| 9th World Youth Team Championship | Page 4 | Bulletin 8 - Wednesday 27 August 2003 |
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Round 15 – Italy vs France Going into the last round of the qualifying stage, France were lying fourth, 6 VPs ahead of fifth-placed Poland. However, in the last round Poland could be expected to get a big win against one of the lower-ranked teams, while the French had to face a powerful Italian squad on vugraph. They knew that a 19-11 victory would see them through to the semi-finals, anything less would leave them reliant on the Poles dropping some points.
French nerves had barely had time to settle when they found themselves 10 IMPs behind. I am not certain of the meaning of Godefroy de Tessiere’s jump-reverse but whatever it meant it did not get the job done as Olivier Bessis passed his follow-up raise to the spade game. In the other room, Fabio Lo Presti opened with a strong club and Francesco Mazzadi’s 1© response was a transfer. When Mazzadi showed his two-suiter, Lo Presti settled for a leap to the small slam. In game, Bessis had the luxury of being able to go all out for as many tricks as possible as he would always come to at least ten, or so it appeared. He won the spade lead on table and organised two diamond ruffs so had all thirteen tricks for +510. Julien Gaviard’s heart lead took an entry out of the North hand prematurely. Lo Presti unblocked the diamond, Thomas Bessis dropping the ten, and cashed the ace of spades then played ace of clubs and ruffed a club. Now he ruffed a diamond and Bessis followed with the jack. Lo Presti had a sure line now and simply drew trumps then conceded a diamond; +980 and 10 IMPs to Italy.
Mazzadi was willing to compete over 1NT where Bessis was not. It looks from the ensuing auction as though 2§ meant something different for him to what it meant to Lo Presti, but perhaps I do them an injustice. For the two passed hands to play 3NT was clearly too much and Gaviard expressed that opinion rather forcibly via a double of the final contract. Furio di Bello played 1NT nicely. He received a low heart lead which ran to his jack and now he took his best shot for the contract by cashing the queen of spades then leading to the ª10. That gave him seven tricks for +90. I suspect that di Bello would have been unimpressed by the efforts of his teammates when it came to score up this deal. Against 3NT doubled, gaviard led the ¨10 to Lo Presti’s ace. Declarer led the ©10 and that was covered by the jack, king and ace. Now Bessis found a low spade switch to the queen but Gaviard persisted with a second diamond. Lo Presti won the queen and played the §Q. Gaviard won the club and now returned a spade, permitting Bessis to take three more tricks there for down two; –500 and 9 IMPs to France, levelling the match at 10-10.
Lo Presti opened 1ª in second seat but his opponents soon got to the no trump game. Naturally enough, Mazzadi led a spade but that gave Gaviard the tempo to make his game; ten tricks for +630. There was a possibility of a swing to France because in the other room de Tessieres did not open the South hand, giving his partner a free choice of opening lead. A diamond lead would hav defeated the contract but, looking at a ten-high diamond suit and lack of outside entries, Bessis too chose to lead a spade in the hope of hitting his partner’s suit. He did so, but that was not enough to beat the contract; +600 for 1 IMP to France.
De Tessiere, in typical French style, passed as dealer on the five-five 10-count and left his opponents to play 2ª. Bessis cashed a top club then switched to a heart for the jack, two and ace. Di Bello played the §J now but Bessis let that run to his partner’s queen and de Tessieres switched to his spade for the nine and ace. Di Bello lost two trumps and two diamonds to go with the two clubs so was down one for –100. Lo Presti did open the South hand and when Gaviard overcalled 1ª Mazzadi felt that he had sufficient to take a shot at the no trump game. Though the club suit was running to provide five tricks, diamonds were very badly placed for declarer. Bessis led the jack of hearts and Mazzadi had no clue that it was right to play low from dummy at trick one. He put up the queen in normal fashion and that lost to the bare ace. The spade switch went to the queen and ace and Bessis cleared the hearts. Mazzadi played a diamond to the nine and twn and back came a club. He won in hand to take the diamond finesse but that lost and Gaviard returned a diamond to establish a trick for himself. There were only seven tricks to be had; down two for –200 and 7 IMPs to France, keeping alive their hopes of making the semi-finals.
Rather as one might expect, Stelio di Bello pre-empted more aggressively than Thomas Bessis when their respective partner’s opened 1ª and right-hand opponent overcalled 2§. Di Bello’s 4ª call left de Tessieres with no room to explore and he tried 4NT, initially minors. Olivier had substantial extra playing strength and gussed to jump to 6§. Hoping to find his partner with spade shortage. Alas, the defence promptly cashed two spade tricks; down one for –50. Lo Presti had a little more room but disliked his doubleton spade sufficiently that he contented himself with a peaceful raise to the club game. That did not invite Mazzadi to go on to slam and 5§ made exactly for +400 and 10 IMPs to Italy, giving them the lead at 20-18. The match was fairly quiet for a long time. The Italian lead had stretched to 7 IMPs when the next major swing occurred.
De Tessieres doubled 2ª for take-out to show his extras and doubled again when Furio leaped to 4ª. The diamond slam was never an issue at this table, where North had passed as dealer, and France picked up 500 for down three, the defence not managing to find the club ruff. Mazzadi opened the North hand where Olivier had passed, and once he had rebid the diamonds there was never any danger of the slam being missed, however much East/West might get involved in the auction. Perhaps, however, Lo pResti could have followed up his 4NT bid with 5NT and got to seven when facing the ©K? Anyway, 6¨+1 was worth +940 and 10 IMPs to Italy, so there was no need to risk a possibly less than solid grand slam.
Lo Presti’s weak two bid saw Gaviard overcall 2NT, maximum but within range, and Thomas had a collection of queens and jacks that did not tempt him to move on. The ten of spades lead was covered by the jack and ducked. Gaviard played ace and another diamond and Mazzadi won the second round then switched to a heart to dummy’s queen. Now Gaviard cashed the ace and king of clubs before playing another round of diamonds. There was nothing Mazzadi could do; ten tricks for +180. De Tessieres did not open the South hand, it not being French style to do so when holding four cards in the other major, however weak thos efour cards might be. He made a weak jump overcall at his next turn but that did not prevent the di Bello brothers from bidding to 3NT. Olivier did not lead his singleton spade, seeing no way that his partner could have both a good enough suit to establish and another entry to cash it out. He instead led a low heart, perhaps appreciating that his partner’s pass then bid sequence suggested heart length. Furio won dummy’s queen but, of course, had not been presented with a spade trick as at the other table. He played ace and another diamond and Olivier won and only now played a spade. De Tessieres could win and play a heart through and the contract went two off, when perhaps one off might have been sufficient; –200 and 9 IMPs to France. But that swing was too little too late for France. Italy won the match by 41-31 IMPs, 17-13 VPs. Meanwhile, Poland scored a maximum and so took the fourth place in the semi-finals. |
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