Marc Smith visits the 2019 European Champions’ Cup

Four teams qualified for the knockout stage from the twelve originally invited to compete in the 2019 European Champions Cup in Bucharest. MONACO, who had dominated the round robin, selected ENGLAND as their opponents. This left ITALY to battle it out with NETHERLANDS in the other semi-final.

Twelve invited teams, all national champions in their own right, gathered on the banks of the Dambovita River in the Romanian capital of Bucharest for the 2019 European Champions Cup. The format was a complete round robin of ten-board matches over two days, with the top four teams qualifying for the main semi-finals. The second and third groups of four teams would also play a knockout to produce an overall first-to-twelfth ranking.

This week, we take a look at some of the interesting deals from the round robin stage, and in the process see all of the contending teams in action.

First, though, let me pose a couple of problems for you to consider. We’ll find out how your choices would have fared later. With neither side vulnerable, you hold as South:

East’s Two Spades shows a weak hand with five spades and a four-card or longer minor. West’s Three Clubs is pass-or-correct. What action do you take?

Next try your hand at an opening lead problem. As West with your side only vulnerable, your hand is:

Of course, you did not expect to be on lead with this hand, but such is life. As you might imagine, a large number of IMPs rest on your choice. What do you lead?

That’s enough waffle from me. Let’s get on to the action. We start with the match between ENGLISH CHAMPIONS and BRIDGE CLUB BRASOV, the Romanian representatives.

Both Vulnerable - Dealer East     

Cornel Theodorescu’s pre-emptive jump to Three Spades forced Andrew Robson to make a decision, but his hearts were sufficiently robust that he could not be shut out. There were ways to defeat Four Hearts, but not after East had led two top clubs. Declarer ruffed, knocked out the ace of trumps, and eventually guessed the diamonds to make eleven tricks. N/S +650

Things became more exciting at the other table:

West  - Gold          North - Moldovan   East - Bell      South - M Moraru

Marius Mararu did not overcall on the South cards, so the auction began in a relatively sedate fashion. Mike Bell found a super-sharp double of Four Hearts and would surely have beaten the contract via a diamond lead: the opponents’ bidding virtually marks West with a singleton. When Moraru retreated to game in diamonds, it was up to David Gold to find a winning lead.

Two rounds of clubs would have been good enough as it happens, as declarer cannot pick up East’s trumps after ruffing in dummy. However, that should take nothing away from David Gold’s thoughtful play. There was nothing in the auction to suggest that Bell had no spades, but Gold tried to cater for more than one possibility by leading the ♣Q at trick one. When Bell signaled with the ♣J, it was easy for Gold to deliver a spade ruff to beat the contract trivially. N/S +200 and 13 IMPs to ENGLISH CHAMPIONS.

Our second deal comes from the meeting between RUSSIAN CHAMPIONS and CANOTTIERI OLONA, the ace Italian team.

N/S Vulnerable - Dealer East          

With a combined 26-count and a void in partner’s first suit, most pairs would be happy to reach a making game. The Russians headed for the most likely spot:

West - Prokhorov       North - Lauria   East - Voronov        South - Versace

With half of his points in his short suits, Voronov’s decision to rebid 1NT rather than Two Diamonds is not unreasonable. Dmitri Prokhorov tried to find a spade fit via a checkback inquiry and, when that failed, introduced his second suit. Voronov’s club holding did not look ideal for a high-level diamond contract with his hand as dummy, so he settled for 3NT, and there matters rested. The club lead did not unduly tax declarer, and he emerged with twelve tricks: E/W +490.

West - Madala      North - Vorobei   East - Duboin         South - Sliva

Giorgio Duboin did introduce his diamonds. Suitably encouraged, Agustin Madala forced to game with a fourth suit Three Clubs and then advanced over Duboin’s 3NT. Duboin cue-bid his heart control, which one might have thought Madala would find discouraging, but apparently not. Trumps split 3-1 but with spades behaving declarer was never in danger. E/W +920 and 10 IMPs to the Italians.

The field included two Dutch teams, BC’T ONSTEIN 1, who are here as defending champions, and HET WISSE HUIS as reigning national champions. Our next match comes from the match between the latter and STUDENTENES BK from Norway.

 None Vulnerable - Dealer East       

The Norwegian East opened with a natural weak two in spades. Maarten Schollardt balanced with Three Hearts and was raised to game. West won the opening club lead with the jack and switched to a trump (although a club continuation may have been more threatening). Declarer won, took a spade finesse, played three rounds of diamond, ruffing in dummy, cashed two more high trumps and conceded a diamond. West could cash his trump winner, but declarer had the rest: N/S a painless +420.

West - Westra         North - Kippe   East - Ramondt        South - Hegge

East also opened Two Spades at this table, but here it showed spades and a minor and West responded with a pass/correct Three Clubs. When defending, you should always be asking yourself, “What does partner need to know?” The cards you play should then convey the information that provide partner with the assistance he needs. The same should also be true in the auction: it is often easy to look at your hand and make what at first glance seems to be the ‘obvious’ bid, without considering how partner might be placed.

This is exactly what Hakon Kippe did here when he tried to get both of his suits into the action via a takeout double of Three Clubs. This left Kristoffer Hegge with the bidding problem presented earlier.

With the spades sitting over East’s suit and no obvious bid (anyone for 3NT?), it is hard to be too critical of South’s pass. Yes, Three Clubs doubled can be beaten, but doing so is unlikely in practice. North led a top heart and, to defeat the contract, he must switch to a low diamond at trick two. When Kippe switched, instead, to his trump, declarer was in control.

Berry Westra won cheaply in hand and ran the ♠9 to South’s queen. Hegge switched to king and another diamond now, but it was too late. Declarer ruffed the third round of diamonds with dummy’s ♣K and began running spades through South’s ace. When South eventually covered, declarer ruffed, ruffed back to dummy, took discards on winning spades, and then picked up South’s ♣Q. The defenders made a spade and their three red-suit winners, but that was it. N/S -470 and 14 IMPs to HET WITTE HUIS.

Next up are ISRAELI CHAMPIONS and MONACO FMB, who led early in the round robin and extended their lead match after match. You might feel that the Israelis were rather unlucky to lose a major swing on our next deal.

E/W Vulnerable Dealer North     

West - Klukowsi      North - Barel   East - Gawrys        South - Zack

You will recognize this as the lead problem, posed at the start of this article. Remarkably, the auction was identical at both tables, so Ilan Bareket for the Israelis and Michal Klukowski for Monaco were faced with the same lead problem.

Did you select the ♥A as your opening lead? So, too, did Bareket. As you can see, the ruff-and-discard allows declarer to discard his spade loser, leaving him with an easy thirteen tricks. N/S +1440.

With declarer surely marked with a heart void and the distinct possibility of setting up a discard on dummy’s ♥K, perhaps leading the ace is somewhat naïve. Michal Klukowski opened the ♠Q, which left Yaniv Zack with no way to subsequently avoid losing a trick to East’s ♠J. E/W -50 and a massive 16 IMPs to MONACO FMB.

Our final deal features the only contending team that we have not yet seen in action, last year’s winners, BC’T ONSTEIN 1. Their opponents in this match were ENGLISH CHAMPIONS. Much has been written of late about the significant increase in pre-emptive bidding. On this deal, even a relatively gentle pre-empt made a huge difference.

 N/S Vulnerable -   Dealer East

A method currently growing in popularity is to play two ranges of weak two opening in the majors, one opened with a natural two bid and the other starting with a Multi Two Diamond. For this English pair, the stronger version goes through the Multi, which is what Forrester opened here, showing an undisclosed six-card major and 8-11 HCP.

Whether East has opened a natural Two Hearts or a Multi, this North/South combination is not easy to bid. Bauke Muller chose to overcall in his five-card major and Simon de Wijs, quite reasonably, did not see any particular reason to advance. Muller made nine tricks in his partscore: N/S +140.

Looking at the North/South hands, you may think you want to reach 3NT. Declarer seems to have nine tricks: win the third round of hearts and play spades. With the spade honors split, the good impletion will produce four tricks in that suit to go along with five top tricks outside. That’s all well and good if your opponents co-operate. At another table where I saw this deal played, East led the ♥K but then switched to a club at trick two (declarer having pitched a club from dummy at trick one). Getting to hand to take two spade finesses is now not so straightforward, When declarer took the losing diamond finesse at trick three, the defenders played a second heart, which declarer had to duck, and then switched back to clubs, setting up their fourth trick before declarer had lost a spade. Perhaps +140 was not such a bad result for North/South after all…

Let’s now see what happened at the other table in our match, where the Dutch East opened what many players would consider a perfectly normal One Heart:

West - Nab         North - Gold   East - Drijver       South - Bell

Bart Nab had two ways to raise hearts after Bell’s One Spade overcall, and Two Hearts was the weaker of the alternatives. This prompted Bob Drijver to advance defensively (2NT was alerted and presumably was some sort of Lebensohl, permitting an immediate Three Heart bid to be played as invitational.) This allowed Bell to show his extra values and his rough shape via a double. The English pair now wended their way to game in diamonds, North even making a slam try on the way.

David Gold won the opening club lead in dummy and immediately play the ♦K and a diamond to the ace, picking off East’s queen. Now came the ♠8, covered by the queen and ace. When declarer then played a low spade from dummy, West ducked and the ♠10 won. Gold now drew the last trump, crossed back to dummy in clubs, and ruffed out the ♠K. The defenders made a club at the end, but declarer had amassed a rather unlikely twelve tricks: N/S an impressive +620 and 10 IMPs to ENGLISH CHAMPIONS.

The round robin ended with MONACO FMB leading the field on 160.34 VPs. Second was CANOTTIERI OLONA, the Italian champions on 142.12. The holders, BC’T ONSTEIN 1 from the Netherlands were third on 138.73 and ENGLISH CHAMPIONS claimed the last place in the main knockout with 126.88. Just missing out were the second Dutch team, HET WITTE HUIS (121.02) followed by the champion teams from Russia, Norway and Israel respectively.

For winning the round robin, MONACO earned the right to choose their semi-final opponents from the teams that finished third and fourth. They chose to play the English, leaving the Italians and Dutch to battle it out in the other semi-final. Next week, we will return to Bucharest for the exciting conclusion to an excellent tournament.