| 35th World Interzonal Team Championships, Paris, France | Sunday, 28 October 2001 |
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Italy vs Germany Venice Cup - Round 12 With two-thirds of the round robin completed, this match between tenth-placed Italy and seventh-placed Germany was of crucial importance to the two teams' qualification hopes. It was Italy who struck first.
Germany struck back when Auken/Von Arnim bid a thin game and slipped it through on inaccurate defence. In the Open Room, the Italians had a mostly natural sequence to 3¨, 2NT being Lebensohl. De Lucchi made ten tricks for +130. In the Closed Room, Von Arnim opened a strong club and rebid a
two-way 1©. It looks as
though Auken's 2© was a
transfer bid as otherwise the jump to 3NT is quite bizarre. Manara
led a heart to the ten and queen and Von Arnim took the club
finesse, the jack losing to the king. Back came a heart to
declarer's ace. Von Arnim crossed to the ace of clubs to take the
diamond finesse and continued with ace and another diamond honour to
the king. A spade switch would have netted four spade tricks and six
in all, but Ferlazzo continued the heart attack and that was nine
tricks and +400 for Von Arnim; 7 IMPs to Germany.
Rauscheid doubled De Lucchi's unusual 2NT overcall but when 3© came around to her she downgraded the bare king of that suit and settled for a competitive 4¨. De Lucchi led the king of clubs and Nehmert won, took the diamond finesse, crossed to the king of hearts and drew the remaining trumps with the aid of a second finesse. Then she played the §10 and claimed eleven tricks; +150. Von Arnim made a simple 1©
overcall and Manara doubled, then doubled again when the pre-emptive
3© raise came back to her.
Ferlazzo may not have been particularly thrilled about it, but 3NT
was the obvious response and that proved to be unbeatable. Von Arnim
led a heart to the king and Ferlazzo took the diamond finesse then
played a club for the king and ace. A second diamond finesse was
followed by the §10 and that
created an overtrick; +630 and 10 IMPs to Italy.
This time the swing came in the play or, rather, in the defence. Both Souths led a low diamond. Rosetta won her ace and switched to the jack of hearts. Nehmert did the best she could by going up with the ace. She threw a diamond from dummy, hoping to bring in the clubs for one loser. The §K was ducked but De Lucchi took the §Q and played king and another diamond. Nehmert just cashed out from here and the defence took the last three tricks for down two; -100. The Germans didn't seem to want to take any tricks in the other room. Auken ducked the diamond at trick one so that Ferlazzo's ten won the trick. Ferlazzo continued with the §K, ducked, and the §Q, also ducked. Now she switched her attention to diamonds, and Von Arnim won the king. But with South on lead there was no defence to the contract and declarer came to nine tricks for +400 and 11 IMPs to Italy. Italy led by 35-19 IMPs and looked to be doing their prospects of
qualification no harm at all, but thye were to add only 2 more IMPs,
while germany had a string of gains, including:
Two Clubs was Annalisa Rosetta's big bid and the 2© response showed two controls. De Lucchi showed her heart suit at her next turn then gave spade preference and Rosetta took a pessimistic view of her hand - of course, 4© could just as easily have been based on a small doubleton so there was no safety in going on. However, the Italians were not happy with their +710 - Rauscheid ducked the first heart. Sure enough, Auken/Von Arnim reached the slam in the other room
via a rather dynamic auction from Auken. Von Arnim cuebid the heart
ace on the way to 6ª but that
was not sufficient for Auken; +1430 and 12 IMPs to Germany.
De Lucchi was able to make a non-forcing 2© bid, enabling her side to find the heart fit, but Rauscheid did well to judge to defend and not bid out her two-suiter in the face of a possibly prepared club opening on her left. There was no way for De Lucchi to avoid losing a trick in each suit for down one; -50. Auken's four-card major opening put momentum into the auction as Von Arnim was able to make a pre-emptive raise to game before Manara had even one opportunity to start to describe her hand. Of course, she bid 4NT to show her minor two-suiter, and Auken was happy to double Ferlazzo's choice of 5¨. Again the defence took one trick in each suit; -300 and 8 IMPs to Germany. The match ended in a 51-37 IMP victory for Germany, converting to 18-12 VPs. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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