| 9th World Youth Team Championship | Page 4 | Bulletin 3 - Thursday 21 August 2003 |
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Round Three – USA1 vs China Hong Kong China Hong Kong had a great first day, scoring 72 VPs out pf a possible 75 to lie second to the defending champions, USA2. In Round 3 they met the other USA team, who had not started quite so well.
There was no sign of what was to come as USA1 picked up 5 IMPs
on the first board of the match. Both Souths opened 1©
but the respective Wests took different views as to whether to get
involved. For USA1, Xing Yuan chose to go quietly, not liking to
double with so much in hearts, while Yiu Chung Lai made a take-out
double, not liking to pass with 14 HCP. Yuan got to defend 1NT,
while Lai became dummy in 3¨
after a competitive auction. Robert Glickman led a diamond against Samuel Ieong's 1NT in the other room. Ienong correctly put up dummy's queen but to no avail as it lost to the king. The defence cashed out the diamonds then switched accurately to hearts and declarer won the second round and tried a club, Yuan putting in the jack. Ieong won and took a spade finesse and that was down three; -150.
There was a major difference of opinion regarding the East hand. Where Glickman was happy to open 3©, slightly aggressive given his 7-2-2-2 shape but normal to my mind, Ng preferred to pass. Neither considered the compromise of opening with a weak two bid. After Ng' pass, Lai opened 1ª in third seat and Beck overcalled 2§, ugly with that ropey suit but neither 1NT nor double is ideal either. When she caught a club raise she took a shot at 3NT. While that contract is likely to make if played by South, it is too tough an ask to get it played that way round on this auction and played by North the spade lead doomed Beck to a one-trick defeat; -100. Glickman's pre-empt saw Ieong with an easy take-out double in fourth seat and Henry Wong went for the response with the greatest upside by trying 3NT, though clearly he is well short of the values for this bid. When Yuan doubled on general values, Wong thought better of it and retreated to the relative safety of 4¨. That contract was an easy make without even worrying about the possibility of an intrafinesse to hold the trump losers to one. Wong made exactly for +130 but, played by him, 3NT would surely have made also; 6 IMPs to China Hong Kong.
The American East/West pair bid aggressively to the no trump game – where Yuan found his 2NT response to the overcall is hard to imagine. This contract may be a thin one, but the cards lie very well for East/West and it can actually be made easily enough simply by crossing to hand to lead to the ¨J, bringing in five tricks in that suit. However, Ieong led a low club and Yuan was seduced by his nine and played low from dummy, correct if the lead had been from queen-ten, but surely wrong in theory as North rated to hold the ace most of the time, when playing low could not gain. Now the defence had three club tricks to go with two hearts and the diamond; down two for -100 and a chance missed. At the other table Lai did not respond to his partner's overcall and Beck reopened with a double – a very dubious action with that pattern, and one that was severely punished. Ng redoubled to show his extras and Pahk bid 2ª as a pass would have shown a desire to defend 2¨ redoubled. North/South found their best fit but 3§ was way too high. The defence began with three rounds of spades, Beck ruffing then crossing to the ace of diamonds to take the heart finesse. That lost to the bare king, of course, and Ng led two top diamonds, the second being ruffed by declarer, whose next play was the ace of hearts, ruffed. Ng led another diamond and declarer ruffed in hand and cashed the ace of clubs, eventually emerging with six tricks for -800 and 14 IMPs to China Hong Kong.
Lai started with a forcing not rump and, when Ng could repeat his spades freely in competition, jumped to game. Beck judged to save in 5¨. She was correct in so far as 4ª would have been an easy make, but the penalty proved to be too great at -800. Ng cashed two top spades then switched to a club. Lai won the ace and returned a second club and Beck won in dummy to take the trump finesse. A heart to the ace allowed lai to give his partner a club ruff and that was down four. Yan made an immediate limit raise to 3ª and Ieong overcalled 4¨. Glickman doubled this but Yuan judged correctly to go back to 4ª, ending the auction when Wong saw no reason to save with his flat pattern. Wong's heart lead ran to the ten and Glickman now had eleven tricks; +650 but 4 IMPs to China Hong Kong.
Glickman started with a simple overcall, being too strong for 2ª in his methods, whereas Ng could just about justify 2ª in his partnership style, though the bid is in principle pre-emptive. When Wong raised the clubs directly over the simple overcall, Ieong competed quietly to first 3§ then 4§ over the opposing spade bids. He had to lose a spade trick and three trumps for down one; -100. Beck had only heard delayed support for her clubs after she had made a take-out double of 1ª and her third action was to double again. Presumably this was a long way from being a hands-off penalty double, but Pahk was happy enough to defend when holding an ace and having already shown her club support. Anyway, having just gone for back-to-back -800s it was time for some revenge. Pahk led the ten of spades to Beck's ace and she cashed two top hearts before returning a second trump. This defence looks to be wrong. South cannot hold more than one of the top cards in the minors and what North had done is to establish a ruffing finesse position in hearts. Unless South's card is the ¨A, it is unlikely that this contract is going down from this position, and so it proved. Ng won the second spade in dummy and established a heart trick for a diamond discard; +730 and 12 more IMPs to China Hong Kong. While North perhaps should have got it right anyway, note that South followed to the first heart with the seven, discouraging, but her second heart was the three, when perhaps a suit-preference six would have been more helpful.
Both Norths judged their hand to be worth a raise to 3©, a valuation with which I agree, though the final contract of 4© is a pretty poor one to say the least. Lai led a low club and Pahk had to ruff in dummy as she would otherwise have had four losers very quickly. She continued with a spade to hand and a diamond up. Lai won the ¨A and played back a spade. Pahk won in dummy and ruffed out the diamonds then ducked a heart (she could not play ace and another unless there was a blockage as the defence would draw the remaining trumps and cash a club). Ng gave his partner a spade ruff with the short trump and that was down one; -50. Yuan led a spade and now the contract could not be beaten. Wong won in hand to play a diamond and Yuan won the ace and played a second spade. Wong had not been forced so could afford to play ace and another trump. Though Glickman could play a third round, the even diamond break meant that the suit could be established with one ruff and that was ten tricks for +420 and 10 IMPs to China Hong Kong.
The Open Room had managed two consecutive boards without playing a doubled contract but normal service was resumed with this deal. Pahk waited until her opponents had bid and supported her short suit then she doubled for take-out. That could have been a good idea on a different day but not on this one. Lai could redouble to show extras and there proved to be nowhere to run. The defence began with a spade to the ace then switched to diamonds and declarer finally came to six tricks for -800. It would have been worse if there had been any sidesuit that the defence could play on to good effect but dummy had some useful middle cards in each suit to prevent this so they had to settle for four trump tricks and one in each sidesuit. Wong chose to come in immediately. I dislike calls like his 1© overcall on such a poor four-card suit, but having come in early he had no temptation to get involved again later. Wong led ace and another heart against 2ª and Glickman won the second round and played a spade up. Wong won and led a third heart, ruffed in dummy. Glickman cashed the king of spades then played on clubs and came to eight comfortable tricks; +110 but a further 12 IMPs to China Hong Kong. At the midpoint in the match they led by a healthy 58-5 IMPs. The next few deals were relatively peaceful and the score had only moved on to 63-9 when this next deal came along.
Both Easts played 3NT after North had doubled the Stayman response for the lead. Both souths led the §8 and both declarers played low from dummy, the ten forcing the queen. Ng played a heart to the king then a diamond to the eight and king. Back came a second club for king and ace and Beck cashed the jack of clubs then switched to a heart. Ng won © and played a spade to the king and a heart back to his hand. Next he cashed the cashed the §7 and played ace of spades and played the ª10 to South, hoping for an endplay. Alas, Pahk did not hold the ¨Q and did have sufficient winners to defeat the contract; down one for –50. Glickman played the ª10 at trick two, ducking when Wong covered with the jack. Wong played a club to his partner’s ace and Ieong switched to a heart. Glickman won the ace and played a second heart to dummy then ran the ¨J. Back came a heart to the queen and declarer played the §9 to establish a trick in that suit. He played low on the diamond return and had nine tricks for +400 and 10 badly-needed IMPs to USA1.
If American supporters entertained hopes that the previous deal would reverse the trend in the match they were to be sadly disappointed. Ng’s off-centre pre-empt saw a take-out double from Pahk and a raise to game from Lai. But Beck had plenty of distribution even if she had no ace or king and it was normal for her to bid 5© over 5¨, ending the auction.The defence has to lead spades before declarer can play on clubs if they are to defeat the contract but the chosen defence was to play two rounds of diamonds. Beck ruffed the second round, drew trumps and played ace and another club; +650 and a second successive useful result for the American North/South, who had taken something of a battering earlier in the set. But the action in the other room was very unsatisfactory from an American perspective. Glickman opened only 1¨, perfectly reasonably, and Womg overcalled 1©. Ieong raised to only 2©, hoping to look like a man with a lot less playing strength than was actually the acse, but then of course went on to game at his next turn. There was no reason at all for Yuan to double 4© but he did so and the heart lead meant an easy eleven tricks; +990 and 8 IMPs to China Hong Kong.
Diamonds became the fourth suit at both tables. Making it tough to find the best trump suit. Lai/Ng failed to achieve this and any faint hope they may have had was extinguished when Ng chose to show his heart feature over the 3¨ enquiry rather than either raise diamonds or bid no trump. Four Spades was easy enough, especially after the normal singleton diamond lead, and Lai soon had twelve tricks for +680. Having to jump to 3© to force is revolting and very oldfashioned but that is what Yuan had to do at the other table. But the Americans, who seemed to have no room in which to do so, managed to find the diamond fit where Hong Kong had failed. Glickman bid 4¨ over 3© and Yan raised. Now Glickman liked his major-suit kings enough to reraise himself to slam. Six Diamonds is a very good contract and would be expected to make most of the time despite the four-one trump break. The lead was a spade and Glickman worried that this might be from shortage so did not want to risk a diamond finesse into the North hand, when losing to a doubleton queen might mean also conceding a ruff. Instead he won the ªK and played ace of diamonds and led the jack of diamonds, rising with the king and playing a third round to the queen when North showed out. Back came a fourth diamond and now declarer was dependent on picking up the hearts. When he failed to do so he was down one for –100. overall, a poor effort from declarer. That was 13 IMPs to China Hong Kong when it really should have been 12 the other way. USA1 picked up a modest swing on the last board of the match but it was China Hong Kong who were comprehensive winners by 84-22 IMPs, 25-3 VPs. |
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