| 36th World Team Championships, Monte Carlo, Monaco | Friday, 7 November 2003 |
Israel v France – Senior Bowl Round 7 Leaders France had a tough match against a strong Israeli squad in Round 7 and there was plenty of action in the first half.
Slam is pretty much just on the position of the ace of clubs. Francois Leenhardt opened 5¨ and Christian Mari thought for a while before eventually passing. The low club lad from Shalom Zeligman allowed Leenhardt to play low and make twelve tricks for +420. Pinhas Romik preferred to open with a gambling 3NT and played there. After a spade lead, the defensive discarding was not easy and Romik came to twelve tricks for +490 and 2 IMPs to Israel.
Leenhardt transferred and went on to game when Mari broke to 3©. Adrian Schwartz also led the ace of clubs but, on seeing his partner’s queen, switched to the king of diamonds. Mari won the diamond, cashed a top heart, Schwartz following with the queen, then played the ª10 to the king and ace. Zeligman played ¨Q and another diamond to ensure a trick for the ©J; down one for –50 and 5 IMPs to Israel.
The auctions were slightly different but the final contracts were identical, as were the two lines of defence. Both Easts led king and another spade and both Wests won and played the killing third round of spades. Both declarers ruffed high and finessed East for the ©J, not that it mattered; down one for –100 and a flat board.
Levit could open with a natural weak two bid while Mari did not have that possibility but the final outcome was once again the same. The defence followed very different lines, however. Maurice Aujaleu led the queen of hearts, which held the trick. He switched to a low club for the ten, ducked, and back came a second club to declarer’s ace. Romik played a diamond and Aujaleu took the ace, cashed the king of clubs and gave his partner a diamond ruff. A heart forced dummy to ruff and declarer lost two more tricks for down four; -800. Zeligman also led the ©Q but Schwartz overtook to switch to his singleton diamond. Zeligman won and gave his partner a ruff and now Schwartz switched to a low club. Leenhardt won the §A and cashed the ace of spades before ruffing a heart. He continued with a winning diamond but Schwartz could ruff with the ªK and play a club to his partner’s king. Zeligman played a heart now, forcing dummy to ruff with the queen and thereby promoting his jack into a trick; down three for –500 but 7 IMPs to France. Had Leenhardt not cashed the ªA before ruffing a heart and playing a diamond he would have done rather better. If North makes the mistake of ruffing low declarer can over-ruff, cash the ªA dropping the king, and cross to the ªQ to cash three diamond tricks – contract just made! If he ruffs with the king declarer can over-ruff and lead the ª10 to pin the nine. As long as South covers the ten, the contract must go one down as declarer cannot draw trumps and cash the diamonds so can only get one club discard, while if South fails to cover the contract is made because trumps can be drawn ending in dummy. Finally, the contract goes one down if North does not ruff at all as there is an unavoidable trump loser.
Both Easts played 4© and both sets of defenders defeated the contract by twice leading clubs to create two trump tricks for North to go with one club and one diamond; no swing at –100.
It is not the French style to open 1Nt when holding a good five-card major but this time the slow approach firstly put the wrong hand on lead, from declarer’s point of view, and secondly ensured that the right lead would be found anyway. Zeligman led a club to the king and ace and Leenhardt ran the ª10 to the queen. Schwartz’s §8 return was covered by nine and ten and Zeligman switched to a heart for the king and ace. Leenhardt ducked the §7 now but Zeligman had the ace of diamonds as an entry to cash the club winner; down two for –200. Levit had no qualms about opening 1NT and Romik raised him straight to game. Adad picked a very bad time to try an imaginative opening lead – the ªQ! It was not too taxing to make ten tricks after this start; +630 and 13 IMPs to Israel.
Schwartz overcalled 1¨ on his strong four-card suit and it was normal for Leenhardt to show the hearts then rebid 1NT, where he played. The lead was a diamond to the king and Schwartz switched to a spade. Leenhardt led a diamond up and Schwartz won the king to play a second spade. Now Leenhardt played ace then ten of hearts and, when that was ducked, a third round. He had eight tricks now for +120. Adad preferred to make a take-out double of 1§ but found that he had no safe contract to get out to. One Diamond doubled lost three hearts, three spades and a club plus two trump tricks for down three; -500 and 9 IMPs to Israel. That completed a very useful first half for Israel, who led by 41-9 IMPs. A very quiet second half saw the score move on only to 48-12 IMPs, 22-8 VPs to Israel. |
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