3©	Pass	4¨	Pass
5§	All Pass

Does this mean, that you can score IMPs playing in 5§ only? Oh no, Australians East/West pair collected a whole bunch for just that:

West	North	East	South
1§	1ª	Dbl.	Pass
3§	Pass	4¨	Pass
5§	All Pass

Even the splinter didn't get West excited here. He must have been relieved to hear, that his Dutch opponents got to the wrong game at the other table, after a successful two-suiter intervention by North/South:

West	North	East	South
1§	2§	Dbl.	4¨
4©	All Pass

When this contract went two off, Australia was happy to take 13 surprise IMPs.

Reaching game only was also good enough to take part in the minimum IMP-exchange in the match between Egypt and CAC, when nobody got interested in a club slam. Egypt tried out the 1NT-opening again:

West	North	East	South
1NT	2ª	Dbl.	Pass
3ª	Pass	3NT	All Pass

Here East had a negative double available which of course didn't help either, so once again 3NT become the final contract, with West taking all thirteen tricks.
CAC also got to 3NT and lost 3 IMPs when declarer made only ten tricks:

West	North	East	South
1NT	Pass	2§	Pass
2¨	Pass	3NT	All Pass

No intention to find out about West's distribution here, so the club fit was missed once again.

The last results given one might get the impression that you can't win much playing in 3 NT, but we have one more table to go and still one big swing is yet to come for France, who played in - guess what? - 3NT!
The French pair also went for the "infamous" - but in the meantime familiar - 1NT-opening:

West	North	East	South
1NT	2¨	Dbl.	Pass
3§	Pass	3¨	Pass
3©	Pass	3ª	Pass
3NT	All Pass

After North's 2¨ East/West found out a lot about their stopper for no-trumps but nothing their club fit and made 3NT with an overtrick.
At the other table it was disaster time, when Denmark reached the six-level, but played in the wrong suit!

West	North	East	South
1§	1ª	Dbl.	Pass
3§	3¨	4NT	5¨
6©	All Pass

After the fog had cleared up West had finished down six and France had collected 15 IMPs.

Although quite understandably this board wasn't to everybody's taste hopefully we will get more of these "boring" no swing-boards in the course of this championships!