Marc Smith visits the first heat of the 2021 Alt NewCo tournament

Last week, we saw the action from the early stages of the first heat of the monthly Alt ‘NewCo’ (or New Competition). To remind you, in this first heat, the field is divided into three divisions. Group 1A and Group 1B, each consisting of six selected teams, are playing a complete double round robin of ten 16-board matches. The remaining 22 teams, Group C, are playing a 10-round Swiss of 16-board matches. At the end of this first heat, teams will be put into one of four divisions. In future months the leading six teams will play in Group A, the next six in Group B and the third six in Group C, each playing a double round robin. Group D will contain the remaining teams playing a Swiss. At the end of each heat, there will be promotion and relegation between the groups. Teams gain points both for participation and for their finishing place in each heat, with a place in the Grand Final the prize for the teams that accrue the most points throughout the year.

We left things last week after four rounds. These were the standings:

As usual, we start with some problems for you to consider. We will find out later how your choices would have worked out. First, with both sides vulnerable, you hold this hand in the South seat:

What action do you take?

Secondly, with both sides vulnerable, you hold as North:

What action do you take?

While you consider those problems, we begin with action from Round 5, which will complete the first of the round robins. How often do you pick up a weak hand and relax a little, assuming that you will have little influence on what happens? An apparently insignificant action had a huge influence on this, the first deal from the meeting between LEBOWITZ and FREDIN in Group 1B. Seat yourself in the West seat:

At one table, West tried to help partner by making a lead-directing double. Note the huge effect this had on the outcome:

Sweden’s Jan Lagerman doubled, presumably to show something in spades. What harm could it do? The answer is that the double allowed Dennis Bilde to pass on the North hand. When the double came back around to him, Agustin Madala essayed 3NT, ending the brief auction in a safe game. Declarer scored the obvious eleven tricks: N/S +460.

After the same start, Zack Grossack did not double on the West hand so Peter Fredin showed his minimum opening with 4 ♦. Now the auction acquired a life of its own. North/South were right that they could make slam (6♣ needs no more than a 3-2 trump break as a heart can be discarded on the long diamond). The problem is that Alon Apteker’s 3♠ bid had virtually locked the partnership into diamonds. There were only eleven tricks in diamonds: N/S -50 and 11 IMPs to LEBOWITZ, who went on to win the match 63-22 and climb to the top of Group 1B.

Only one pair in the top two groups managed to find the top spot:

I have long been an advocate of opening 1♣ when holding 4-4 in the minors as, whether it is a partscore or a slam hand, it makes it much easier to find a fit in either minor suit. On balanced hands, where you are either going to raise partner’s major or rebid notrumps, the club suit is often lost after a 1♦ opening. (However, it is still relatively easy to find a diamond fit if you have opened 1♣ .) That was N/S +920 and 11 IMPs to ORCA when North/South played 5♦ at the other table. In Group C, David Burn/Mike Graham for CANTOR and Alex Hong/Jiangfeng Luo for CANADIAN & FRIENDS were the only other North/South pairs (in a 34-table field) to reach the good 6♣ .

Round 6 produced the first of this week’s bidding problems. Most of the matches in the top two groups were fairly close in this round. The exceptions were the two matches involving the leading teams in Group 1B. Let’s see what happened on this deal in one of those two matches, DE BOTTON vs ORCA, two teams flying the British flag.

When Artur Malinowski’s natural weak two opening came around to him, Simon Cope elected to describe this tricky hand with a jump to 3NT. How would you advance with this North hand? One option, presumably, is to look for a major suit fit via 4♦ . If that is not your cup of team, you must then decide whether the hand is good enough to just bid slam or, as Peter Crouch did, invite with a quantitative raise. Should Cope accept the invite or has he already bid to the limit of his values? A tricky judgement hand in a situation I would guess few partnerships have ever discussed. As is so often the case when both members of the partnership have a little to spare, the virtually cold slam was missed. N/S +720 was not a good result, but even had North/South bid their slam they still would have lost IMPs.

In the same situation, Norway’s Thomas Charlsen chose to start with a takeout double on the South hand. To say this was a choice that worked like a dream would be an understatement. The defence was accurate: the defence kicked off with three rounds of clubs, ruffed with the ♦5 and over-ruffed with the ♦6. Thor Erik Hoftaniska then underled his ♠A, South winning with the ♠J to lead a fourth round of clubs. South cashed his cubs and declarer pitched first his two spades and then a heart, whilst North threw his remaining spade, the ♠A, on the last club winner. South now cashed the ♠K, declarer throwing his last heart. Now a heart was played and declarer finally got onto the scoreboard with a ruff. He then had to exit with a trump, though, won by North with the ♦10. A second heart then endplayed declarer again, allowing the defenders to score the ace and queen of trumps separately at the end. Declarer managed to make just two tricks: N/S +1700 and 14 IMPs to DE BOTTON.

DE BOTTON defeated ORCA 55-20 whilst LEBOWITZ saw off NICKELL by 50-26. With six matches played, those two winning teams were now virtually tied atop Group 1B, with the two losing teams in those matches relegated to third and fourth spot in the group, more than a full match behind. In Group 1A, MOSS led BLACK by 8 VPs with two teams close behind. In GROUP C, AMATEURS, SALVO (Turkey) and the multinational QUARANTEAM had opened a small gap over the rest of the field.

Both of the leading teams in Group 1B started well in Round 7, although perhaps one was more deserving of a swing than the other. This was Board 2 of the match:

Jodi Edmonds opened 1NT on her control-rich 17-count and Joel Wooldridge transferred to clubs. There was no alert of 3♣ , so I cannot tell you whether Edmonds decided to show a fit or not, but Wooldridge’s 3♦ certainly showed a shortage. There are number of factors to suggest to South that clubs may play better than notrumps, not least of which is East’s double of 3♦. When evaluating your hand in terms of ‘suit or notrump’ it is also worth remembering that hands with controls generally play better in a suit, whereas hands with queens and jacks suggest a notrump contract. So, this South hand is almost screaming ‘suit’.

The most sensible way forward seems to be Three Hearts: think about the possible shapes partner might hold. Given that he has no four-card major (he would have started with Stayman) and he has now shown up with a singleton diamond, North’s most likely shapes are 3-3-1-6 or 3-2-1-7? So, you are sure to have either an eight-card heart fit or a nine-card club fit. If 3NT is making, surely game (or more) in at least one of those other denominations will be equally fine contracts.

On the actual hand, Seven Clubs is almost as good a contract as 3NT. Both essentially need the clubs to come in for seven tricks, although you can fall back on the heart finesse to make your contract in 3NT. Even Five Clubs, though, is a better spot than 3NT, and Six Clubs is gin against anything but the most outrageous of distributions. You can even safety play the trumps to guard against a 4-0 break in 6♣ . N/S +720 did not look like good a result, and so it proved to be.

The Swedes forced their opponents to start bidding at the two-level, Ola Rimstedt’s opening 2♣  opening showing either an artificial game force or a weak two in diamonds. The Italian/Danish combination were not unduly inconvenienced: Madala showed his strong balanced hand immediately with a 2NT overcall, left-hand Swede competed to 3♦, Dennis Bilde doubled to show some values, and Madala jumped to game in his major. When Bilde then introduced his long suit, Madala was happy to head for slam via a diamond cue-bid. They could not get to the grand slam, but they neither wanted nor needed to do so.

Madala won the diamond lead and laid down the ♣ A. The Great Dealer was not in a bad mood, so everyone followed suit and Madala was soon claiming 13 tricks: N/S +1390 and 12 IMPs to LEBOWITZ.

Here, Peter Fredin’s 2♠  could have been various minor-suit oriented hands, either weak or strong, and Alon Apteker’s 2NT showed either equal length or longer diamonds. The jump to 4♣  clarified the situation and the South Africa/Sweden pair duly cue-bid their way to the small slam. Fredin won the diamond lead, ruffed a diamond to reach his hand, and played a club. When East followed with a low club, Fredin correctly called for the ♣ 8 from dummy, ensuring that he would pick up a 4-0 trump break on either side. N/S +1370.

Here we see a third variation of 2♠  response, this time showing either clubs or a balanced invitational hand. Tom Townsend’s 3♣  response denied any minimum and David Bakhshi’s 4♣  bid both set the suit and also showed short diamonds. Townsend cue-bid his diamond control and Bakhshi rolled out the Old Black. When Townsend showed 1-or-4 key cards, Bahkshi had no way to find out if his partner held a third club, so he took the optimistic route, knowing that at worst the contract would depend on a 2-2 break (or picking up a 3-1 break if East held a singleton honour). They say that fortune favours the brave, and it certainly did on this deal: N/S +2140 and 13 IMPs to DE BOTTON.

LEBOWITZ won 51-28 and DE BOTTON 57-34, so they were now separated by just a hair’s breadth, but more than 25 VPs ahead of third-placed NICKELL. Meanwhile, in Group 1A, RED DEVILS had closed the gap on the two leading teams. In Round 8 they would face BLACK, who led the group, but with only a 2-VP advantage over the third-placed Belgians. The last time England had played Belgium, it had been for third place in the FIFA World Cup, so this was clearly much more important ?. The result, though, was not so different…

It is possible to get a really poor result without anyone doing anything obviously wrong. One half of the bidding problem was presented as the second deal at the top of this article:

I presented the North hand as a problem above, but how many of you shrugged and doubled without being able to even think of a sensible alternative? If I put the hand before the expert bidding panel, I am guessing that the vote for double would be close to unanimous, with the odd comment about the danger of partner passing when you hold a void. And what should South do in response to partner’s double? If I presented that as a problem, I suspect that few would consider anything other than a pass. The defenders cashed their tricks in the right order and thus managed to score two heart ruffs to defeat the contract by two: N/S +500.

The Belgians were playing a Strong Club system, so Steve de Roos kicked off with an artificial 1♣ . After East’s pre-empt, Geert Arts was able to bid a natural 3NT, showing a spade stopper and some values. North’s 4♦ was now natural and ‘optional Blackwood’. (Responder can make a minimum response with no fit and an unsuitable hand, but otherwise shows key cards.) Arts’ 4♠ bid thus showed a diamond fit and one key card. They could not find out that there were 13 top tricks, but just getting to the small slam was more than adequate. N/S +1390 and 13 IMPs to RED DEVILS.

It is easy to understand why high-level competitive bidding and slam bidding can be very difficult. Sometimes, you cannot tell which contract you want to reach even when looking at both your hand and partner’s. Take a look at this deal: without peeking at the defenders’ hands, do you want to bid slam on the East/West cards or not?

Andrew McIntosh opened a 20-21 HCP 2NT and showed a spade fit with his response to his partner’s transfer bid. Tom Paske’s 4♣  now showed a shortage and McIntosh cue-bid in hearts. Paske was not inspired by hearing that the ♦A was missing so, having already suggested some slam interest, he did not venture beyond game. McIntosh has wasted values facing his partner’s shortage, so his hand certainly had not been improved. Do you want to climb any higher than game on this combination?

On a trump lead, and a trump continuation when North gets in with the ♦A, perhaps game is high enough. At the table, de Roos found a rather obscure ♦5 opening lead against 4♠ , which hardly dented declarer’s cause, but they were only playing for overtricks. E/W +680.

Philippe Caputo’s 4♣  bid showed a club control and a spade fit. This inspired Vandervorst to launch into Blackwood despite not holding a single key card himself. And there was more good news for the Belgians too. East was surely going to bid the slam opposite a four key-card response, but David Gold’s unfortunate lead-directing double of West’s Blackwood response only served to direct Andrew Black to find exactly the opening lead for which declarer would have wished.

South’s opening diamond lead was covered by the eight, jack and king, and declarer immediately played a second diamond to the queen and ace. Gold switched to a trump, but it was all too late. Declarer won in dummy, crossed to hand with the ♥ K, and led a third round of diamonds. Black ruffed with the ♠ 5, forcing declarer to overruff with the king, but Vandervorst could now just draw trumps and claim. E/W +1430 and another 13 IMPs to RED DEVILS, running away with it, just as their soccer team had done a year earlier.

After four days of play, and with two matches remaining, these were the standings:

We will be back next week to see the action from the final two matches as the first heat of the Alt NewCo draws towards its conclusion.