| 38th World Team Championships | Page 3 | Bulletin 12 - Thursday 11 October 2007 |
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usa 1 v south africa by Phillip Alder
At the start of the second day in the semi-finals, the American team enjoyed an 8-IMP lead over South Africa. For the fourth set, the Americans sent Michael Rosenberg and Zia Mahmood into the VuGraph room to play North-South against Tim Cope and Glen Holman. In the closed room, Steve Garner and Howard Weinstein took on Craig Gower and Alon Apteker. There was a similarity between the first two boards in the closed room.
In the open room, Cope moved over his partner's two-club overcall, wondering if game might be possible. Against two notrump, North led a heart. Declarer took South's queen with his ace and played a diamond to dummy's seven. South won with his queen and returned a low heart. Another diamond to the eight and ace was followed by three hearts, but West then claimed four spades, two hearts, one diamond and one club. When Garner passed over two clubs, South balanced with a takeout double, and North passed, turning it into a penalty double. To justify this decision, North had to lead a diamond or a high club. But understandably North chose a heart. Declarer took South's queen with his ace and returned the heart jack. South won and shifted to a trump, but West won with his ace, played a spade to dummy, and discarded a diamond on the heart ten. Weinstein lost one heart, one diamond and three clubs. Minus 120 and plus 180 gave 2 IMPs to USA 1. Immediately thereafter:
(a) Balanced hand with 11-13 or 17-19 points, or natural Apteker's dubious one-heart overcall at unfavorable vulnerability was caught. Against one heart doubled, West led a club. East won and shifted to a trump, West taking South's eight with his nine and playing another club. East took the trick and played a third club, won in the dummy. Declarer called for the thirteenth club and, after East ruffed, South discarded a diamond and West threw a spade. On East's low-spade switch, declarer misguessed, putting up his king. West won with his ace, returned his remaining spade, received a spade ruff, and exited with a diamond, won by East. South ruffed the next diamond and took one of the last three tricks with a trump endplay on West. But that was four down, minus 1100. Three notrump played beautifully after South's imaginative spade-jack lead. Via a late major-suit show-up squeeze on South, declarer took three spades, three hearts, five diamonds and two clubs for plus 520. But that was 11 IMPs to USA 1. An overtrick IMP went to South Africa and a flat board were followed by this deal:
(a) Forcing
(a) Semi-forcing When Garner rebid two spades in the closed room, Weinstein had no reason to act again. South led the heart jack, then continued with a low heart. Declarer ruffed North's heart queen, played a diamond to dummy's queen, ruffed a heart in his hand to bring down the ace, overtook his diamond king with dummy's ace, and called for the heart king, ruffed and overruffed. East cashed his club ace and exited with a club, waiting for two tricks from the ace-queen-ten of spades to end plus one. There was more at stake when Holman overbid with two notrump. Against four spades, South led the heart jack. Perhaps declarer should have covered that to make it harder for North to shift. (If North tries to cash his heart queen, declarer ruffs, takes the spade ace and continues with the spade queen, hoping to pin the jack. Then East would take five spades, five diamonds and one club for an overtrick.) When declarer played low from the dummy and his jack held, Zia knew the heart layout. At trick two, he found the best play, switching to the diamond two: five, three, four. (Here a club works also, but that would have been less than successful if East had started with ace-jack-empty-fourth of clubs.) Declarer played a spade to his queen, cashed the spade ace and continued with a third spade. But North took the trick and played a second diamond, cutting declarer off from the dummy. Cope overtook his king with dummy's ace, threw a club on the diamond queen, and played another diamond, North trumping with his spade six. Declarer had to lose one spade, one heart and two clubs to go down one. Very nicely defended. Plus 140 and plus 100 gave 6 IMPs to USA 1. The next deal was a lucky push for the Americans.
Zia opened two notrump with a flat nineteen-count, getting to a three notrump that could not be made after West led the heart six. (On a diamond lead, for example, declarer can win in the dummy and take the club finesse.) East put in his nine, South won with his ten and cashed his top clubs, hoping the queen would drop. When that did not happen, declarer continued with a third club. If East had shifted to a diamond, the contract could have gone down two, but he led his heart queen and continued with another heart. Declarer won and played a low spade, but West won and cashed his two red-suit winners -- down one. In the closed room, West led the heart six against two notrump. South took East's queen with his ace and should have played on spades, going for two tricks in each suit. But declarer erred, cashing his top clubs. Now he could not recover with best defense, which he received. He gave up the third round of clubs, and East returned his heart four, declarer ducking this trick and taking the next, East being careful to retain his heart nine. A low spade went to West's king, and he played his last heart to partner for a diamond through. The defenders took one spade, two hearts, two diamonds and one club – another down one. After another flat board came ...
(a) 12-14 points
Both Wests led the spade king, ruffed by South. Double-dummy, if South cashes his club ace, crosses to dummy with a club, ruffs a spade, and plays a heart to dummy's ace, East must unblock the king (or queen). If he does not, declarer ruffs the last spade and exits with a heart to endplay East. Since no one was playing double dummy, the declarers looked bound to lose three tricks: two hearts and one diamond. And that is what Zia did, but Apteker accidentally called for the wrong card at one point – saying "eight" instead of "ace" – and went down two, – 5 IMPs to USA 1. The next deal was even more exciting:
(a) 15-17 in the first three seats vulnerable
(a) 15-17 They had an excellent auction in the open room, Zia expressing some slam interest by asking for his partner's short suit, then bidding four hearts to show diamond duplication. West found the "winning" club lead to hold declarer to eleven tricks. In the closed room, North was about to bid six hearts, hoping to right-side the contract if partner had the queen-jack of clubs. But when West doubled five spades to ask for that lead, North passed to make his partner declarer so that an initial spade lead through the ace would not be fatal. Now the spotlight was on Weinstein. Would he lead a club? After several minutes of thought, he tabled the diamond ace. Plus 1430 to South Africa and 13 much-needed IMPs. After another flat board came ...
(a) 15-17 points
(a) 14-16 points In the closed room, Garner did not guess the play well, first permitting South a spade ruff, then not taking the heart finesse, but he ended with eight tricks. There was more at stake in the open room, where West aggressively raised to three hearts, and Zia doubled four hearts because that is the sort of thing he does when he knows the opponents are not full value for their bidding. South led his club king, then shifted to the spade queen. Declarer Cope won with dummy's ace, cashed the heart king and played a heart to his jack. East could not draw the last trump, because then the defenders could cash a couple of club tricks. Instead, he passed the spade eight to North's king to give this end-position:
If North had returned a spade, declarer would have made an overtrick. He would have overtaken his ten with dummy's jack, pitched a club on the spade nine, and run the trumps to squeeze South in the minors. But Rosenberg led back a club to hold declarer to his contract. Minus 110 and plus 590 gave South Africa 10 IMPs. The American lead was down to 11. The last four boards were tame, giving 3 IMPs to South Africa and 1 to USA 1. In the session, the Americans had increased their lead by 1 IMP: 142-133. |
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