Marc Smith visits the 2019 Spingold Quarter-Final

It may seem remarkable how often a 60-board knockout match is decided by a tantalisingly small margin. The 2019 Spingold at the Summer National in Las Vegas provided plenty of exciting finishes for the thousands of spectators who tuned in to watch the action on BBO VuGraph. One swing may represent the difference between advancing into the next round and crashing out of the event. There is always plenty of scope for plenty of IMPs to change hands, whether through good play, misunderstandings, blunders or just plain luck.

This week, we take a look at the closing stages of the quarter-final match between SPECTOR and LAVAZZA. The original #15 seeds, SPECTOR (Warren Spector - Gavin Wolpert, Joel Wooldridge - John Hurd and Vincent Demuy - John Kranyak) are a young American team (although at my age anyone younger than, say, the Hackett twins, is a ‘recent junior’, so the word ‘young’ in this context covers a fairly wide age range). Meanwhile, LAVAZZA (originally seeded #7) includes a Dane, a Frenchman and four members of the modern-day equivalent of the great Italian Blue team, Antonio Sementa - Norberto Bocchi, Augustin Madala - Dennis Bilde and Philippe Cronier - Giorgio Duboin

Going into the final 15-board stanza, LAVAZZA led by 11 IMPs (118-107). Let’s see how the IMPs ebbed and flowed back and forth during the final set.

E/W Game - Dealer West

When the Italians stopped at the two-level, John Hurd backed in with a normal-looking takeout double. Now Wooldridge thought he had enough to invite game, so he jumped to Three Spades, which ended the auction. West won the opening club lead and switched to a high diamond, ducked.  Declarer won the diamond continuation, ruffed a diamond in dummy, then played all of his trumps before leading a heart to the ace. Down to a doubleton by now, it was not difficult for Sementa to unblock his ♥K to avoid the endplay, so the defenders duly made three clubs and a trick in each red suit for a one trick set. N/S -100 for what looks likely a fairly normal result.

The auction began in similar fashion at the second table:

West - Demuy; North - Bilde ; East - Kranyak; South - Madala

Here, Dennis Bilde responded only Two Spades to his partner’s re-opening double, allowing Kranyak to compete to the three-level in his six-card suit. When this ran back to Bilde, he then took the push to Three Spades, apparently flattening the board. But the auction was not yet over: when it came back to Vincent Demuy, he decided that he now liked his hand enough to advance to game despite the partnership having already twice decided against this course of action. Bilde duly expressed his opinion in the traditional method, but then had to find a way to defeat the contract.

With trumps 2-2, the defenders need to score a diamond ruff to go along with their three aces. Entries mean that North must either lead a low diamond at trick one, or at trick two after cashing a spade. Bilde kept defensive hopes alive by leading the ♠A, but after his club switch declarer was soon able to claim ten tricks. N/S -790 and 12 IMPs to SPECTOR, wiping out the Italians lead without anyone having done anything obviously wrong:

One point of technical interest in the deal: it may look at first glance as though North can afford to kick off the defense by leading the ♦A and continuing the suit, since he still has a spade entry. Had Bilde found that defence, the spotlight would then have been on Demuy. Declarer can now make the contract by means of a scissors coup: he wins the second round of diamond in dummy with the jack, takes a club finesse, and then continues with the ♣A and then the ♣Q, discarding dummy’s spade. The defenders still get their one black-suit trick but, crucially, they get it with South on lead, leaving North without an entry to deliver the fatal diamond ruff.

N/S Game - Dealer East

Bocchi’s Two Notrump showed a maximum pass with four-card heart support. Undeterred, Hurd bravely introduced his moderate spades at the three-level despite the paucity of his club fit. Sementa now showed his second suit in the hope that it would help partner make a sensible decision if North bid Four Spades, which Wooldridge duly did. With no diamond fit, a balanced hand and primarily defensive cards, Bocchi was never going to do anything but pass, though.

There was little to the play: West cashed his top diamonds and switched to a heart, but declarer won with the hxA, ruffed a heart, and led the ♦Q. All the defenders could make now was the ace of trumps. N/S +620.

West - Demuy; North - Bilde ; East - Kranyak; South - Madala

Bidle opted for a takeout double rather than the club overcall and here East also showed a maximum pass with a heart fit via Two Notrumps. Facing a double, though, Madala had a fairly routine jump to game in spades, which left Demuy with no room to consult partner. He had to fly solo and his eminently reasonable decision to choose offense over defence on his shapely minimum came up smelling of roses. The defence could score their two top clubs and the ace of trumps, but that was all: N/S a paltry +100 and another 11 IMPs to SPECTOR .

To those watching on VuGraph, it seemed that Demuy - Kranyak could do no wrong: they sailed into a 24-point Three Notrump with ♣K-Q-x-x-x facing two low. Clubs were 3-3 with the ace onside, so that was another 10-IMP swing when the Italians played in a quite reasonable One Notrump at the other table. They then bid a grand slam with a trump suit of ♥J-10-x facing ♥A-K-x-x-x while the Italians settled safely in Six Notrump. Of course, the ♥Q was onside with the spades 3-2, and suddenly SPECTOR was running away with the match, having gained 45 unanswered IMPs in the first five boards to lead by 34.

But then the worm turned. Demuy - Kranyak bid Six Clubs with an ace off and ♣Q-J-9-x missing. The contract was slightly better than the 2-2 trump break, but not much, and deservedly failed when trumps broke 3-1. Then came a deal with plenty of potential to create a swing deal:

None Vulnerable - Dealer West

Dennis Bilde’s Three Diamond jump cue-bid showed at least 5-5 in the black suits. Kranyak doubled and Madala redoubled, and I’ll leave you to decide exactly what each of those players intended their bids to show in this fairly unusual auction. Bilde retreated to the obvious Three Spades and, somewhat surprisingly, no one else had anything to say. The defenders led a diamond and quickly came to two tricks in each minor: N/S +140.

Just how good a score was that, though? It seemed there was plenty of scope for either side to gain a swing. A plus score for N/S might be good with Four Spades clearly failing, but what can E/W make? If they find their double fit, might they not try Five Diamonds or even Five Hearts, both of which fail by at least a couple with the hearts breaking so horribly. However, the auction did not start with the somewhat expected 1♦ - 1♠ - 2♥ at the second table either:

West - Demuy;       North - Bilde; East - Kranyak;      South - Madala

 Joel Wooldridge opted for pure pre-emption, although perhaps a benevolent VuGraph commentator might have described it as great judgement, by bidding what he correctly thought he could make. It seems that the effect of this particular pre-empt, though, was to take away the rope with which East/West might well have hanged themselves. With no room to show his diamond fit or his hearts conveniently, Bocchi simply shut his eyes and followed Hamman’s First Law of Bidding (when Three Notrumps is one of the sensible options, that’s the bid you should choose).

Now the spotlight turned on Hurd: would he up the ante with Four Spades? No, which is a shame. It would have been interesting to find out whether Sementa would have settled for a small plus by doubling, scooped the pot with a natural Four Notrumps, or retreated unsuccessfully into his long suit.       

Hurd led a low spade and Bocchi quickly won with the ♠K and took the diamond finesse. When that worked he quickly claimed his nine top tricks: N/S -400 and another 11 IMPS to LAVAZZA, who were right back in the match now, trailing 142-152 with six deals remaining. And there was plenty of scope for swings in those final deals too. Take a look at his nightmare:

N/S Game - Dealer West

This was a bidding problem that defeated both E/W pairs. Looking at both hands, it is easy to see that (with hearts 3-2) making Four Spades is trivial. Indeed, we’ve all bid and made far worse slams! Bocchi, though gave his side no chance of reaching that contract, when his first action was to show a constructive three-card heart raise.

West - Demuy;       North - Bilde; East - Kranyak;      South - Madala

Kranyak at least got spades into the auction. Even playing 2/1, most pairs play Two Spades here as only a one-round force, rather than game-forcing. Would Three Hearts or Three Spades then be forcing when Three Clubs comes back? Probably not, but it is perhaps worth checking to find out what your regular partner thinks. Would it not be nice, though, to be able to bid those spades twice before supporting hearts?

Is it ever possible to bid this permutation to a spade contract? Perhaps not. Which left both declarers with the much more challenging task of making ten tricks in hearts after North leads a high club, forcing dummy. Both declarers ruffed the club lead and played three top hearts, drawing trumps with South discarding a diamond on the third round. They both now overtook the ♠K and threw clubs on the queen and jack of spades.

For SPECTOR, Demuy now led a diamond to the king, which was a swift one down when North won with the ♦A. N/S +50.

For LAVAZZA, Sementa also led a diamond but he ducked it around to North’s ♦9. He then ruffed the third round of clubs and led the ♦10, bringing down North’s ace. He was now able to claim the last two tricks with his last trump and the ♦K: a breath-taking N/S -420.

Then came a chance for both N/S pairs to collect 800 on a partscore deal:

Both Vulnerable - Dealer North

Joel Wooldridge opened the bidding, heard partner make a constructive raise, and then had to make a high-level decision at his next turn. He not unreasonably chose to compete in diamonds at the four-level, and bought the contract there. East led the ♣A and needed to switch to the ♠7 to give the defence a chance, although declarer would/should probably get it right anyway. When Bocchi actually cashed the ♠A at trick two, declarer claimed ten tricks: N/S +130.

At the other table, East/West also bid their meager values well beyond their safety level but more slowly. Would this enable the LAZAVVA pair to extract the full toll?

West - Demuy;       North - Bilde; East - Kranyak;      South - Madala

Here Madala also raised diamonds, but only to the two-level, and again West freely raised. Bilde competed in diamonds but now Kranyak thought he was worth one further try, and introduced his second suit. Of course, Demuy quickly retreated to what he sincerely hoped was the safety of a ten-card trump fit, but it was far from safe. Could either Bilde or Madala pull the trigger? No, both gave Four Clubs a look but both eventually produced green pass cards.

The defence was accurate, South led a diamond to the king and Bilde switched to the ♥J, ducked. He then forced dummy with a diamond. A trump went to the queen and king, but Madala returned the ♣8 to dummy’s nine. Declarer now played ace and another heart, but Bilde won and switched to a spade. The defence must now make the ♠K and either a third heart trick or the ♣10. N/S +300 and 5 IMPs to LAVAZZA.

The final margin of the SPECTOR victory was just 8 IMPs (165-157). Had anyone managed to double Kranyak’s Four Clubs, that would have reduced the margin to just a solitary IMP, and surely someone could have found an overtrick IMP somewhere in 60 boards, couldn’t they?

The concluding session of this exciting match was watched by more than a thousand kibitzers at each table on BBO’s VuGraph, hopefully with their enjoyment of the event even further enhanced by the expert voice commentary in both rooms.

Next week we’ll take a look at an even closer finish from the same event. NICKELL have been America’s most successful team for more than three decades, and they are perennial visitors to the latter stages of major knockout events. How do they do it?