| 9th World Youth Team Championship | Page 2 | Bulletin 2 - Wednesday 20 August 2003 |
| |
||
Round One – France vs Poland Following tradition, the opening match on vugraph featured the host nation, France, in a tough and important clash with another of the well-fancied European teams, Poland. A lively set, which created swings galore in most of the other matches, produced a relatively low-scoring match.
What a difference a borederline opening bid makes. In the Closed Room Mrzysztof Buras made what I consider to be a normal 1¨ opening on the North cards and the Poles had the auction to themselves, ending up in a quite 2§, which Buras made exactly for +90. Thomas Bessis passed as dealer on vugraph and that led to a very different auction when Jakub Kotorowicz now opened 1¨ on the East cards. When Bessis overcalled 2§ at his second turn, Jakub doubled to show extra values, holding a near maximum in Polish Club, which incudes a strong club option in the 1§ opening bid. Julian Gaviard made a pre-emptive raise to 4§ and now Krzysztof Kotorowicz in turn showed his extras via a double. Jakub repeated the diamonds, of course, and Krzysztof went back to spades. Now Jakub asked for key cards and passed the 5¨ response. Had Bessis managed to find a double, the Poles would have had nowhere to run to, but he was very happy to find them playing in his best suit and did not want to help them to judge where to play. Five Diamonds had to go three down after Jakub had won the opening club lead and played a spade to the queen then a diamond to his king; –150 and 2 IMPs to France. The French also picked up 2 IMPs on Board 2 for an extra undertrick in 2ª, then something rather more substantial on Board 3.
In the Closed Room,Piotr Lutostanski made a simple raise to 2ª and Buras appears to have first made a game-try double then, when his opponents reached 4©, judged to go on despite his partner’s failure to act, no doubt as a two-way shot in case one or other game was making. As an aside, wouldn’t you prefer to bid 4§ on the East cards rather than 4©, thereby helping partner to judge what to do if the opposition, as expected, bid 4ª? As it was, Guillaume Grenthe did well to go on to 5©, expecting his partner to be very short in spades for his forcing pass, and right he was. Buras doubled but found that he could not defeat the contract; +850 to France. Of course, Buras no doubt assumed that he was facing only three-card spade support. Gaviard rasied to 3ª and that made it easier for Bessis to judge correctly on vugraph. He saved in 5ª over 5©, and had no problem in overcoming the four-nil trump split to get out for two down; –3200 but 11 IMPs to France.
While Olivier Bessis could respond in his longest suit, the constrainst of the Polish Club obliged Kotorowicz to bid 1©. Promising 8+HCP and at least four hearts. That caused a problem later as his brother seemed not to know which red suit would be the longer and chose the four-three heart fit rather than five-three diamonds. This probably turned a plus into a minus as the double of 3¨ had been alerted and presumably North would have removed to 3ª, which fails on normal defence. Three Hearts was no great pleasure to play. Jakub received the lead of a trump to the jack and king and played a diamond to dummy’s ace (the six would have been a useful play as Gaviard did not split), then a second diamond. Gaviard won the ¨J and played a second trump to the ten and queen. Back came a spade to the ace and Jakub crossed to the ©A to play the next diamond. Bessis ruffed that and played a spade. Gaviard won and continued spades, ruffed by Jakub who got out with a diamond. That endplayed gaviard to give a second club trick in the ending; down two for –200. Meanwhile, Buras’s delayed 2ª raise bought the contract – I have a strong preference for the immediate raise found at the other table – and this failed by a trick for a further 100 to France and 7 more IMPs. They led by 22-0 after four boards. The score had moved on to 23-2 when this next baord came along.
Lutostanski’s 1§ opening could have been various types, including a strong club. I am not sure why his 4¨ rebid showed the long clubs but whatever their agreements Buras had n excellent hand in support of either minor and his cuebid was all that Lutostanski needed to hear.
The French game-forcing 2¨ opening saw East/West pre-empt and raise in spades but when gaviard jumped to 6§, playing for just a little something from his partner, who was surely marked with a spade ruffing value at least, Bessis could have raised to 8§. Let alone seven, had such a call been legal. Flat at +2140.
Both Norths opened 4¨, not having the misfortune to be playing Namyats ( a convention which is on my personal hate list), and bothe Wests doubled for take-out. In the Closed Room, Bessis removed to 4© without much enthusiasm and played there for down three and –300. A double would have been richly rewarded, but Lutostanski’s hand is not that defensively oriented, depsite it’s 16 HCP. Jakub decided that 4© would have no chance and might suffer a large penalty, so tried a pass, hoping to find his partner with just enough to go plus. Not this time. He led a spade and Krzysztof won the ace and switched to a club to declarer’s ace. Bessis, not unnaturally on the auction, led the ¨Q. When that lost to the bare king, the contract was secure and Krzysztof had to cash the ace of hearts to save the overtrick; +510 and 5 IMPs to France. Note that had West returned a spade at trick two, the same diamond play from declarer would have led to defeat as a third spade would promote the ¨J into a trick.
Grenthe found the best lead of the §J against 2NT. Still, that contract should make if declarer takes the diamond finesse, but he misguessed the suit after Bessis had dropped the ten on the first round, and that was down one for –100. Jakub found a double of 1¨ and then balanced with 2© when 2¨ came around to him. Incidentally, would you choose 2¨ on the South cards? It seems that only when he bid 2ª did Gaviard show any values for the first time. Having failed to bid 1NT over the double, would that not be a better choice over 1ª? The play in 3¨
revolved around the trump suit. The defence got their four sidesuit
tricks easily enough and Bessis had to judge how to play the diamonds.
Taking into account the bidding by East, there must have been a
strong temptation to play him for a singleton diamond, which would
have led to defeat, but Bessis got it right and eventually played
low to the jack on the second round to score +110; another 5 IMPs
to France.
In the Closed Room, Grenthe showed his two-suiter via a 2§ cuebid. It was easy for Bessis to bid 4ª over 4©, but it was also easy for Buras to judge to go on to the five level when his partner did not fancy a double of 4ª. In 5© declarer ruffed the heart lead and played king then nine of hearts, having eleven tricks when the finesse won; +650. Krzysztof made a simple 1ª overcall and Bessis showed his good clubs but also genuine heart support with his 4§ bid. Jakub did not bid 4ª straight away but did so when 4© came back to him. One must have some sympathy with Gaviard for his double now as he had no top club honour and no extra heart length in a near-minimum balanced hand. Against that, he had no wasted values in spades. Four Spades doubled had to fail, of course, but one down for –200 was cheap and earned the Poles 10 badly-needed IMPs.
Neither West was willing to make an immediate pre-emptive overcall, perhaps because of the four-card spade suit, perhaps because of the weak hearts. However, both pre-empted at their second turn. Should this have alerted North/South to the likely four-one spade split? If the spade sidesuit is the most likely explanation for the delayed pre-empt then perhaps so, and that would also suggest the possibility of a bad diamond split. But the North hand has huge potential once a fit has been established and it is hard to be too critical of the respective Norths who checked on key cards then bid the spade slam. Grenthe doubled the final contract, Lightner, hoping for a diamond
lead. But the only suit bid by dummy was clubs and it was impossible
for Bessis to appreciate that the requirements of the Polish Club
had obliged Buras to respond 1ª
because 1¨ would
not have been natural. He led a club to the ace and Grenthe returned
a club. When Buras ruffed and cashed the ace of spades followed
by a top diamond, the hand fell apart. Buras was down three for
–800. Had Grenthe received the diamond lead which he sought,
the contract would have been only one down.
This may be a first in my many years of watching international bridge – a hand on which a Frenchman opens a weak two bid while the hand is passed at the other table. Given a free run, Bessis/Grenthe sailed into 3NT and came to eleven tricks in straightforward fashion after a heart lead; +660. Olivier Bessis’s weak two bid made life more difficult in the other room. Perhaps you prefer a take-out double to the Leaping Michaels 4¨ chosen by Jakub? It is still not automatic by any means to get to 3NT. With 5¨ doomed to fail, Krzysztof did well to choose 4ª. The singleton diamond lead might have beaten this, but Bessis’s actual choice of the §9 gave Krzysztof a chance. He won the ace and drew trumps in four rounds. What is South to discard? Gaviard actually threw a club and a heart and now declarer played the §Q, ducked, followed by the §10 to the king. South cannot switch effectively to diamonds as that holds declarer’s losers in that suit to two, so Gaviard led the jack of hearts, hoping to find his partner with the ace. Krzysztof won the ©A, cashed the §J and had ten tricks for +620 and just a single IMP to France. If South does not throw a club away, he can win the §Q and lead a heart while the club suit is blocked. But what should his second discard be? If a heart, he is down to a singleton in that suit. Declarer wins the ©A, unblocks the club and ducks a diamond. With no heart to lead, South is powerless. And if South discards a diamond to retain his clubs and two hearts? Declarer does not bother to play on clubs. Instead he ducks a diamond. If South switches to a heart, a club goes away and there is just a second diamond and the §K to be lost. Again, South can do nothing.
Both North/South pairs bid 1© – 1ª – 2¨ – Pass, and both Wests led the jack of clubs. Lutostanski was allowed to get home for +90. On vugraph, Jakub won the club lead and switched to a low trump, accurately judging that his partner would often have a doubleton honour to explain his failure to lead a trump on an auction that so often calls for one, and with the extra chance that declarer would not run it to the jack anyway if holding the ace and king. Krzysztof won the ¨K and returned one to the jack, queen and ace and Gaviard played the ªJ. Jakub won his ace and cashed the ten of diamonds then a heart through to his brother’s king. The contract could not be made from here. Under some time pressure, declarer lost an extra trick for down two; –100 and 5 IMPs to Poland. France came out on top by 48-19 IMPs, the lowest aggregate of any of the eight matches, converting to a useful 21-9 VP win for our hosts. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
| Page 2 |
