Marc Smith returns for the conclusion of Alt NewCo-2

Over the past two weeks, we have seen the best of the early action from the second heat of the Alt NewCo (New Competition). When we left after seven matches, the team captained by Sylvia Moss had built a substantial lead at the top of Group A. The format for Groups A, B and C is a complete double round robin of 10 x 16-board matches. Meanwhile. Group D, which contains the remaining teams, is playing a 10-round Swiss. The standings in the top group after seven matches are:

In Group B, EDMONDS (USA, Poland, Sweden) has a narrow lead over AMATEURS (USA, Georgia, Egypt). In Group C, ALTSHULER (Israel) has opened up a 14-VP lead over GILLIS (England, Norway). In Group D, HOK (Netherlands) leads ahead of ZHAO (CHINA, Netherlands) and WILSON (USA, Sweden).

Just the one problem for you to consider this week. We will find out later how your choice would have worked out. With only the opponents vulnerable, you hold as East

What action, if any, do you take?

The key match in Round 8 featured the leading two teams, MOSS and DE BOTTON. This was perhaps the last chance for the chasing pack to close the gap on the leaders but, unfortunately, there was not that much of interest in this set of boards. Although it was a flat board in the top match, one deal did catch my eye, as an illustration that not simply following the pack can be extremely costly, but can also bring perhaps undeserved rewards. This deal was mostly played in an unremarkable 4sx, making N/S +620, but it created a swing in two of the Group A matches.

At some tables, North simply bid 4sx after the same start. At others, North made a game try, accepted by South. The Belgian North made an artificial inquiry and discovered that his partner had hearts. Perhaps fearing four top losers in a spade game, Steve de Roos chose to take a shot at 3NT, presumably hoping to run nine quick tricks. With no stopper in either minor things, perhaps predictably, did not work out well. The defenders did not manage to unblock the club suit, so they dropped a trick, but four clubs and three diamonds still meant that declarer was three down. N/S -300 meant 14 IMPs to GUPTA when the easy 4sx was played at the other table.

Things took a different twist in DONNER vs LEBOWITZ. For some reason I cannot fathom, no other vulnerable West player thought his hand was worth a bid after 1sx-Pass-2sx. Zach Grossack, though, put in a serious bid for the IBPA’s ‘maniac of the year’ award (if there isn’t one, perhaps there should be) with his 2NT intervention, showing clubs and another suit.

Marion Michielsen duly jumped to the spade game but Adam Grossack (who, presumably, had never seen his partner’s overcalls before) thought his hand was worth a bid at the five-level, so he bid a confident Five Clubs. As luck would have it for the American pair, neither of the Swedes had any reason to double. The defenders duly collected their five top tricks in the majors, but that was only N/S +300 and thus 8 IMPs to LEBOWITZ rather than the 5-IMP loss that would have occurred had anyone managed to double this adventurous sacrifice. In retrospect, perhaps Adam would prefer to have been doubled and lost a few IMPs. Now he can look forward to Zack, suitably encouraged, making more similar forays in the future.

MOSS defeated DE BOTTON 37-17. DONNER hammered LEBOWITZ 66-22 to move up into second place, but the gap between MOSS and the trailing pack was still a massive 25 VPs with two matches to play. The big match in Round 9 saw the two chasing teams playing each other, DONNER vs DE BOTTON. And it proved to be a high-scoring shootout, with 93 IMPs changing hands over the 16 deals.

In today’s climate, where everyone loves to bid at the slightest excuse, deals on which both sides can make exactly the square root of nothing can prove very explosive. On our next deal, E/W can make seven tricks in either major, and N/S go overboard if they bid beyond 1cx. Needless to say, the bidding at every table went far beyond those levels. It was merely a question of who was left holding the baby when the music stopped, and there were big swings in all three matches in Group A.

Perhaps the most curious of those swings occurred in LEBOWITZ vs RED DEVILS, where the contract and the opening lead were the same at both tables, and yet the number of tricks taken by declarer differed by six!

At this table, Frederik Wrang was the first East player faced with some version of this week’s bidding problem. West opened a Multi 2dx and Wrang bid a pass-or-correct 2hx. He then had to decide what to do when South’s 2NT overcall was passed back to him. Wrang passed and Antonio Palma led a heart, giving declarer a chance. Sam Bahbout won in dummy and correctly led the dxJ but, when Wrang played low, declarer failed to overtake. Had he done so, he could then have forced out the dxA and the defence cannot then stop eight tricks. When the dxJ held, Bahbout played a club to the king and ace, and now Palma had one last chance to defeat the contract, by switching to a spade. When he continued with the hxK, declarer was home. He won in hand and played on diamonds. East won and exited in clubs, but declarer cashed his remaining diamond winners and then advanced the hx9, taken by West with the jack. Palma could have held declarer to eight tricks by returning a heart, leaving declarer to lead away from the sxK, but he played a spade, enabling declarer to claim an unlikely nine tricks. N/S +150 looked like an excellent result for the Belgians.

After the same start, Larry Lebowitz doubled on the South hand. Zach Grossack responded 2sx and now Lebowitz bid 2NT, which was passed back to Mike Vandervorst in a similar position to Wrang at the first table. Again, East passed and West led a heart.

Like Bahbout, Lebowitz won the heart in dummy and led the dxJ, which won. He now decided to play a heart from dummy, running it to West. Philippe Caputo did not need a second invitation: he won and switched to his spade. Vandervorst took the sxA and played a second spade. Lebowitz won with the sxK and could have cashed the hxA to give him four tricks, When, instead, he advanced the dxK, he was destined to get squeezed when East ran his spade winners. He chose to keep his clubs, hoping that East held the ace, but it was not to be: N/S -500 and 12 IMPs to RED DEVILS.

In GUPTA vs MOSS, Zia started with a natural weak two opening on the West cards and Naren Gupta advanced with a forcing 2sx. Undeterred, Michal Nowosadzki overcalled 2NT. When this ran back to Gupta, he also settled for a pass. Here, though, Zia had been clued in to the best lead, and duly opened the sx3. Gupta won and cleared the suit. When he then won the dxA at trick three, he ran his spades and declarer was squeezed. However the defence failed to take advantage and just cashed their seven winners: N/S -200.

Never knowingly undersold, Bas Drijver put the cat amongst the pigeons by opening the West hand with a three-level pre-empt. One can hardly blame Michel Bessis for balancing with 3NT but, when the auction came back to Sjoert Brink, he had the perfect partnership agreement for this situation – double was for penalties AND asking for a spade lead! Again, the defenders only managed to take the obvious seven tricks, but that was still N/S -800 and 12 IMPs to GUPTA.

If you thought that was exciting, you have seen nothing yet, and the DONNER vs DE BOTTON match did not disappoint the large crowd watching live on BBO VuGraph.

Here, too, Gary Donner also opened at the three-level. Sandra Rimstedt took something of a two-way shot, hoping that her partner might have a suitable hand for her or that she might be pre-empting the opponents out of a making game. On this occasion, though, talking them out of game was the last thing she wanted to be doing. David Bakhshi went quietly on the South cards and the non-vulnerable game drifted a quiet three down: N/S +150. Perhaps the English pair were concerned that they had missed out by failing to double, but they need not have worried.

At the final table, Thor Erik Hoftaniska was also faced with the original bidding problem, and he was the only one to find the winning solution by doubling 2NT. To say that it worked well would be the understatement of the year!

Fairly sure that 2NT-X was not a good spot for her side, Cecilia Rimstedt took the not unreasonable decision to run to her six-card suit. Kevin Dwyer did not like the look of 3cx-X so tried his luck in diamonds, but then had to give preference back to clubs, a level higher, at his next turn.

Declarer correctly won the heart lead with the ace and played a diamond, but East won, cashed the sxA, and delivered his partner’s spade ruff. The hxK came next, and then a third heart. Declarer could have held it to three down by guessing to ruff with the cx8, but when she discarded a spade loser East scored his cx7. A spade was then ruffed in dummy and overruffed with the cxA and, when West played a fourth round of hearts, declarer then had to guess the trump position. When she ruffed with the cx10, East overruffed with the jack, and yet another spade then promoted the cx9 into the eighth defensive trick. N/S -1400 and a massive 17 IMPs to DE BOTTON.  

Although we are living in the Age of the Pre-empt, our next deal illustrates that if you give a player enough rope, they may just hang themselves.

The auction began in identical fashion at all four tables in the other two Group A matches, but all four of those South’s allowed East to play undoubled. A diamond lead and a club switch claimed the first three tricks for the defenders, and there were still two trumps and a spade to be lost. The board was flat in both matches at N/S +300.

David Bakhshi assessed things much better than his counterparts and duly wielded the axe. Unfortunately, Tom Townsend won the diamond lead with the ace and switched to a spade rather than a club. Declarer won and, with North having no further entry, was now guaranteed to dispose of a club loser on dummy’s diamond winner. Rimstedt led the hxK at trick three, so Bakhshi won with the hxA and cashed his cxA to be sure of two down. N/S +500.

For the Norwegians, Thomas Charlsen began the ‘Battle of Scandinavia’ by showing his heart raise via an artificial 2cx response, and this allowed North to get her diamonds in at the two-level. Whereas every other East had jumped to game at his second turn, Hoftaniska was facing an unlimited partner, so he showed a game-forcing hand with six hearts and a second four-card suit with an artificial 2NT. The upshot of all this was that Kevin Dwyer was able to show a constructive diamond raise on the South hand. Cecilia Rimstedt decided that was what she needed to hear, and jumped to the minor-suit game.

Whilst both minors lie well for declarer, there were still two spades and a trump to be lost. N/S -100 and 12 IMPs to DE BOTTON, who won the match 57-36, virtually closing the gap between themselves and their opponents. The big winner of this result, though, was MOSS who, although only scoring a small win, 30-19 over GUPTA, opened the gap between themselves and the rest to more than 30 VPs. The title was thus mathematically decided before the final match, and the battle was only for the minor placings.

Strong Club systems are generally considered much more efficient at bidding (or avoiding) marginal slams. Let’s see how that works in theory with both the Belgians and the Swedes playing such systems in DONNER vs LEBOWITZ.

Well, so much for that theory. Geert Arts found out that his partner had a balanced hand in the 7-11 HCP range, and took a shot at what he thought he could make. Rather than double top, though, he missed the dartboard entirely when dummy could hardly have been less suitable. This inelegant contract finished two down: E/W -200.

For the Scandinavians, Marion Michielsen’s 1dx response showed 0-4 points on the scale A=3, K=2, Q=1 (so 0-12 conventional HCP in theory). This allowed South in with a cheap heart overcall and Per-Ola Cullin made a takeout double. North raised to 3hx and, presumably, Michielsen did not have a penalty double available, so she had to pass. Cullin did not think he wanted to risk a second takeout double that might well end the auction, so he introduced his diamonds at the four-level. (3hx-X is at least two down and probably three opposite this East hand, with all heart values and relatively short diamonds, but there are lots of hands with which East would pass where either 3hx-X and/or 6dx are an easy make.)

Michielsen did well not to raise to the diamond game, and instead essayed 4NT. Well judged, as declarer can get home in this contract even if South manages to avoid the heart lead. Bahbout didn’t, so declarer quickly scored two heart tricks in her hand to go with dummy’s nine winners: E/W +660 and 13 IMPs to DONNER.

DONNER won the final match 47-1 against the Belgians to cement second place. LEBOWITZ inflicted the first serious defeat on MOSS, 38-7, to climb into third place with DE BOTTON losing 38-14 to GUPTA. These were the final standings in Group A:

EDMONDS (USA, Poland, Sweden) ran out comfortable winners of Group B, and they earn promotion to Group A, replacing GUPTA, for next month’s third heat of the event. ALTSHULER (Israel) led Group C from the outset and finished more than a match clear of the field to earn promotion to Group B. Group D was headed by ZHAO (CHINA, Netherlands) and VINITA (USA. Denmark), who finish well clear of the rest and earn promotion to Group C. Ne

Next week, we will be back with the best of the action from the mini Alt Swiss Teams.