Deal of the Day

The deal of Thursday was surely Board 6 from the morning match, Round 6, where East/West have to overcome a pre-emptive overcall and judge whether to play a small or a grand slam and whether in no trump or in clubs.

Board 6. E/W Vul. Dealer East.
	ª 8 5 3 © 7 5 4 2 ¨ 4 3 § J 10 6 5
ª A Q 6 2 © K 10 9 ¨ A Q 8 7 § A 7		ª K 9 7 © A Q 8 3 ¨ - § K Q 9 8 4 3
	ª J 10 4 © J 6 ¨ K J 10 9 6 5 2 § 2

Around the room this was played in 6ª once, 6NT ten times, 7§ once and 7NT four times. Does that mean that there were five unlucky pairs bemoaning the three-two club break as their grand slams failed? No, three times 7NT succeeded after a diamond lead in response to South’s pre-empt. Only Karim Nabil for Egypt managed to avoid the diamond lead, preferring a heart after this auction:

West	North	East	South
		1§	3¨
Dble	Pass	4©	Pass
4NT	Pass	6¨	Pass
7NT	All Pass

Of course, the 6¨ response to RKCB pinpointed the void but it was still a good effort not to lead the suit and it gained Egypt 17 IMPs when they might have lost 13 on a diamond lead.

Chinese Taipei gained 13 for 7NT making against USA1, and Norway gained 13 for 7NT making against France. It was flat in six in the other matches except USA2 v Denmark.

West	North	East	South
Gjaeldbaek	Hurd	Schaltz	Wooldridge
		1§	4¨
Dble	Pass	5¨	Pass
5NT	Pass	7§	All Pass

West	North	East	South
Mignocchi	Henriksen	Bathurst	Marquardsen
		1§	4¨
Dble	Pass	5¨	Pass
6¨	Pass	6©	Pass
7NT	All Pass

Mignocchi duly received a diamond lead to chalk up +2220 in 7NT, while 7§ had to fail (OK, you could make it double dummy, but...). And that was worth 20 IMPs to USA2.

Round 6 Poland vs England

Our main coverage of Round 6 features a different match and will appear in tomorrow’s bulletin. However, there was one nice piece of play on vugraph and we include it here. Poland won the match by 32 IMPs, giving them a 22-8 VP victory.

Board 12. N/S Vul. Dealer West.
	ª K J © A 10 6 4 ¨ K 6 3 § K 5 4 2
ª A 8 7 6 4 3 © K 8 5 ¨ 10 4 § 8 7		ª Q 9 © J 9 3 ¨ A 9 8 7 2 § A 6 3
	ª 10 5 2 © Q 7 2 ¨ Q J 5 § Q J 10 9

This deal featured a nice piece of play from Jakub Kotorowicz for Poland. Both Wests passed as dealer. The English North/South pair then bid 1© – 1NT and West overcalled 2ª, where he played for +110 to Poland. At the other table Jakub Kotorowicz opened the North hand with a Polish 1§ and East overcalled 1¨, South bid 1ª and West 2ª, over which Jakub bid 2NT, where he played.

The lead was a low diamond to dummy’s jack and Jakub now played on clubs. When East took his ace he led another low diamond and Jakub won on table and led a low spade to his ace. Now he cashed the remaining clubs and exited with the jack of spades. Had West held both the missing spade honours, he would have been forced to win this trick and eventually lead away from the king of hearts to present declarer with his eighth trick.

owever, it was East who won with the ªQ and cashed his diamonds. No matter, when he eventually was forced to switch to a heart, the auction made it pretty clear where the king would be and Jakub played low from dummy and once again had the necessary second heart trick; +120 and 6 IMPs to Poland.