In the kind of photo finish that, if written into a movie script, would be dismissed as improbable, USA II rose from the dead in the Bermuda Bowl round-robin to sneak into the eighth and final qualifying spot and a berth in the quarter-finals.

In the Venice Cup, Sweden survived a loss to England in the final match to maintain their place as the last qualifier.
Here are the pairings for the 96-board quarter-final matches, which begin today:

Bermuda Bowl: Italy – Australia; USA I – Chinese Taipei; Poland – USA II, and Norway – Bulgaria.
Venice Cup: China – Sweden; USA I – Chinese Taipei; USA II – Canada, and Netherlands – Germany.

Going into the final three matches, USAII had suffered a series of setbacks which dropped them from second in the standings to 12th. Things looked grim when they lost their first match of the day to India. They rallied with a 50-7 win over China and faced New Zealand in the last match, 13 Victory Points behind Canada, who occupied eighth place.

Things looked great for USA II, who surged to a 36-0 lead against the Kiwis through 13 boards. Little by little they closed in on the Canadians, who had scored only 1IMP against Poland.

On boards 14 and 15, however, the Canadians gained 17 IMPs and seemed certain to make it through.
The VuGraph audience could see that the final board of the set was a routine 3NT that everyone would bid, so if USA II was going to make it move, it had to be on board 15.

They managed a 9-IMP swing, and their 44-1 win was just enough to push them past Canada with 339 VPs to 338.
In the Senior Bowl, which concludes on Monday, USA I had a lead of 7 VPs over France, followed closely by USA II.

Correction: In the Saturday Bulletin, a renegade set of results caused us to think that Germany had won only two of their matches on Friday. Of course, they won all three to set them on the road to the quarter-finals.