Marc Smith visits the Soloway Trophy at the Fall Nationals

The 2019 Fall Nationals were staged in San Francisco, California and featured the inaugural running of a new event, the Soloway Trophy. The format was a straight knockout of 60-board matches, and with entry limited to just 32 teams even the lower seeds in an exceptionally strong field would be quite capable of pulling off an upset. Indeed, there were no easy matches, and the carnage in the first round emphasized this, with half of the original top 16 seeds losing (including #4, #5, #6, #7 and #8). 

World-class players were to be found facing off against each other at just about every table, which was great news for spectators watching the event on BBO VuGraph. For this week’s article, I picked out one of only two second-round matches involving two teams originally seeded in the top 16, NICKELL vs LALL. Despite being the most consistent winners of U.S. team events over recent decades, the NICKELL team was seeded only #3 in this event. Their opponents, the original #14 seeds captained by Hemant Lall, were a multi-national conglomeration with plenty of familiar names, Reese Milner, Zia Mahmood, Sabine Auken, David Gold and Roy Welland. How could such a match-up not be worthy of a look?

As usual, we begin with some bidding problems for you to consider. We will find out later how your choices would have turned out.

With neither side vulnerable, you hold as East:

What would you open? If you opt for One Diamond, what do you then bid over partner’s One Spade response?

Next, vulnerable against not, your hand as North is:

Partner’s jump to Four Diamonds shows at least four hearts, diamond shortage, and 10-12 HCP. What action would you take?

Finally, vulnerable against not, you are West with this hand:

Your methods allow you to bid Two Clubs to show the majors if you wish. Do you come in over South’s 14-16 1NT opening?

While you cogitate over those, let’s take a look at the early action. The first set began quietly but ended with a couple of large bangs:

N/S Vulnerable - Dealer West

Nick Nickell decided that this West hand was a weak two first in hand non-vulnerable, so Ralph Katz was never tempted to bid anything other than game in spades. North led the ♦J and, when South rose with the ace and returned the suit, declarer had an easy twelve tricks once the trumps broke evenly. E/W +480.

West - Welland North - Levin East - Auken South - Weinstein

Roy Welland thought the hand was too good for a weak two in this position, so he opened at the one-level. German star Sabine Auken forced to game with an artificial 1NT response, Welland rebid his spades, and Auken made a slam try with Three Spades. Welland’s 3NT was ‘non-serious’, showing a minimum opening, and when Auken made another try with a Four Club cue-bid Welland signed off again. Undeterred, though, Auken felt she could not stop out of slam facing a One Spade opening.

Bobby Levin led the ♣2, won in dummy with the ace. When declarer led a diamond from dummy at trick two, Steve Weinstein was not tempted to rise with his ace, so declarer’s queen won. Welland now needed to ruff two hearts in dummy. It was not a hopeless situation: any 4-3 heart break would suffice as long as trumps broke 2-2, as declarer could take the second ruff with the queen, 

Of course, South ruffed the second round of hearts to end declarer’s chances. Weinstein then cashed the ♦A and played a third diamond, Declarer pitched one of his heart losers and North ruffed to set the contract by two: E/W -100 and the first double-figure swing of the match, 11 IMPs to NICKELL.

The next deal was another bidding challenge for the East/West pairs. Do you want to get to a slam that has only somewhere around a 50% chance of making? Not usually, but take a look at this layout and perhaps you will see why bidding the slam is not such a bad proposition.

None Vulnerable - Dealer East

You will recognize this East hand as one of the problems presented at the top of this article. It is an incredibly difficult hand for natural methods. The first decision is what to open, and Sabine Auken opted for a simple One Diamond. Of course, that is only the beginning of your problems, as the next question is what to rebid over partner’s One Spade response. Too strong for Three Diamonds, not particularly suitable for 2NT, Auken went for an imaginative Two Clubs in the hope that she would learn something useful. When Welland could only give preference to Two Diamonds, Auken gave up and punted what she hoped was the right contract. With diamonds 2-2, declarer had an easy twelve tricks in 3NT: E/W +490.

Even had Auken probed again with a fourth-suit Two Hearts over Two Diamonds, Welland would, presumably, have bid Three Clubs, which doesn’t help a great deal either. Very difficult.

Looking at just the East/West hands, where do you want to play this combination? Certainly not 3NT. For 3NT to make on a likely heart lead, you need the diamonds to come in. If they do, then Six Diamonds is also cold. Six Diamonds will also make even if there is a diamond loser as long as the spades split 3-3. (You can then get your heart away as a defender ruffs the fourth round of spades with his trump trick.) 

If you are going to stop in game, clearly Five Diamonds is infinitely better than 3NT. Six Diamonds, though, whilst probably only a little over 50%, is still better odds to make than 3NT, so you may well be free-rolling. 

West - Nickell North - Milner East - Katz South - Lall

Ralph Katz decided that the East hand was worth a Two Club opening. I confess that I would like to hide this auction from my students, as I regularly tell them that no one plays control-showing responses to Two Clubs these days. There are exceptions to every rule in this game, though, and Nickell/Katz are one of those few pairs still playing methods that probably peaked in popularity in the 1960s. 

Nickell’s Two Spade response showed three controls (ace=2, king=1). Three Clubs was a transfer to diamonds, Three Diamonds said nothing much about the West hand, and Katz now bid a forcing 3NT. Nickell’s raise to 4NT was non-forcing and showed a minimum for his previous bidding. Indeed, he could not have been more minimum, although he did, at least, have a doubleton diamond. Katz decided that slam was unlikely to be worse than brining in the diamonds, so took a shot at the big prize. He was duly rewarded with a 2-2 trump split: E/W +940 and overall a deserved 10 IMPs to NICKELL.

After two sets, NICKELL led 55-42. Early in the third set came:

N/S Vulnerable - Dealer North

Facing a One Heart opening limited to at most 15 HCP, Eric Rodwell quite understandably jumped directly to game, As many opponents know to their cost, this is a trademark Meckwell auction in which responder could hold anything from a shapely 2-count to a strong notrump. Good luck guessing when West should come into the auction and when he should not.

David Gold led the ♠J. Rodwell ducked the first round, won the spade continuation, and pitched a spade loser on the ♠A. He then ruffed diamonds in dummy, West eventually scoring an overruff with the ♥Q: N/S +650.

In the other room, Sabine Auken was faced with the bidding problem presented earlier:

West - Weinstein North - Auken East - Levin South - Welland

I think this is a situation in which you either do or you don’t. You could decide to simply settle for game but, if you decide to bid on, it is hard to see how you can get enough information to bid the slam with any degree of science. Sabine Auken simply backed her judgement, and quite right she proved to be.

Bobby Levin’s opening trump lead not only gave declarer the luxury of time, but also suggested that diamond length/strength would be on her left. She captured East’s ♥Q and immediately played the ♦A followed by the ♦J, discarding a spade from dummy when East did not cover. With trumps 2-2, it was now easy to take two diamond ruffs in dummy and claim twelve tricks: N/W +1430 and 13 IMPs to LALL.

This board reduced the deficit to just 4 IMPs with 25 deals remaining, That, though, was as close as the LALL team would get. By the end of the third set, NICKELL had restored their lead to 19 IMPs (94-75). The final stanza of the match provided the hundreds of kibitzers watching on BBO VuGraph with a real treat, the spectacle of the NICKELL team at full throttle.

One major difference between the expert declarer and the merely good player, is that the expert regularly capitalizes on any chance he is given. Both West players played in the same hopeless game on the next deal. At one table, Rodwell gave declarer no chance…

Both Vulnerable - Dealer South

A spade is about the only lead that gives declarer some hope, but neither North was able to avoid it. Both Zia and Weinstein won in hand with the ♠Q and played a heart to dummy’s jack and South’s king. Here the defenses divulged.

At one table, Eric Rodwell plonked down the ♣Q, extinguishing any hopes for declarer. At the other, Roy Welland returned his second spade. Steve Weinstein did not need to be given a second invitation. He won with the ♠A and led a diamond, playing the queen from his hand when South followed with a low card. He now completed a textbook avoidance play by crossing back to dummy with a heart to the ten in order to play a second round of diamonds. When South was forced to follow with the ♦K, Weinstein ducked, thus establishing his suit without allowing North in to cash his spades. Four diamonds, one club and two tricks in each major added up to nine. 12 IMPs to NICKELL, and the steamroller was underway.

Two deals later, came the last of the three problems posed at the earlier:

E/W Vulnerable - Dealer North

Rodwell opened a slightly off-shape 14-16 1NT in third seat, and Zia (perhaps uncharacteristically reticent?) chose not to enter the fray at adverse vulnerability. The defenders could have taken the first seven tricks in the black suits, but Gold switched to a diamond after winning the second round of spades, so Rodwell was able to cash out for his contract. N/S +90.

There was somewhat more bidding at the other table. Indeed, even more than, perhaps, the hands justified:

West - Weinstein North - Auken East - Levin South - Welland

After the same start at this table, Steve Weinstein did show both majors with a Two Club overcall. To say that Bobby Levin took his partner’s intervention seriously is something of an understatement. For me, the jump to game on a 4-3-3-3 11-count that includes three jacks suggests that he expects a seriously good hand opposite. (Certainly better than my partners should expect.)

If Levin’s Four Spades was aggressive, then Welland’s Five Diamonds was positively wild, as it essentially offered the opponents fielder’s choice. Indeed, a double on Levin’s hand looks so obvious that I have to wonder if I am missing something. Accurate defense against Five Diamonds doubled collects an easy +500 and leaves declarer to guess the position of the ♣10 to get out for that. Bidding on to Five Spades seems to risk a minus depending on the location of the ♥Q, when defending is surely guaranteed to score at least reasonably well.

With the ♥Q in the slot, the defenders cannot defeat Five Spades as long as declarer does not allow South to cover the ♥J with his queen. (You need to score three heart tricks in order to discard your losing club, so twice leading low towards dummy is the technically correct play.) As it happened, Welland cashed a top diamond at trick one and switched to the ♥Q at trick two, so no careful play was required from declarer. 

One cannot argue with success, which is perhaps why Bobby is playing and I am only writing about it. E/W +650 and a rather surreal 12 IMPs to NICKELL, rolling right along now.

Opponents of Meckwell over the years would probably almost unanimously agree that they are incredibly difficult to play against. You are constantly being set ‘do I bid or not’ problems. Our final deal is a classic example:

None Vulnerable - Dealer South

Rodwell opened a Precision One Diamond (11-15 HCP, 1+♦) and Meckstroth’s Two Heart response showed less than invitational values with 5♠/4+♥. Who is supposed to enter this auction for East/West, at what stage and with what?

Neither a takeout double for the minors, a Three Club overcall, nor a natural 2NT seem right on this East hand, either directly over Two Hearts or when Two Spades comes back. Meanwhile, Zia can hardly take action on his mini-notrump. 

The only good news is that at least you can go plus by beating Two Spades. The bad news is that you cannot do so after the blind opening lead of the ♦2 that Zia fished out. Not only are East/West cold for game, but they also suffered the ignominy of going minus on defense too: N/S a spectacular +110.

West - Weinstein North - Auken East - Levin South - Welland

Roy Welland stated with One Club and Auken’s One Heart response was a transfer, showing spades. This allowed Bobby Levin in comfortably with a One Spade cue-bid, showing a takeout double of spades without four hearts. (An excellent innovation that should become widely adopted against a method that is becoming more and more common.) The rest of the action was like clockwork and the routine game was duly reached. North led a diamond to the ace and declarer then ducked the first two rounds of spades. He could then safely knock out the ♣A and claim his nine tricks: E/W +400 and yet another 11 IMPs in the NICKELL plus column.

NICKELL won the final stanza 49-15 and the match 143-90. They march on into the quarter-final and beyond. Indeed, next week this column will return to San Francisco to bring you the most interesting deals from the final of the Soloway Trophy. You can just about bet your bottom dollar that we shall be seeing the NICKELL team in action again against another world-class challenger.