Marc Smith visits the late stages of the first Major Alt Invitational

A total of 36 star-studded teams began the quest to win the first Major Alt Invitational. Now just four remained standing. One semi-final pitted the team that had won the Swiss qualifier, GOLDBERG (USA, Finland and Singapore), against the team that had just scraped into the knockout stages at the death, LAVAZZA (Italy, France and Denmark). In the other semi-final were the teams that had finished second and third in the Swiss, BIANCHI (Italy) against GUPTA (USA, France and Netherlands). By dint of their performance in the Swiss, both GOLDBERG and BIANCHI enjoyed a carry-forward advantage of 0.1 IMPs.

As usual, we begin with some problems for you to consider. Firstly, with both sides vulnerable, you hold as North:

This should be a Lebensohl position (as it presents the same problems as responding to a takeout double of a Two Heart opening). You seem to have a three-way choice between a value-showing but non-forcing Three Clubs, a Lebensohl 2NT and then 3NT over partner’s Three Clubs to show a heart stopper and deny four spades, and 4NT showing both minors. Which option do you prefer, or do you have another alternative?

Next, with your side only vulnerable, your hand as East is:

North’s Two Heart response is natural and game-forcing. What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with your side only vulnerable, you hold as West:

Partner’s Two Spades is either clubs or a limit raise in notrumps and your 2NT shows a minimum for your 1NT opening. Partner’s 3NT is then a mild slam try in clubs with no shortness. What action do you take?

While you mull those over, let’s get straight to the action in the first stanza of the semi-finals.

Both Vul - Dealer West

Massimiliano Di Franco’s Three Heart bid was described as a ‘mixed raise’, but looks more like a pre-emptive one to me. Whatever it is called, though, it silenced the opponents. Whether that was a good thing for the Italians, we’ll find out later. North led a spade but, when he regained the lead with the ♥K, he understandably switched to a diamond rather than a club. No matter, as declarer could not afford to draw trumps anyway, and had to play a club himself. South won with the ♣K and delivered his partner’s spade ruff. E/W -100.

At all three other tables, North/South got into the auction. One of Lavazza’s Italian world champions had to solve the first of the bidding problems posed above:

West - Hua North - Duboin East - Goldberg South - Cronier

Giorgio Duboin did well to ignore the notrump game (which has five top losers) and instead steered his partner into Five Diamonds. After the lead of the ♥A and a heart continuation, the contract looks straightforward, doesn’t it? Well, three world-class declarers all took their eye off the ball: they all won with the ♥K and played a trump to the ace. In fact, that was the only way to go down.

When West discarded a heart on the first round of diamonds, Philippe Cronier played three top clubs, East ruffing the third and declarer overruffing. He then belatedly played a spade. East won and could have defeated the contract by returning a second round of trumps, leaving declarer a trick short. Cronier was lucky, as Goldberg played another heart, so he was now able to score eight trump tricks on a crossruff to go with one heart and two clubs. E/W +600 and 11 IMPs to LAVAZZA.

In the other semi-final, Both South players reached Five Diamonds (one of them doubled) and both Wests led the ♥A. One West continued with a heart whilst the other switched to the ♣J. At both tables, declarer immediately played a trump to his hand. Both East players played a second round of trumps when they got in with a spade, so both declarers finished one down: 3 IMPs to BIANCHI for the double.

Our next deal features a very rare play, the Dentist’s Coup, spotted by one declarer but missed by another. This play is mistakenly described online as ‘extracting the opponent’s exit cards’, but it is far more specific than that. Such a description could be applied to hundreds of variants leading to an endplay, whereas the specific play is seldom seen at the table. 

None Vul - Dealer South

Suppose you get a heart lead. You win in dummy, play a spade to the ace, ruff a spade, and play a trump to the king, which holds. What do you do next?

Two declarers, Philippe Cronier for LAVAZZA and Curtis Cheek for GUPTA, found themselves in exactly this position. (It is the same whether you played one round of clubs before taking the spade ruff, or after.)

Cheek spotted the need for a Dentist’s Coup – extracting the cards from dummy with which it could be endplayed. When the first round of trumps held, he crossed to the dummy in hearts and cashed the two top diamonds, and only then played a second round of trumps. West won with the ♣A but had no winning play. N/S +920.

At the other table, Cronier continued with a second round of trumps. This enabled Poon Hua to win with the ♣A and exit with a second round of hearts. What could declarer now do? He could not afford to overtake dummy’s heart winner with his ace. Having cashed the ♦A-K, though, dummy then had only diamonds left. West’s ♣9 was, therefore, promoted into the setting trick. N/S -50.

In BIANCHI vs GUPTA, the deal was flat at N/S +920. At the table where Reno Bianchi was declarer, Simon de Wijs won the first round of trumps and returned a trump to stop a second spade ruff, so declarer could simply draw trumps and claim his twelve tricks.

In GOLDBERG vs LAVAZZA, the auction ended in the inferior 6NT, which made when the spade finesse worked. That meant 14 IMPs to GOLDBERG, despite being outbid on the deal.

At the end of the first half of each semi-final, both of the underdogs (based on their standings after the Swiss) had jumped out to sizeable leads. LAVAZZA led GOLDBERG 46-19.1 whilst GUPTA headed BIANCHI 47-12.1. 

One player in each match was faced with the second of our bidding problems. Their two solutions produced very different results:

E/W Vul - Dealer South

Vulnerable against not, how often do you expect to win the auction if you come in over North’s game-forcing Two Heart response? Against that, how often will any bid you make give crucial information to the opponents? I confess that I agree with Clas Nyberg although, of course, this layout turns out to be the exception to the rule.

Once Nyberg had passed, Cronier rebid his spades and then showed a minimum opening bid via a ‘non-serious’ 3NT over Duboin’s raise. The defenders found their heart ruff to defeat Four Spade, but E/W +50 was small recompense for the vulnerable game that was available in diamonds.

It was much easier for East at the other table:

West - Bocchi North - Fagerlund East - Sementa South - Koistinen

What a curious game we play. At one table it is clear not to bid at the two-level and yet, at the other, it is equally clear to bid at the five-level. Antonio Sementa made the obvious 4NT bid when South’s Four Spade opening was passed around to him, and thus the diamond game was easily reached. The only question here is whether North should take out insurance by saving in Five Spades. With the trumps onside for declarer, there was little to the play: E/W +600 and 11 IMPs to LAVAZZA.

In the other semi-final, Alfredo Versace faced the same problem as Nyberg:

West - Gandoglia North - Bertens East - Versace South - Gupta

Versace got his side to game but the opponents also found their best spot and, having uncovered the double-fit, it was clearer for North to compete to the five-level. There were only three defensive tricks against hearts: E/W -100.

West - Lorenzini North - Cima East - Bessis South - Donati

Giovanni Donati’s self-explanation of his two bids were that 3NT showed a ‘good 4M opening’ and, when his partner made a slam try, that Four Spades was ‘not the best hand’. 

At least we can agree with one of those explanations: the definition of ‘a good 4M opening’ is clearly different in Italian than it is in English. Maybe in French too, as Thomas Bessis was not tempted to come in here. Perhaps he was also expecting South to hold a somewhat better hand than he did. The defenders duly found their ruff: E/W +50 and 2 IMPs to BIANCHI.

In one semi-final, LAVAZZA continued to dominate, winning the second half 39-2 to claim their place in the final with victory by 85-21.1. In the other match, the tide turned, with the Italians winning the stanza 35-17. The damage done in the first set was too great to overcome, though, and thus GUPTA advanced by a score of 64-47.1.

The top two teams from the Swiss qualifying had both been defeated, so it would be yet another variation in the game’s long history of Italy vs USA, with French supporters having rooting interests on both sides.

GUPTA began with a 0.1-IMP carry-forward advantage, but it was the Italians who gained the upper hand towards the end of a low-scoring first set:

None Vul - Dealer South

In these days of free-wheeling non-vulnerable pre-empts in first seat, it was perhaps surprising to see neither South player causing some chaos with a Two Heart opening, which might have made for an interesting auction. Not that the Italians were prepared to give the Dutch world champions an easy ride: Andrea Manno’s jump overcall used up plenty of bidding space and Massimiliano Di Franco upped the ante still further at his second turn. 

North led the ♥5, covered by the ♥10, ♥4 and ♥J, and Simon de Wijs ran the ♣J at trick two. Winning with the ♣K, Di Franco returned a heart. De Wijs finessed and, although North ruffed, that was the last trick for the defense. E/W +600.

In the other room, neither North nor South made a positive contribution to the auction, giving the Italians a free run:

West - Bocchi North - Bertens East - Sementa South - Gupta

Sementa’s Two Clubs was an artificial game force, and he then relayed to find out that his partner held at least ten cards in two suits (2♥), that he was minimum with hearts and clubs (3♣), and that he was 5-5 in his two suits (3♥). Sementa then agreed clubs and cue-bidding began, with East’s redouble showing first-round diamond control. Four Spades was then RKC, and Sementa bid the slam opposite the one key-card response.

This looks like a decent slam, needing a little more than one of two finesses. South led a diamond and Sementa ruffed in dummy to run the ♣J. He then won the diamond continuation in hand, drew trumps and ran the ♥10 successfully. When Sementa repeated the heart finesse, though, North showed out. With clubs not 2-2 and hearts 5-1, declarer was a trick short, but he had one more string to his bow, and the 3-3 spade break provided declarer with his twelfth trick. E/W +920 and a well-earned 10 IMPs to LAVAZZA.

At the midway point of the final, LAVAZZA led 24-14.1. The deals in the second half were tightly contested and, although they gained no more than 6 IMPs on any single deal, GUPTA slowly leveled and then edged ahead. When the final deal of the match appeared on the screens, the Americans held a 9.1-IMP advantage. 

After seven days of play, the destination of the first Major Alt Invitational title would come down to the final bidding problem from the top of this article on this, the 228^th deal played by these two teams. We start, though, at the other table. This was the layout:

E/W Vul - Dealer West

Thomas Bessis started with Two Spades, either a range ask or clubs, and then made a quantitative notrump raise showing 2236 shape with long clubs. Cedric Lorenzini turned down the invitation, but making even ten tricks was challenging.

North led a diamond. Ten tricks can be made if declarer concedes an early club. The defense can clear the diamonds but, when declarer runs the clubs, North will have to throw diamonds in order to keep guarded kings in both majors. If declarer reads the position, he can then endplay North with one major-suit king to lead away from the other.

Lorenzini played a club to the ace at trick two, but then ran the ♠J. North won and cleared the diamonds and, although spades behaved, declarer was now a trick short. Forced to retain two hearts, North had to throw diamonds on the spades but, when South got in with the ♣Q, North still had two diamond winners to cash. E/W -100 meant that LAVAZZA would overturn their 9.1-IMP deficit and win the match if they could bid and make game at the other table. 

West - Cronier North - Bertens East - Duboin South - Cheek

Giorgio Duboin also started with Two Spades, showing either clubs or a limit raise in notrumps, and Philippe Cronier’s 2NT showed a minimum for his 1NT opening. Duboin self-alerted his 3NT as ‘a mild slam try in clubs with no shortness’. What decision did you make?

Had Cronier passed he would, presumably, have managed to score his nine easy tricks in 3NT and LAVAZZA would then have won the title with victory by 2.9 IMPs. With two aces, a club fit, a ruffing value and a potential source of tricks, it is easy to see why the French star was reluctant to give up on slam chances. Surely Five Clubs would be a safe spot, wouldn’t it?

As it turned out, no, although the defense would have to solve the opening lead problem with very little information to guide them. Unerringly, though, Curtis Cheek fished out a heart, which was the only lead to trouble declarer. The heart lead was covered by the queen, king and ace and, when the trumps failed to split, declarer was in trouble. He tried the spade finesse and the defenders cashed their hearts for two down: E/W -200 and 3 IMPs to GUPTA.

GUPTA won the second half 28-6 and the match 42.1-30. The American/French/Dutch combination that had twice won the Alt Open Invitational tournaments during this corona-virus lockdown period, had managed to turn the match around to win the first Major Alt Invitational. Congratulations to Naren Gupta, Huub Bertens, Curtis Cheek, Simon de Wijs, Bauke Muller, Cedric Lorenzini and Thomas Bessis.

The second major Alt Invitational, dubbed MontreAlt, is being staged as an online substitute for the Spingold Cup which would have been contested at the Summer Nationals that were originally scheduled to take place in Montreal. So popular has this event become with top players from around the world, that between 20 and 30 teams will contest a qualifying event to claim the last two or three places in the main field at MontreAlt, and we will be back next week to see the best of the action from that event.