With so many interesting matches going on between good teams at the same time, it is difficult to choose where to go and watch. Anything might happen anywhere. Rumours are, however, that at Zia’s table much more than average is happening most of the time. After watching the match Welland v. Helling we can only confirm these rumours. Judge for yourself:

The teams were: Zia-Rosenberg with Welland-Fallenius (the Swede who completes this U.S. entry) against Schneider-Hein from Germany and Helling-Banchereau from Luxembourg. The U.S. pair on the sidelines were Levin-Weinstein.

On the first board, the Germans effectively talked Zia-Rosenberg out of a game:

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

Open Room:
West	North	East	South
Zia	Schneider	Rosenberg	Hein
			2©
Pass	3©	Dble	Pass
3ª	Pass	Pass	Pass

Michael Rosenberg gave 3? a long thought, but no more than that. 11 Tricks, Welland +200.

Closed Room:
West	North	East	South
Helling	Fallenius	Banchereau	Welland
			Pass
Pass	1§	1¨	Dble
3¨	3©	3ª	4©
4ª	All Pass

No pre-empting here, so it was rather easy sailing on the waves of major suit competition. Helling +420 and their first 6 IMP’s.

On boards 12 and 15, shown elsewhere in this issue, Helling scored two more 5-IMP swings so they led 17-0 when it came down to the last four boards.

Board 17. Dealer North. None Vul.
	ª K Q 4 2 © J 10 4 ¨ 4 § K 6 5 4 2
ª A 8 7 © A 9 5 2 ¨ K 5 § Q J 9 7		ª J 10 9 6 © - ¨ Q J 10 9 6 2 § A 10 3
	ª 5 3 © K Q 8 7 6 3 ¨ A 8 7 3 § 8

Open Room:
West	North	East	South
Zia	Schneider	Rosenberg	Hein
	Pass	Pass	1©
Pass	3¨	Dble	4©
Dble	All Pass

Rosenberg’s very light take-out double enabled Zia to double the final contract and make the best lead of the ©A and another. Declarer should lose a club, a spade, a heart and two diamonds now, but as Rosenberg had discarded the ¨Q on the ©A, later went up with another top diamond when the suit was first led from dummy AND returned yet another top diamond when in with the §A Hein managed to restrict his diamond losers to one only. Welland +100.

Not that it mattered very much:

Closed Room:
West	North	East	South
Banchereau	Welland	Helling	Fallenius
	Pass	Pass	3©
Pass	4©	Dble	Pass
5§	Dble	All Pass

As you see, the seating has been changed for this board. Not that the players changed places, they simply had put the board on the table 180 degrees turned. As nobody spotted it Welland, South but holding the North cards, passed as dealer etc.

This was once again a phantom save, as we already had the other way at board 12, but this time it was really costly. On a heart lead ruffed in dummy, declarer could muster just seven tricks for a loss of 800 or 14 IMP’s in all. Wouldn’t you have preferred to sit the double, holding the West cards?

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

Open Room:
West	North	East	South
Zia	Schneider	Rosenberg	Hein
		1§	Pass
1ª	Pass	2NT	Pass
3§	Pass	3¨	Pass
4¨	Pass	4NT	Pass
6¨	All Pass

Except for the fact that Zia and Rosenberg had not discussed the meaning of 4NT (as came to light at the table), they bid very naturally and well to a quite playable contract. As there is no obvious line, it look Michael Rosenberg a long time to win the heart lead in dummy, cross to the ©A and play a spade to the jack (!?) and queen. When the third-round spade ruff with the ¨8 in hand stood up, there were 12 tricks. Please note that 6NT has no chance with the ª10 offside.

Closed Room:
West	North	East	South
Helling	Fallenius	Banchereau	Welland
		1§	Pass
1ª	Pass	1NT	Pass
2§	Pass	2¨	Pass
3NT	All Pass

This is how lesser mortals would bid the hand…+490 to Helling, but another 10 IMP’s to Welland who had taken the lead.

But not for long:

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

Open Room:
West	North	East	South
Zia	Schneider	Rosenberg	Hein
			1¨
Pass	1©	1ª	2©
Dble	3©	3ª	Pass
4ª	Dble	All Pass

Maybe inspired by the success of the previous board, Zia competed once too often here. 3© makes and 3ª is one off, but game is far away for either side.

4ª might well have been a complete disaster had the defence simply led hearts at every opportunity, but it should still have gone down at least two. Hein made the unlucky lead of a trump, which cleared the position in the suit. Still, declarer would have to draw trumps three times and have to concede two clubs and a diamond, so by holding on to ¨KJ bare and one low heart South would still have beaten the contract by two tricks in the end. As he had pitched his fourth heart and held on to three diamonds, the second undertrick vanished. Schneider +200 only.

Closed Room:
West	North	East	South
Helling	Fallenius	Banchereau	Welland
			1§
Pass	1¨	2ª	All Pass

1¨ was alerted to show hearts, but Welland could hardly make any further move in spite of holding adequate trump support. When Fallenius, at his turn, did not venture a balancing double they sold out to 2ª which in fact made with an overtrick when declarer first established his second club trick before he started drawing trumps by playing low to the ace and low to the queen! Nicely done.

After this useful 8-IMP swing to Helling, over now to the last board. At first sight, one wonders why a board like this is appearing at all in the Bulletin.

Board 20. Dealer West. All Vul.
	ª K 8 © Q 9 7 ¨ A Q 9 § K J 9 5 4
ª 9 7 5 2 © K 10 8 4 3 2 ¨ K J § A		ª 10 4 3 © J 6 5 ¨ 10 8 7 6 2 § Q 8
	ª A Q J 6 © A ¨ 5 4 3 § 10 7 6 3 2

Certainly not because there was anything going on in the Closed Room, for this was the bidding:

Closed Room:
West	North	East	South
Helling	Fallenius	Banchereau	Welland
1©	1NT	Pass	3NT
All Pass

Twelve tricks, +690 to Welland, no story.

Open Room:
West	North	East	South
Zia	Schneider	Rosenberg	Hein
2©	2NT	3©	3NT
Dble	All Pass

Twelve tricks, +1350 to Schneider or 12 IMP’s, and a story that tells itself. 2© was alerted as a goodish weak two, as the partnership would open a Multi on bad weak twos. Rosenberg made a very preemptive raise but Zia did not want to believe his nice side honours would not be of any use at all. So he doubled, needing very little from his partner of course, but this was the wrong moment for his team.

Thanks to this last board, Helling won the match 37-24 or 19-11 V.P.