| 38th World Team Championships | Page 4 | Bulletin 8 - Sunday 7 October 2007 |
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egypt v ITALY - BB Round 14 by Phillip Alder
by Phillip Alder After round 13, Italy was lying second and Egypt eighth equal. So it was an important encounter for the north Africans in particular. First, here is an opening-lead problem. You pick up: ♠ K 9 7 On your left, the dealer opens one notrump (15-17), then shows spades in answer to Stayman. The responder jumps to four spades. Which card would you choose? The "exciting" match resulted in nine flat boards. Four more gave Italy 5 IMPs and Egypt 2. The other three featured big swings. The first came on board three.
(a) Four-card heart support
(a) Multi -- weak two in either major Giorgio Duboin (West) decided not to open two spades second in hand at unfavorable vulnerability. But he got his side into the auction on the second round. Later, it was a strange decision by Walid el Ahmady to bid four hearts after they had nudged the Italians into three spades. (Perhaps he expected partner to have a slightly better hand, but Tarek Sadek had not made a game-try over Norberto Bocchi's card-showing double.) Declarer lost one spade, two hearts and two diamonds to go down two. The Egyptians had the auction to themselves. Against four spades, Fulvio Fantoni (North) led the club ace, cashed the club king, and played a third club, ruffed by declarer, Ahmed Samir. West tried his best, cashing the spade ace, taking dummy's two heart winners, then leading a trump toward his hand. But his luck was out. North took two spade tricks and had a safe heart exit. Now West should have played a low diamond to dummy's queen and escaped for down one, but he led the diamond jack, covered by the king and ace, to go down two. Plus 300 and plus 200 gave Italy 11 IMPs. They did even better on the very next deal.
This all came down to the opening lead. In the Open Room, el Ahmady chose a trump. Declarer took South's jack with his ace and played a trump back. North jumped in with his king and shifted to the heart queen, but it was too late. West won in his hand, pulled the missing trump and ran the clubs to discard a heart loser. Duboin lost one spade, one heart and one diamond. In the Closed Room, Fantoni led the heart queen. Declarer won with his ace, cashed the spade ace and played another spade. Taking no chances, Fantoni won with his king, took the heart jack and played another heart. Claudio Nunes (South) won with his king and shifted to a diamond. Soon thereafter Samir conceded down one. Plus 620 and plus 100 gave Italy 12 IMPs. Egypt's only good result came two deals later:
(a) Forcing with clubs or balanced
In the Open Room, Bocchi and Duboin found out that they had no spade stopper, and because they were in a game-forcing auction, got to five diamonds. Then Sadek made a well-timed double. North led his singleton club. Declarer won in the dummy, played a trump to his ace, and took the losing heart finesse. South shifted to a low spade, North winning and playing a spade back to South's ace. Surprisingly, South did not return a club. Instead, he led a heart to dummy's ace. But declarer, not being psychic, ran the diamond six to North's queen. Duboin still had a club to lose, so went down three. Samir's doubles showed extra values, and Reda Amiry did very well to pass the second. East led the club ace and shifted to the diamond seven, West winning with his king and cashing his ace, under which East signalled with the nine. Getting the message, West switched to a heart, East taking his ace and returning the jack. Declarer drew trumps but still had a heart to lose. The defenders took two hearts, two diamonds and one club for down one. Plus 800 and plus 100 gave Egypt 14 IMPs. The final score was Italy 28 Egypt 16, which converted to 18-12 in victory points. |
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