contract.Poland (Group A) and Australia (Group B) are basking at the top of the group standings in the World Open Team Olympiad round-robin. Poland's performance, racking up 87 of a possible 100 Victory Points, is especially notable. Two of the teams they played – Indonesia and Germany – certainly must be considered seasoned performers. Australia definitely had a less impressive set of opponents – French Polynesia, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Cyprus. Sweden got off to a perfect start in Group A of the Women's Team Olympiad, scoring blitzes against both Hong Kong and Hungary. Defending champion Austria were atop the Group B standings with 46 VPs after defeating Turkey and Thailand. Only a point behind were the United States, victors over Finland and Australia.
By Alan Truscott
The second round saw an old rivalry featured on vugraph: host Greece against
Turkey. The second deal brought a round of applause for Nafiz Zorlu, who
reached a shaky 4
contract.
| Board 2. North/South Game. Dealer East. | |||||
 |
A J 8 5 3 | ||||
|
A Q 6 | ||||
 |
K Q | ||||
 |
A 6 2 | ||||
|
K Q |  |
|
9 7 6 2 | |
|
9 | |
K 10 8 7 5 | ||
|
10 7 4 2 | |
J 6 | ||
|
K J 10 5 4 3 | |
9 8 | ||
|
10 4 | ||||
|
J 4 3 2 | ||||
|
A 9 8 5 3 | ||||
|
Q 7 | ||||
| West | North | East | South | |||
| Assael | Zorlu | |||||
| Pass | Pass | |||||
| 3
|
Dble | 4
|
4
| |||
| All Pass |
East was happy to have maneuvered South into 4, but he was less
happy with the result. When the dummy appeared, the commentators predicted that,
even with a helpful club lead, South would finish down one.
Some years ago, Andrew Robson offered the following Bols Tip: If an
opponent makes a preemptive bid and then leads his suit, he tends to have a
singleton trump. Whether Zorlu knew this is not clear, but he played as
if he did. After the opening lead of the
10, a
reasonable choice once East had raised clubs, South was able to win with the
queen. He then crossed to the
Q and made the
key play of leading a low heart.
East had to play low and the jack won. Now South crossed to the
K and led a low
spade. West won and played the
K, won with
dummy's ace. South already had five tricks, and was able to bring his total to
seven by scoring the
A and
J. Now a spade
ruff reduced East to three trumps, and when the
A was led he
had to ruff and lead into dummy's ace-queen of trumps.
Zorlu had earned his applause, and his team gained 13 imps.
Note that it would not have helped the defense for West to play a third diamond after winning his spade trick. South would have discarded from dummy, allowing a ruff, but the ending would have been similar.
It would have been rather better to lead a spade at the fourth trick, with the chance of two spade ruffs in the closed hand with a less advantageous spade position.
Open |
A1 | B1 | A2 | B2 | A3 | B3 | A4 | B4 | |
Ladies |
A1 | B1 | A2 | B2 |