| 6th World Youth Pairs Championships | Page 6 | Bulletin 4 - Monday 3 July 2006 |
| |
||
Junior Pairs - The Beginning of the End by Patrick Jourdain Session 4 – The First Six Boards Well actually, it wasn’t exactly Boards 1-6 as Section D played Boards 7-8 before 5-6. We had featured the leading three pairs already so I sought out the pair lying fourth, Joao Barbosa and Antonio Palma of Portugal. One opponent wanted to know why they were being followed, and I explained: “Session 4, we feature the pair lying fourth. How many sessions before we feature you?” “Next month” would have been the accurate reply. Their first opponents were Dennis Stuurman and Ralf Walgemoet of the Netherlands and the boards on the table were 3 and 4, so to keep the boards in order let’s go to their second round against Ollie Burgess and Ben Handley-Pritchard of England:
(i) Competitive, implying diamond support and four hearts The Brits were playing a strong notrump, so West had an easy route into the auction with the diamond overcall that would probably not have been available against the weak notrumpers. East’s competitive double implied bad news for N-S and they would not have had a comfortable ride in Two Hearts or Two Spades. But that proved academic when Barbosa sensibly opted for the diamond partscore. A spade lead to the king and ace cleared up that suit, Palma reached dummy by taking the heart finesse, and then led the trump jack. The defence could take only their three top winners before Palma took another trump finesse to claim 10 tricks for +130 and 74% of the matchpoints.
Burgess opened a 15-17 notrump to end the auction. The spade lead went to the king and ace. Burgess finessed the jack of clubs and, after some thought Palma let this hold. Burgess now ducked a club to East’s queen and East exited passively with a heart to the ten and ace. Burgess now led a diamond to the queen. When that held he cashed the rest of the hearts (on the last the other three hands threw diamonds) and then exited with the jack of spades to East. Barbosa could cash two spades and the ace of diamonds, and then accurately exited to dummy’s nine of spades to allow West to make his ace of clubs at the end. +120 was worth 62% for the England pair. So back to the first round now, for Boards 3 and 4 against the Dutch:
(i) Artificial game force Top score East-West would go to Six Clubs. Those in 3NT facing a heart lead could only make nine tricks. The Portugese, with an artificial club response were not likely to reach that suit but did the next best thing by getting to Four Spades. Palma won the heart lead and led the queen of spades, covered by king and ace. The jack dropped the ten and when North won the nine the defence could only take three tricks before declarer had the rest. Indeed they did well to avoid the temptation of trying to punch declarer with a heart and thereby miss taking their ace of diamonds. +620 was exactly average.
(i) Weak with both majors Palma opened what is called the Norwegian Two Diamonds, and the Dutch seemed familiar with the idea of when to take a penalty. No-one can make a contract higher than Two Clubs, so Three Clubs doubled down one scored well for the Dutch who took the obvious five tricks for an 85% score. The Portugese now moved to the table with Patrik Johansson and Mans Berg of Sweden, and played Boards 7-8:
(i) Void with spade raise The Swedish pair handled this very well. Crucial was that North knew Four Hearts showed a void rather than a singleton. Johansson rightly relied on South to have a club control. If the spade queen had been present they would have bid the grand. As it was Six Spades proved nerve-wracking, for Barbosa accurately led the nine of clubs. Johansson put on the ace and played ace and another spade. When West showed out he put on the king and ran the diamonds. When East followed to the third diamond Johansson allowed himself a smile of relief. The fourth diamond took care of the losing club and the defence could take only their trump trick. That was an excellent result for the Swedes (74%), but they returned the matchpoints with interest on our last board:
The Portugese pair play the weak notrump and here it hit the jackpot when North, unable, no doubt, to bid a natural Two Diamonds, tried a speculative effort for the minors. When Three Clubs was doubled he considered running to Three Diamonds which would not have received any applause from his partner! Palma led a trump against Three Clubs doubled. East won the queen and played a second trump to the king and ace. If Berg takes his diamond ruff at once he can get back to dummy with a spade, dropping East’s king, draw trumps and claim seven tricks which would at least beat any East-West’s who made game. However, after winning the second trump Berg laid down the ace of spades and was surprised to see East contribute the king. He tried a second spade and Barbosa, not wanting to ruff thin air, threw away. Berg misread this as meaning East had no trumps left so he somewhat carelessly ruffed a spade with the six of trumps. Ouch! East over-ruffed with the seven and put West in with a heart to play a third trump on which declarer had to play two winners together. A case of trump demotion by declarer, which cost two tricks. The Portugese scored +800 and all the matchpoints. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
| Page 6 |
