The Dutch Defence

By Kees Tammens

In the bundle of redoubled contracts and spectacular adventures thre is also a lot of very fine bridge. Naarten Schollaardt and Marcel Lagas of the Netherlands put up a neat defense to defeat a modest 2ª on this deal:

Board 9/round 10 Netherlands vs Egypt

Dealer North. East/West Vul   ª 8 7 5 2 © K 9 5 ¨ 9 7 4 § A J 9 ª J 6 © 6 4 ¨ K 10 5 3 § K 8 6 4 3 ª A 10 4 © A Q 8 7 ¨ J 8 6 § 7 5 2   ª K Q 9 3 © J 10 3 2 ¨ A Q 2 § Q 10

West	North	East	South
	Pass	Pass	1§
Pass	1ª	Pass	2ª
All Pass

East, Lagas, led §5 and the Egyptian declarer played §10(§Q seems better). West, Schollaardt, put up §K to block the suit for declarer. Now came a small spade for the king and a second spade for the ªJ. West played a heart for ©Q and East made the necessary move by returning ¨J, queen and king. West cooperated beautifully by playing back the ¨3. Declarer guessed wrong and played the ¨7, for the ¨8 and ace. The drefenders still had to make the ©A, ªA and ¨10 for one down.

Egypt is an unknown factor in the world of junioir bridge and has played a good campionship so far. When an Egyptian player tried to improve the world record for NOT supporting partner his opponents were not really put to the test.

Dealer North. None Vul   ª 4 © 10 6 ¨ 8 7 § K Q 9 8 7 6 5 4 ª J 8 6 2 © 9 7 2 ¨ A K 10 9 6 3 § - ª A 10 9 7 5 © A K 8 5 4 ¨ Q 5 4 § -   ª K Q 3 © Q J 3 ¨ J 2 § A J 10 3 2

West	North	East	South
	3§	4¨*	Pass!!!
4ª	All Pass

East's Four Diamonds promise4d both majors and West must have wondered where all the clubs had gone but took a rather pessimistic view in signing of in the spade game. Right he was with two inescapable trump losers.

At the other table there was far more action

West	North	East	South
	4§	Dbl	5§
5¨	Pass	6¨	Dbl
All Pass

Bas Drijver in the South seat of course raised to the thirteen card fit and also had enough defence in the form of the ªKQ3 and the heart stop to double the 6¨ contract. Righ he was: two down for + 300 added to the +450 of the other table.

Vive la Difference

By Ib Lundby

We have seen lots of ambitious 3NT contracts in Mangaratiba. On this hand from round 11 the Australian declarer in the Open Room went one down in 1NT. In the Closed Room 17 years old Martin Schaltz from the "Schaltz-dynasty" (both his grand mother, father and mother have won European or World Champion titles) on the very same cards decided to fight for 3NT - and made it with an overtrick!

Session 11. Board 13. Dealer North. All Vul.   ª 10 5 3 2 © 5 3 ¨ K 3 § A K 8 6 2 ª J 9 8 © 9 7 4 ¨ J 9 8 § Q 9 7 5 ª A 7 6 4 © Q J 8 6 2 ¨ A Q 10 § 10   ª K Q © A K 10 ¨ 7 6 5 4 2 § J 4 3

In 1NT South got a heart lead to the ©J and ©A and decided to handle the clubs in a mysterious way: Low club to the 8 and 10 - and later on he played a low club to the king. One down.
The bidding in the Closed Room:

West	North	East	South
	Marquardsen		Schaltz
	1§	Dbl	1¨
Pass	1ª	Pass	3NT
All Pass

West chose the lead of the ª8, which ran to declarers' queen. It is a long way from Copenhagen to Mangaratiba, but an even longer way to nine tricks here, so Martin settled for five club tricks by playing the §J, which won the trick. East's club holding had to be singleton §10, §9 or doubleton §10 9. Because of East's double and the principle of restricted choice Martin guessed that the §10 was a singleton and therefor continued with a low club towards dummy. West's play of the §9 taken by the §K confirmed that South had made the right decision, and the same story could be said when he shifted to a low heart, and East chose to split his honours. The heart situation now was obvious, but of course South would have finessed anyway.
After a club finesse and two more tricks in the suit South noticed that West discarded a spade. Therefore he was able to take a heart finesse, cash another heart trick and play the ªK to East, who had to give dummy one more trick in diamonds.
A difference of four tricks!