Bulgaria vs Sweden

Open Round 25

At the start of this match, Bulgaria were in a comfortable 2nd position, 10 V.P. ahead of Norway and 38 V.P. clear of the qualification mark. Sweden, on the other hand, needed the V.P. badly as they shared 7th/8th spot with France, 12 V.P. behind 5th-placed Poland. Looking at the way both teams performed so far, one would expect another tight match, but this did not come quite true. Possibly, the first board on VuGraph already was an omen of what the bridge gods had in store for us this time.

Board 19. Dealer South. E/W Vul.
	ª K J 9 7 © 10 2 ¨ 10 9 § K J 8 7 3
ª A 8 © A 8 7 6 3 ¨ 7 5 4 § A Q 2		ª 10 2 © J 9 5 4 ¨ K Q 8 3 2 § 6 4
	ª Q 6 5 4 3 © K Q ¨ A J 6 § 10 9 5

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Gustawsson	Stamatov	Morath	Karaivanov
			1ª
2©	2ª	4¨	Pass
4©	4ª	Pass	Pass
Dble	All Pass

After Morath's fitbid, Stamatov decided to save in front of his partner. To him, it possibly looked like one of those insurance situations, where both sides may make their contracts or go down one. In one respect he was right: 4ª might have gone one down. As 4© would have gone down two on the actual layout taking the insurance did not really pay off. Things got worse when Ivo Karaivanov misguessed the club position in the end. Gustawsson took the §A in the first round of the suit and returned the suit, but declarer did not take the finesse but played for the drop instead. Down two, Sweden a useful +300 to start proceedings. About two hours later, this board was due in the Closed Room.

SUNDELIN Per-Olof, Sweden

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Karaivanov	Sylván	Trendafilov	Sundelin
			1ª
Dble	2©	2NT	Pass
3§	3ª	All Pass

First of all, the difference in bidding approach should be noted. Kalin Karaivanov doubled whereas Gustawsson had overcalled on his ugly-looking heart suit. This difference also had its consequences in the play. West led the ©A and continued the §A and another, but Sundelin had no trouble in taking the finesse. Sweden +140 and 10 IMPs.

Two boards later, board 1 appeared on the VuGraph screens.

Board 1. Dealer North. None Vul.
	ª Q J 8 5 3 © 3 ¨ K 8 7 6 § 7 3 2
ª A K 10 9 6 2 © 6 4 ¨ A 3 § K J 6		ª - © K 8 7 2 ¨ Q 10 9 2 § A Q 9 8 4
	ª 7 4 © A Q J 10 9 5 ¨ J 5 4 § 10 5

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Gustawsson	Stamatov	Morath	Karaivanov
	2ª	Dble	All Pass

The Bulgarian major/minor twosuiter did not work out well on this deal. Morath had an easy take-out double and Gustawsson an even easier conversion. Though Stamatov took the finesse when Morath led a heart, he could not avoid down three. Sweden +500.

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Karaivanov	Sylván	Trendafilov	Sundelin
	Pass	2§	2©
Dble	Pass	2NT	Pass
3ª	Pass	3NT	Pass
4§	Pass	5§	All Pass

When Sylván did not open, his side were out of trouble. 2§ was natural and so was the rest of the auction. For a short while, the Bulgarians were in the right contract, but understandably West made one further move.

A funny thing happened in the play. A diamond went to the king and a heart was taken by the nine. South then cashed the ©A and played another heart, dummy ruffing with the jack. Next came the §K and a club to the nine and ten! On lead, South simply continued another heart for his partner to ruff with the §7! Down three instead of one, one extra IMP lost, 12 IMPs to Sweden.

Two boards later, another chance was missed by the Bulgarians:

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

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Gustawsson	Stamatov	Morath	Karaivanov
			1¨
2©	2NT	3¨	Pass
3ª	4§	4©	Dble
All Pass

Gustawsson did very well to introduce his spades and thus suggest an alternative lead to his partner. Karaivanov might well have bid one more in view of his partner's bidding, instead of putting his money on his trump strength. The play in 5§ might have been very interesting, as it was made at a significant minority of the tables in play when East led a heart. On a spade lead, three down will be the outcome, of course. Here, Sweden got +790, about the best score available on the board for EW.

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Karaivanov	Sylván	Trendafilov	Sundelin
			1NT
2§	2ª	3¨	Pass
3©	Pass	Pass	3NT
Pass	4§	Pass	Pass
4©	All Pass

KARAIVANOV Ivo, Bulgaria

2§ showed majors and 2ª showed clubs. Sundelin competed once more with his club fit, but could not go any further when Karaivanov made another try. So the Bulgarians had in fact obtained the second best score available to EW on the board: +620, but still lost another 5 IMPs. Sweden led 19-1 with board 19 still to be scored. Very little movement on the next seven boards. The score had moved on to 25-6 at the halfway stage, and then came:

Board 11. Dealer South. None Vul.
	ª 7 6 © A K Q J 9 8 ¨ K J § A J 5
ª K J 5 4 2 © 7 2 ¨ 10 7 4 § 8 6 3		ª 10 © 10 4 3 ¨ Q 9 8 5 2 § K Q 10 9
	ª A Q 9 8 3 © 6 5 ¨ A 6 3 § 7 4 2

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Gustawsson	Stamatov	Morath	Karaivanov
			1ª
Pass	2©	Pass	2NT
Pass	3§	Dble	3ª
Pass	4NT	Pass	5ª
Pass	6©	All Pass

Once Karaivanov opened the bidding, the odds were that the Bulgarians would fall overboard. Stamatov got one more chance to resign when Morath a little untimely doubled 3§, but after a long huddle he decided to go all out with 4NT. Slam is not impossible looking at the NS cards only, but certainly far off. It needs something like the spades 3-3 with the king onside. When they were 5-1 behind in reality, declarer could not avoid two down. Sweden +100.

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Karaivanov	Sylván	Trendafilov	Sundelin
			Pass
Pass	1§	Pass	1ª
Pass	2©	Pass	2ª
Pass	2NT	Pass	3NT
All Pass

Once Sundelin passed in 1st position, the Swedes were likely to land on their feet. And so they did, adding another +430 to their score and getting 11 more IMPs for it.

On the next board, both the weak and the strong NT were caught speeding:

Board 12. Dealer West. N/S Vul.
	ª K Q 10 9 © A J 3 2 ¨ A 7 § A K 10
ª A 6 3 © Q 8 6 ¨ K 6 4 § J 7 3 2		ª J 7 5 © K 10 7 ¨ Q 9 8 5 3 2 § 8
	ª 8 4 2 © 9 5 4 ¨ J 10 § Q 9 6 5 4

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Gustawsson	Stamatov	Morath	Karaivanov
Pass	2NT	Pass	3§
Pass	3¨	Pass	3NT
All Pass

On a diamond lead this contract would have gone down anyway, but the bad club break made it worse. Sweden +200.

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Karaivanov	Sylván	Trendafilov	Sundelin
1NT	Dble	3¨	Pass
Pass	Dble	All Pass

1NT was 9-12 and 3¨ was to play. When North doubled again South had no trouble in converting, as partner doublinglvery much suggested the classic 2NT-opening he actually had. This contract went down two too, another +300 and 11 IMPs to Sweden who suddenly led 47-6. We had to wait till the last board on VuGraph to see the first (and thus only) major swing to Bulgaria:

GUSTAWSSON Marten, Sweden

Board 18. Dealer East. N/S Vul.
	ª K Q 10 3 © A 8 7 5 ¨ Q 9 2 § 10 2
ª J 9 8 © Q 10 3 ¨ K J 7 5 4 3 § 3		ª 6 5 © 6 4 2 ¨ A 8 6 § A J 8 5 4
	ª A 7 4 2 © K J 9 ¨ 10 § K Q 9 7 6

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Gustawsson	Stamatov	Morath	Karaivanov
		Pass	2§
Pass	2¨	Pass	2ª
Pass	3ª	Pass	4ª
All Pass

Here, the auction was natural and West, who knew about the long clubs with declarer, made the unlucky lead of a heart. Declarer won, played off two rounds of trumps and led a club. Morath could win the ace and give his partner a club ruff, but after that the ¨A was all the defenders could get. Bulgaria +620.

At the other table, strange things happened:

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Karaivanov	Sylván	Trendafilov	Sundelin
		1NT	2¨
Pass	4ª

Once again, the weak NT was launched and 2¨ showed spades and a minor, so Sylván bid game immediately. Trendafilov found the useful lead of a low heart, in fact the four, to the jack, queen and ace. Sylván next played a club from hand, but Trendafilov went up with the ace to lead the Two of hearts. Going up with the king and drawing a few rounds of trumps would have made declarer's life easy, but he decided to insert the nine. Kalin Karaivanov won the 10, led a diamond to partner's ace and got a club ruff for an unexpected one down. Bulgaria another +100 to finally recoup 12 IMPs.

The result of the match thus became 57-25 or 22-8 V.P. to Sweden. Bulgaria stayed in 2nd position, but only just, and Sweden rose to 6th, nearer again to the tickets for Bali, though still 11 V.P. behind Poland.