Dazzling Discard

Open Round 20: Spain vs Ireland

By Adam Mesbur

Board 3. Dealer South. E/W Vul.
	ª 2 © A 10 8 7 ¨ 4 2 § Q J 10 9 7 4
ª 9 6 4 © 6 4 3 ¨ A K J 7 § K 8 2		ª 8 5 3 © Q 9 5 2 ¨ Q 9 6 3 § 5 3
	ª A K Q J 10 7 © K J ¨ 10 8 5 § A 6

Nick FitzGibbon, West and Adam Mesbur, East defended 4ª played by Andrea Buratti, South. The right hand is dummy and this looks like it makes the defence easier but it was more complicated than you might think.
Nick led the ace of diamonds and switched the four of hearts. Dummy played the eight and after sometime I passed the first test, playing the nine. South won the jack and advanced the ten of diamonds. West contributed the jack and East played the queen to switch a spade. South cashed six rounds of trumps and both defenders have to discard carefully, West much more carefully then East. On the last spade everyone is reduced to four cards. West has two clubs and two diamonds and East must keep two hearts and two diamonds. Now South plays the ©K and West found the fine discard of the ¨K. Declarer has no chance now because East has two diamond winners and West cannot be thrown in.

Russia vs Iceland

Open Round 21

Iceland scored a 68-25 win over Russia, 24-6 in V.P., to stay in the hunt for a ticket for Bali. Here are two swing boards from that match played on Sunday afternoon.

Board 9. Dealer North. E/W Vul.
	ª K 9 8 © A J 4 2 ¨ K 8 4 § 10 7 2
ª J 10 6 © K 9 6 5 ¨ - § A K Q 6 4 3		ª A 5 3 © 10 8 3 ¨ A J 5 3 2 § 8 5
	ª Q 7 4 2 © Q 7 ¨ Q 10 9 7 6 § J 9

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Johannsson	Gromov	Jonsson	Petrunin
	Pass	Pass	Pass
1§	Dble	1NT	Dble
All Pass

Playing 1NT doubled vulnerable with a long, running suit and a couple of side aces is any bridge player's dream. This time the lucky declarer turned out to be Stein Jonsson in the Open Room. When the smoke had cleared the Iceman, after a spade lead, had ended up with six clubs, two spades and a diamond for the uncommon score of +580. By the way, note the ultra-aggressive doubles by the Russians.

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Matushko	Ingimarsson	Khven	Einarsson
	1NT	Pass	Pass
Dble	Pass	Pass	2¨
3§	Pass	3NT	Dble
4©	Dble	All Pass

Proceedings in the Closed Room were of interest as well, in fact they turned out be a dream for the Icemen again (and a nightmare for the Russians). They doubled 3NT which can be defeated of course, but has to be defended with care. But it got even better for Iceland, when EW thought that they should run to 4©. This contract was fun, especially for NS: +800. Iceland thus got 16 IMPs.

Board 16 was another big one for Iceland.

Board 16. Dealer West. E/W Vul.
	ª K 10 9 8 5 3 2 © - ¨ 10 7 6 4 2 § A
ª Q J © J 8 3 ¨ A K Q 5 § Q 9 6 5		ª 6 © K 6 5 2 ¨ 3 § K J 10 8 7 4 2
	ª A 7 4 © A Q 10 9 7 4 ¨ J 9 8 § 3

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Matushko	Ingimarsson	Khven	Einarsson
1¨	4ª	All Pass

In the Closed Room, after the 1¨ opening bid of his partner, East thought he had no particular reason to bid over the 4ª interference. This led to a quiet 420 for Ingimarsson.

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Johannsson	Gromov	Jonsson	Petrunin
1NT	4ª	5§	5ª
Pass	Pass	6§	Pass
Pass	6ª	Dble	All Pass

Open EW were much more busy. It had everything to do with the opening bid by West: 1NT. So after 4ª 5§ was much more obvious than it was in the Closed Room. When the tray came back to East he gave it another shot with 6§. With good defensive values South might have doubled this instead of leaving the decision to his partner. Probably, South thought that 6ª still could be a make. Down two, +300 more for Iceland and another 12 IMPs.

Møller Shows How

By Mathias Bruun Denmark

My former partner, Steen Møller, still knows a thing or two about bridge. On the following two deals he won his contracts in the seniors where I failed in the open teams.

Board 3. Dealer South. E/W Vul.
	ª A J 4 3 © A Q 9 4 ¨ K 8 § A K 3
ª 10 © K 10 6 3 ¨ A 7 5 § Q J 10 6 4		ª Q 7 5 2 © J 8 7 5 2 ¨ Q 9 3 § 2
	ª K 9 8 6 © - ¨ J 10 6 4 2 § 9 8 7 5

West	North	East	South
Rapf	Lund	Graf	Møller
			Pass
Pass	2§*	Pass	2¨*
Pass	2NT	Pass	3§*
Pass	3©	Pass	3ª
Pass	4ª	All Pass

In Bulletin 6 we saw Lauria making Four Spades on this layout, mainly by guessing the diamonds and endplaying East.

In the Seniors match between Denmark and Austria Steen Møller proved that there was quite a different road to the goal, even though he did not solve the diamond problem.

The Danes had a Baron sequence to 4ª played by South. West led the §Q to dummy's ace and South ruffed a heart and ran the ¨J. East took the queen and played back a diamond to his partners ace. Now the §K was ruffed away and East returned his remaining diamond not to help South in the major suits. South discarded the club loser from dummy and took the right view in spades, playing low to the ace and finessing the queen on the way back. The two winning diamonds took care of the heart losers.

As the Austrian declarer in the same contract at the table started trump with a small to the king and another the hand collapsed and he finished three down.

A little later another gem popped up in the same match.

Board 14. Dealer East. None Vul.
	ª 4 3 © J 8 6 2 ¨ A 10 5 3 § A K 6
ª A K 9 8 5 2 © Q 10 ¨ 6 4 § Q 4 2		ª 10 © 9 7 5 3 ¨ K J 9 8 § J 8 7 5
	ª Q J 7 6 © A K 4 ¨ Q 7 2 § 10 9 3

West	North	East	South
Rapf	Lund	Graf	Møller
		Pass	1NT
2ª	2NT	Pass	3§
Pass	3ª	Pass	3NT
All Pass

North showed four hearts without a spade stopper.

West led a high spade and switched to a low club won by dummy who played a diamond. The queen won (East must go up with the king an return a club) and a diamond was ducked (Better to take the ace of diamonds at once and set up a spade). East played another diamond to the ace and South set up a spade trick. West returned a spade (If East discards a low club on the second spade, then a low club from West at this point will allow the defence to prevail) and due to the fortunate heart position South strip squeezed East who at the end was endplayed in diamonds to lead into the heart tenace.