| 35th World Interzonal Team Championships, Paris, France | Friday, 26 October 2001 |
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Canada vs Indonesia Venice Cup - Round 8 Canada would be on most people's list of expected qualifiers for the Venice Cup knock-out stages but they were still below half-way going into their Round 7 clash with Indonesia. The early action did not go well for the Canadians.
Dianna Gordon decided that declarer would have her partner's club suits well controlled so tried the effect of a low heart lead instead. That ran to Irne Korengkeng's queen. She crossed to dummy with red suits to lead black cards towards her two king-queens and eventually came to eleven tricks. No problem there; +660. Elita Safoyan led the nine of clubs and Lusje Bojoh played low,
allowing Martine Lacroix to win the trick. Lacroix played a diamond
to dummy then a spade to her king. The queen of hearts was covered
by the king and ace and the diamonds cashed, ending in dummy. Now
Lacroix played a club up and Bojoh took her ace and returned the
©9 to dummy's jack. Declarer had eight tricks in the bag and had
already established her ninth but was in the wrong hand to cash
it. She played the nine of spades and, when Bojoh played low smoothly,
let it run. The spade lost to the jack and Safoyan cashed the ten
of hearts. Now, if Safoyan had started with ªAjxx, Lacroix had to
keep both her spades and would then make the last trick. That was
how she read the hand, and she pitched the queen of clubs. Alas,
the spades were not as Lacroix hoped and Bojoh won the next trick
with the ace and had the §10 to cash for down one; -100 and 13 IMPs
to Indonesia.
Indonesia picked up a partscore swing on Board 4 and another on this deal. In one room, Sharyn Reus led her heart to the queen and king and Gordon switched to the jack of clubs for the queen and ace. Back came a second club, ruffed, and Riantini took the diamond finesse. Another club was returned and ruffed, the king coming down to establish the ten, and Riantini had an overtrick for +140. The Indonesian defence in the other room was rather more effective. The same heart lead saw Safoyan continue with two more rounds for her partner to ruff. Now Bojoh underled the §A in response to the suit preference signal and Safoyan won the king and played a fourth heart. Francine Cimon threw her small diamond on this trick so Bojoh got another ruff. She exited with her remaining trump to dummy's ace and Cimon cashed the ªK. There was a winning line from this point of pinning the jack of
clubs while taking two ruffs to establish the ten, but Cimon preferred
the simpler line of relying on the ruffing diamond finesse and that
meant one down; -50 and 5 IMPs to Indonesia, who led by 25-0 IMPs.
Attempting to find a defence to beat 2©, Safoyan won her partner's diamond lead and returned the suit. That allowed Cimon to pitch both her clubs on the winning diamonds and she came to ten tricks for +170. In the other room, Riantini jumped to 4© in competition, not being
sure who could make what. The answer was that nobody could make
very much on this occasion. Gordon began by cashing her three aces
and continued with a club to the king. Reus still had a trump to
come and that was down two for -200 and 9 IMPs to Canada.
Indonesia stayed out of the thin game, reasonably enough, with neither partner having any great fit for the other. After a heart lead round to her queen, Safoyan took the club finesse and soon chalked up +150. The weak no trump was punished at the other table when Reus had
sufficient to double and could also double a second time when Korengkeng
ran to 2hx, showing both majors, and Gordon made a forcing pass.
Gordon led the king of diamonds to dummy's ace and declarer ducked
a club. She came to three trump tricks and two diamonds; three down
for -500 and 8 IMPs to Canada.
Gordon bid the South hand in normal fashion, doubling then bidding 2NT, raised to game. Riantini had no reason not to lead her partner's suit, but the jack of spades put declarer under pressure. Gordon made eleven tricks for +660. I found Safoyan's sequence of bids a little strange, but the final
contract was the same. There was a crucial difference, however,
that East was on lead and knew not to lead a spade. Lacroix led
a low club to the ace and Bojoh knocked out the ace of diamonds.
Lacroix cleared the clubs and Bojoh cashed the diamonds then played
king, queen and a third heart. She gave that a few seconds thought
but then got it right, rising with the ace to make her contract;
+600 but 2 IMPs to Canada, who had closed to 19-28 at the half-way
pointing the set.
Well, would you reopen with the South hand when 1ª came back around? If partner has some bits and pieces including some of the missing spade length, it may be possible to defeat 1ª with nothing on your way, while the actual North hand is about the only type that can offer a decent game contract . that was the way Gordon saw it and she did indeed go plus on defence to 1ª; two down for +100 to Canada. But +100 proved not to be sufficient. Safoyan balanced with 1NT and Bojoh had an easy raise to game. Safoyan ducked the lead of the ªK and Cimon switched to ace and another heart. Declarer took the club finesse and ran the suit, coming down to only two diamonds in hand. When Cimon bared the ¨K, Safoyan dropped it for plus one; +430 and 8 IMPs to Indonesia.
The pre-emptive double raise pushed Riantini into bidding 4© when she would probably have otherwise settled for 3©. Though the club finesse loses, everything else is all sweetness and light for declarer and Riantini came to eleven tricks for +450; +7 IMPs when Cimon was held to +170 at the other table.
And there was a third successive swing to Indonesia. Riantini's jump overcall of the weak no trump kept Reus quiet on the North cards, of course. Declarer got the trumps wrong and there was only one outside trick to come so that was two down for -200. Safoyan opened 1§ and Cimon also made the pre-emptive overcall. Now Safoyan made a huge decision for her side when she reopened on her flat 14-count facing a passed partner. Bojoh no doubt expected her to have a little more and jumped to the spade game. Lacroix led her diamond and Cimon played three rounds. Bojoh threw a club on the third diamond and Cimon switched to her club to the queen and ace. Bojoh ran the trumps and the fifth one squeezed Lacroix, who had to come down to three hearts to keep the king of clubs. The §J was thrown from dummy and Bojoh made four heart tricks via the finesse and her contract; a great +620 and 9 IMPs to Indonesia. They led by 52-19. Canada picked up a couple of small swings then this big one:
Both declarers won the heart lead with the king, cashed two top spades then played on diamonds. Against Korengkeng, Gordon was allowed to win the second diamond and push a heart through. Though declarer could win, Reus was able to ruff the third diamond and cash a heart for one down; -100. Cimon played three rounds of diamonds. Safoyan won the third round, cashed the ace of clubs and played a heart through, but this time it was the fourth round of diamonds that North was ruffing and that meant that the heart loser had already disappeared; +620 and 12 IMPs to Canada. The final score was 52-38 to Indonesia, but unfortunately there was a faulty Board 20 (an otherwise flat board) at one table and it had to be cancelled and both sides awarded +3 IMPs. Indonesia therefore won by 17 IMPs while Canada only lost by 11 IMPs, giving a VP result of 19-13 in favour of Indonesia. |
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