| 35th World Interzonal Team Championships, Paris, France | Saturday, 27 October 2001 |
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China vs Japan Venice Cup - Round 10 Only one pair remains from the Chinese Women's team we have been seeing at World Championships for the last few years. The new-look team is doing very nicely here in Paris and it is time that we took a look at them in their Round 10 match against Japan.
China missed a great chance for another big gain when Jian Wang and Zhi Zhen bounced the bidding and bought the contract in 4ª doubled for -500. Even getting to game in the other room would have been worth a modest game, while slam is on little more than one of two finesses on the East/West cards. Three clubs made all thirteen tricks for +190 but 7 IMPs to Japan. Was this a matter of judgement or a misunderstanding as to the nature of East's sequence opposite the 13-15 no trump?
Kyoko Shimamura and Shoko Fukuda reached 3NT via an inverted minor-suit raise, while the Chinese pair started with a strong club, a balanced positive response and an enquiry, to which the response showed 11-13 with 4-4 in the minors. Fukuda was one down for -50 and it looked as though Wang might
suffer the same fate. She received a spade lead of the jack to her
king and played a diamond to the ace at trick two followed by a
club to the king then a low diamond. Yamada won that and returned
a diamond to the king and Wang exited with the last diamond. Yamada
tried a low heart to Wang's queen and declarer now played a spade
to the queen and a second heart, leaving the §A stranded on the
dummy. Yamada won the heart, cashed his other heart winner and exited
with the last heart. That should have led to one down because Wang
was left with the ace and nine of spades in hand - but Hayashi had
lost the plot and threw her spades to hang on to the club guard;
+400 and 10 IMPs to China.
The straightforward Japanese auction gave Wang no opportunity to get involved in the auction and Zhen led the jack of spades. With spades breaking 3-3, there is a sure line from here of winning in hand and leading a spade to the eight, losing the trick to the safe hand. However, Hayashi actually ducked the spade completely and that proved to be just as effective. Wang erred by encouraging with the ª4, when the two would have at least given her partner a slightly better chance of getting it right, and of course Zhen continued with a second spade; +600. The strong club auction allowed Shimamura to show her hearts in the other room. That meant that the Chinese pair were careful to play 3NT from the West seat and now a heart lead would have given away the ninth trick. But Shimamura led a safe diamond instead and careful defence from here on left Yanhong Wang with only eight tricks; -100 and 12 IMPs to Japan. At the half-way point in the match China led by 22-19 but now they
began take control.
Hayashi's simple raise did not encourage Yamada to do more than compete to 3ª, where she received the lead of the ace of clubs followed by a heart switch to the jack and king. Yamada played a diamond to the ace and a diamond back to Wang's queen. The ©Q lost to the ace and the ¨J was covered by the king, ruffed low and over-ruffed. A heart was led to Wang's ten and she could now see that a fourth diamond would expose the trump position when Zhen failed to over-ruff the dummy. Instead, she tried the thirteenth heart but to no avail. Yamada could see that a diamond was the obvious defence and that a competent defender had to have a good reason for not following that line. Accordingly, she ruffed the heart in hand, laid down the ªA to drop the king, and ruffed her winning diamond with the ª10; +140. Sun's 1NT response showed a constructive three-card spade raise and Yanhong went straight to game. Shimamura led a top club and switched to the king of diamonds. Declarer won the diamond and ran the ten of spades to the bare king. Now Shimamura cashed the ¨Q but then, fatally, tried to cash the §A also and Yanhong could ruff and take a heart pitch on the established clubs; +420 and 7 IMPs to China.
Jian Wang opened a strong club then found that she had no room to show her two-suiter, being forced to show the first suit at the four level. If, as seems normal, Zhen's double of 4ª was a warning signal to try to discourage her partner, Wang did well to jump to the slam now - though she only really needs to find two entries in dummy for the double diamond hook. Shimamura showed a strong hand then both minors and settled for the small slam when Fukuda could cuebid but not show a diamond card. Both declarers made twelve tricks; +1370 and a flat board.
The Japanese pair had the advantage of being able to start with a natural bid (well, better minor) where the Chinese had to start with a Precision 1¨, but it was China who reached the grand slam while Japan languished in six. Plus 1440 to China and +940 to Japan; 11 IMPs to China.
Oh dear! Hayashi explained her 4§ cuebid as both majors and obviously assumed that her partner knew that this was what to expect. In a sense, it shows good discipline to trust partner's jump to 5¨. Unfortunately, Yamada was on a different page and presumably thought that any two suits were possible, in which case the jump to 5¨ would get converted to 5© if her partner actually had the majors. Who was at fault is a matter that they will no doubt have resolved by now. With China getting to the heart game, -400 in 5¨ cost 14 IMPs.
Where Jian Wang was at the top end of her 13-15 range, Shimamura was minimum within her 15-17. Zhi Zhen was willing to make one try in case there was a diamond fit, then leave it up to her partner. Wang gave 3NT a good look but then settled for game. She did not take the best line in diamonds so held herself to ten tricks; +630. Facing a strong no trump, Fukuda had to do more and she jumped to 4NT. Whatever that was intended to be, it looks as though it was taken as RKCB for spades, though I cannot be certain of that. Fukuda next jumped to the hopeless slam and lost 13 IMPs for her pains. China had done well in the second half of the match and ran out winners by 75-20 IMPs, 25-4 VPs. |
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