| 6th World Youth Pairs Championships | Page 3 | Bulletin 2 - Saturday 1 July 2006 |
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Session 1 – The First Six Boards by Patrick Jourdain and Peter Gill For boards 1-6 Patrick Jourdain followed World Junior Team titleholders Joe Grue & John Kranyak of the USA. They had a tough start facing one of the leading Dutch pairs Bas Tammens and Bob Drijver. The Dutch can be described as well-bred for Bas is the offspring of Kees, npc of many Dutch Junior teams, and Bob’s elder brothers Tom and Bas Drijver have been leading Juniors in the Netherlands until the age limit caught up with them, leaving Bob to keep the family name going in Junior bridge. Peter Gill followed Jacek Kalita and Krzystzof Kotorowicz, one of the pre-tournament favourites. They won the European Junior Teams last year, came 2nd to Grue – Kranyak in the World Junior Teams and are in the Poland team which is the favourite to win the World Junior Teams in Bangkok in August. The first board proved fascinating:
(i) Precision, at least 2 cards The Dutch ended in the best scoring spot of Three Hearts, but it was not easy to make. Grue began with a trump lead away from the queen. Tammens went up with the ace and, with the idea of establishing communications, played the queen of clubs off dummy. South won and played a second trump, declarer playing the jack, and Grue accurately withholding his queen. Now declarer could not take a diamond ruff without setting up the queen of trumps for the defence, and it was too late to establish spades, as North can play a third trump when in with the jack of spades (though if declarer plays the ace of spades next, South has to unblock). Note also that had declarer won the second trump in dummy, an anti-avoidance play in spades (ducking if South plays high and putting on the ace if he plays low) would prevent North gaining the lead and the defence is helpless. To make the contract declarer does best to start the spades earlier.
Kotorowicz thought for a while before passing the double. At Teams, take-out doubles are for taking out, but this is Pairs. The four of clubs was led to the jack, queen and ace. The Hungarian declarer should have asked what the Double meant, because he won the singleton club lead and played a diamond to the queen. Oops! Now he had to lose a club, a spade, two hearts and three diamonds. Minus 300 was worth 55 out of 140 matchpoints for N/S. Minus 100 would have been worth 98. Board 2 proved a simple game reached by the Dutch at Grue’s table and the standard 11 tricks must have been close to average but there were still some points of interest:
(i) Two-way: natural reverse or balanced strong spade raise On the lead of the heart queen Tammens made no mistake, winning at once, coming to hand with a club and then running the jack of trumps. The defence could cash one heart but then declarer could manage the rest. Those who ducked the heart lead might find North making a smart switch to a diamond. Holding declarer to ten tricks would have scored very well for the defence.
In Polish Club, 1♠ was natural, 2♦ set up a game-force, 2♥ showed 7-10 points with four spades, and 2♠ was fishing for a 3NT contract in case the hands were 4333 mirrors. Kotorowicz did not pause for as long as usual at Trick One. Oddly enough, he ducked the first trick, playing ♥4 from his hand, but the diamond switch was not found. 450 was worth 92/140 to E/W, 420 would have been only 27/140. Board 3 also looked interesting (see the diagram below), with the club pips being highly significant in whether East makes nine or ten tricks when spades are trumps. Deep Finesse says ten can be made. The play requires declarer to run quite a lot of trumps early on, and extract North’s hearts. For if South, when on lead with the ace of diamonds, is endplayed into leading clubs he does best to switch to the EIGHT. When this is covered by the nine and ten, declarer has to duck and North must have no hearts with which to exit. At Grue’s table declarer simply took nine tricks in spades so we report the action at the Poles’ table:
Kalita thought briefly before calling 2♠. At Teams where thin vulnerable games must be bid, he surely would have rebid 3♠, with all those lovely aces. The ♥8 was quickly led. Before playing from dummy, Kalita studied the opponents’ Convention Card for some time. This extra knowledge seemed to help him judge exactly how to play the hand. Once he eventually played from dummy at Trick One, he quickly won the heart queen with the ace, drew trumps and played a fourth spade, trying to get the opponents to make helpful discards to guide him to the best play. This approach worked. Kalita’s next move was a diamond to the ace, then ♣6 exit went to the three, king and ace. North’s mistake allowed an easy eleven tricks, plus 200 being worth 108/140 to the Poles, Perhaps North thought that his partner had ♣A, because Kalita had already shown 11 points. Board 4 was a simple game making 11 tricks (but missed by Grue’s opponents’ to give the Americans an excellent score). At the Poles’ table, Kotorowicz was declarer and did exactly the same thing as Kalita had on the hand before, studying the opponents’ card lengthily before taking the obvious tricks. The endless Polish production line of bridge experts seems to train the players to take their time at Trick One. The Poles scored 70 out of 140 for plus 650. Board 5 was a deal in which many matchpoints were at stake depending on whether the defence cashed their two club tricks. Grue and Kranyak were facing their compatriots Jason Feldman and Josh Donn:
Feldman did well to give the defence minimum information when he jumped straight to game. South led the king of hearts and dummy won the ace. Declarer drew trumps in two rounds and led a diamond. There is a more deceptive way of playing the suit than running the nine, and Kranyak gave this a long look before winning with the ace and finding the crucial switch to the king of clubs. Grue happily played the jack, but then a wheel fell off, for Kranyak tried to cash a heart next, and dummy’s clubs disappeared on the diamonds. That looked odd, but your reporter felt there had been a signalling error at trick one. They had announced “reverse count and attitude” but the first trick went: king, ace, FOUR, two. So it looks as if Kranyak believed a second heart was standing up, and was merely cashing it before planning to play a club. (Please don’t sue, Joe, if I have misunderstood what went wrong.) Incidentally, neither Grue or Kranyak said a word about the matter, simply moving to the next deal, a lesson for all. Board 6 was the first slam, but on such thin values that any N-S who reached it must have scored well:
Grue’s unassuming cue was followed by a splinter, but Kranyak’s minor suit holdings both looked unsuitable. In practice 13 tricks proved easy when the spade finesse succeeded. Bessis and Gaviard took the early lead, aided by their opponents taking 16 bids to reach only 5♠. The only pair to bid the grand slam was in the Schools section. (Please submit your auction to the Bulletin.) |
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