Golden Oldie

By Patrick Jourdain - Wales

In 1977, when resident in Glasgow, I played two matches for Scotland in the Camrose, with Victor Goldberg as my partner. Now aged 78 (Goldberg, that is, rather than me), in the Seniors, he is showing he still has his skills.

Seniors Round 20. Board 9. Dealer North. E/W Vul.
	ª 10 4 3 © A K Q J 9 5 4 3 ¨ - § 8 2
ª K 9 © - ¨ K J 9 8 7 § A Q J 9 7 6		ª Q J 8 7 6 2 © 7 2 ¨ A 10 4 § 10 3
	ª A 5 © 10 8 6 ¨ Q 6 5 3 2 § K 5 4

The bidding was the same at both tables

West	North	East	South
Gordon	Piekenbrock	Goldberg	Uhlmann
Gromoller	MacLaren	Schneider	Frew
	4©	Pass	Pass
4NT	Pass	5¨	Dble
All Pass

A heart was led at both tables. Declarer ruffed and came to hand with the ace of trumps, finding the suit was 5-0.
At the table where Germany 2 was at the helm, declarer next led a spade. David Frew rose with the ace and another heart ensured the game's defeat.
At Goldberg's table, however, at trick three he instead started on the clubs, taking and repeating the finesse, then disposing of his last heart on the third round.
Now he led the spade king and South let it hold. Goldberg switched to playing a winning club. South ruffed and found he was in a Morton's Fork.
Suppose first that he leads another heart without cashing his ace of spades. Declarer discards his losing spade from dummy, ruffs in hand, takes the diamond finesse, and plays winning clubs. South makes two trumps, but not the ace of spades.
Seeing the danger, South cashed his ace of spades before playing the heart. But Goldberg had the answer to this as well. He ruffed in his hand and played the ten of trumps. South could not afford to cover as dummy would be high. So South played low. Goldberg now pumped winning spades at him. In made no difference when South ruffed. If he does not ruff declarer throws clubs on the spades, and ends with a trump coup. When South ruffed early, Goldberg over-ruffed in dummy, drew the last trump and claimed his good clubs.
Well played!

A doubled slam swing

By Steen Møller - Denmark

This board in the Open Series match between Spain and Denmark produced one of the bigger swings of these championships (20 IMPs) and at both tables the ¨10 played an important role.

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

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Goded	Bruun	Lantaron	Blakset
		Pass	Pass
2ª	3ª	4©	4ª
5©	5ª	Pass	Pass
6©	Pass	Pass	6ª
Dble	All Pass

2ª showed at least 5-5 in the red suits and the rest was natural.

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
P Schaltz	Knap	D Schaltz	Wasik
		Pass	Pass
1©	2©	2ª	3ª
4©	4ª	Pass	Pass
5¨	5ª	Pass	Pass
6©	Pass	Pass	Dble
All Pass

2© was Michaels and 2ª showed heart support. 5¨ was lead directing, but after East's forcing pass West went on to 6©.

It looked as though the Danes went a bit too high in both rooms, but with a little help from their friends…

In the open room East unfortunately led the §A and that was all Mathias Bruun needed. He ruffed in dummy (South), crossed to the ªA and discarded the three heart losers on the clubs. Then he ruffed a heart in dummy and carefully led the ¨J to prevent East from coming in and lead a trump. Thereafter a complete crossruff let him make the rest of the tricks. +1210 to Denmark.

In the closed room Peter Schaltz ruffed North's lead of the ªA. As he knew a lot about the distribution of his opponent's hands and needed the hearts to be 3/2 he crossed to the ©A and ran (!) the ¨10. Of course South could (and should) have beaten the slam by covering, but it is not easy to play against an imaginative declarer and in fact West was also playing for the real chance of pinning the ¨9 in North's hand. After winning the ¨10 West finessed +the ©J, ruffed a diamond, came back to his hand with a spade ruff, drew the last trump and claimed twelve tricks. Another +1210 to the Danes.

Christian "Criss-Cross" goes public

By Jon Sveindall

Some 30 years ago, Christian Vennerød was a very talented bridge player in Bergen in Norway. He was particularly interested in the subtleties of the game, and I remember him as one who first examined the possibility for a criss-cross squeeze, went down the line technique-wise, and only took a finesse as a last resort. However, his strong character enabled him to concentrate on his economic studies - so he more or less put bridge away for a quarter of a century.
When a member of the Norwegian Senior team took ill a few days before the tournament, Christian was happy to fill in as a substitute. His thoroughness and lack of routine makes him spend a lot of time at the table, but the time was put to exceptionally good use on the first board against Lebanon in the 21st Senior match.

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

West	North	Christian	South
	1§	2§(i)	3§
Pass	Pass	4©	All Pass
(i) Majors

A small club was led, ducked in dummy and won by North's ace. Three rounds of diamonds followed, and Christian realised that his only hope for an entry to dummy to take the spade finesse, was the 10-9 doubleton in hearts with South. So he ruffed with the jack! With a big grin on his face he found the bridge goddess answering his prayers, so ace-king of hearts and a heart to the eight was followed by the queen of spades. Contract landed!

By Jon Sveindal - Norway

The Norwegian Bravehearts surprised the world of bridge by their fine performance in Maastrich during last year's Olympic championship. In Tenerife the team have not been able to put up their best effort other than occasionally, which is of course reflected in the ladies' ranking. But the players are still bravehearted. Ida Wennevold is no exception, even though she is a newcomer to the team.

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

West	North	East	South
	Lybæk		Ida
			1¨
1©	Pass	2¨*	Pass
3©	Pass	3NT	All Pass

Not unnaturally East wanted to protect her diamond holding, and it looked as if notrump was the right game. Had Ida led a pedestrian diamond, 11 tricks would have rolled in - the same number of tricks also being available in a heart game. Courageously, and with the flair of Zia, Ida tabled the queen of spades! Eventually Tulla Steen Lybæk happily cashed her fifth spade as the setting trick.

Board 13. Dealer North. All Vul.
	ª A 9 2 © K 8 7 3 2 ¨ 10 § Q 9 6 3
ª K 8 7 5 4 © A 10 ¨ 4 2 § J 8 5 2		ª Q J 10 6 © 9 ¨ K Q J 5 § A K 10 7
	ª 3 © Q J 6 5 4 ¨ A 9 8 7 6 3 § 4

The Israel Senior team here in Tenerife is composed of relatively inexperienced players who are competing in the European arena for the first time. There is one exception in the persona of Shaya Levit who represented Israel many times in the Open Championship during the seventies and eighties and is recognised here as one of the very top senior players.
In the match between Poland 2 and Israel 2 Levit and his partner Sagive obtained one of the very top scores of the Seniors contest.
In the Closed room the Israeli ladies Mrs As Ilana and Mrs Aliza Megged bid and made Four Spades on the East-West cards without interference in the bidding from Jerzy Zaremba and Aleksander Jezioro.
North led his singleton diamond and the defenders took one diamond, one ruff and the ace of trumps, -620.

West	North	East	South
Klukowski	Levit	Markowicz	Sagiv
		1¨	1©
1ª	4©	4ª	5©
Dble	Redble	All Pass

Sagiv had no problems in making his redoubled contract by ruffing diamonds in dummy, losing just one club and one trump trick. The swing was 18 IMPs and contributed signicantly to Israel's victory in the match.