Marc Smith visits the mini Alt Swiss Teams

The mid-month Alt event this time is a ‘mini’ Swiss Teams, so called as it is played over just three days. (Next month’s event will be a ‘midi’ Swiss teams, played over four days.) The format is a 12-round Swiss of 12-board matches. A total of 22 teams lined up at the starting post, amongst them four of the teams who had contested Group A of the major monthly event a couple of weeks earlier. There would be plenty of top stars in action for those viewing the event live on BBO VuGraph.

As usual, we begin with some problems for you to consider, and it’s a bumper set of four this month. We will find out later how your choices would have worked out. Firstly, with only your side vulnerable, you hold as West:

What action, if any, do you take?

Secondly, with your side only vulnerable, you are East with this hand:

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with just your side vulnerable you are East holding:

What do you open?

If you opt for an off-centre 1NT, what do you then do when South’s 2♠ overcall is passed back to you?

Finally, with both sides vulnerable, your hand as West is:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those problems, we start with the action in Round 1, where the draw pitted together two teams flying the USA flag who would be expected to be in contention at the end. Those teams were DONNER (USA, Sweden), who had finished second in Group A of the latest heat of the Alt NewCo, and the multinational QUARANTEAM (USA, Denmark, Italy, Israel). Board 6 produced this week’s first problem hand and, indeed, presented the East/West pairs with a number of bidding challenges:

Faced with the first of this week’s bidding problems, Per-Ola Cullin chose the conservative option and passed. When Marion Michielsen did not reopen, the Swedes were left to collect 50s. The defenders quickly took their five side-suit tricks and then played a third round of spades, ruffed by East with the ♣K. Declarer overruffed and could then have saved a trick by leading towards to ♣10. When he cashed the ♣Q he was three down, but the extra trick mattered little: E/W +150.

Gary Donner’s four-level overcall potentially made life even more difficult for the Dutch West, but Marcel Verhaegen bravely (insert an alternative adjective if you wish) stepped in with a negative double. Italian Gabriele Zanasi could have collected a substantial penalty by passing, but doing so is hardly obvious. Verhaegen duly converted his partner’s Four Heart bid to spades and the partnership had found a playable contract.

Sandra Rimstedt kept defensive chances alive by leading her partner’s suit. Donner won with the ♣A and then needed to find the heart switch to attack dummy’s entries. No, he played a trump and now Verhaegen was ahead in the race to set up red suit tricks. Declarer won in hand and led a diamond, ducked to dummy’s king. Rimstedt overtook the second round of diamonds to switch to hearts, but it was too late. Verhaegen won with the ♥A, cashed the ♠J, ruffed a diamond, establishing the suit, and drew trumps. The ♥K was still in dummy, and provided access to the diamond winners, and thus declarer’s three round-suit losers disappeared. E/W +650 and 11 IMPs to QUARANTEAM.

There were two different approaches to the problem in MOSS vs AMATEURS:

Sylvia Moss advanced with a game-forcing Three Spades over South’s Three Club overcall. Roger Lee tried an imaginative 3NT and although his singleton king did turn out to be a stopper, declarer had only eight tricks after Ai-Tai Lo had opened with a low club. E/W -100.

After the same start, Georgia’s David Chechelashvili raised his partner to game in spades, giving his side the best chance of a plus score in the circumstances. However, Swiss ace Bas Drijver put paid to declarer’s hopes by leading the ♥Q, giving the Egyptian declarer no chance. E/W -100 and an honourable push in this match.

And, in DE BOTTON (England, Norway) vs ULI (Austria, Poland, Italy):

For DE BOTTON, Tor Helness also raised the bar higher than most, but the Poles here not unreasonably went quietly. The Norwegian lost just the obvious six tricks: E/W +150.

Gabriella Olivieri settled for the more-normal 3♣ overcall and Christian Bakke opted for what looks like the middle ground, a negative double. Thomas Charlsen bid the obvious Three Hearts and Bakke converted to spades, showing a hand too weak for a game-forcing Three Spade bid on the previous round. Charlsen decided that he did not have enough to raise, and thus the Norwegians stopped in what, theoretically, is the par contract. However, the defenders did not find the heart switch in time, so declarer emerged with two overtricks: E/W +200 and 2 IMPs to DE BOTTON.

QUARANTEAM defeated DONNER 51-2, which translated to 19.74 VPs. No other team scored more than 16 VPs in their opening match. That set up a head-to-head match for QUARANTEAM with another of the pre-tournament favourites, DE BOTTON.

Most East/West pairs had no problem on our next deal:

That the Pakistani magician managed to conjure 13 tricks out of this combination is amazing but, with the winning club finesse giving declarer ten tricks on top, the magic was likely to be worth only a couple of overtrick IMPs. E/W +720.

Peter Crouch’s aggressive style set the NORTHEASTERNERS’ East/West pair a much trickier task, and Ewan McNay found himself facing this week’s second bidding problem. When he passed, Crouch was left to go down peacefully in 50s. The defence dropped a trick, so there were only three of them: E/W +150 and 12 IMPs to GUPTA.

In BRIDGEWINNERS vs The BOYS – NOT ALL FROM BRAZIL, one table duplicated the Zia/Gupta auction above. No magician, so only 11 tricks here: E/W +660.

The Brazilians set their opponents the same problem. Ira Chorush kept his partnership in with a chance when he competed to 3♠, but Timo Erkoc did not like the look of either 3NT of the spade game. E/W +200 but 10 IMPs to THE BOYS.

East did find a potentially winning answer in BANANAS (France/Italy) vs BALDURSSON (Iceland).

Thomas Bessis and Frederic Volcker scored +690 in the other room, and Pierre Franceschetti’s double of the Icemen’s 3♥ gave his partner a choice of winning options. Theoretically, Hilda Setton made the right choice by converting for penalties, and the defence started well with three rounds of diamonds, West ruffing, and a switch to the ♣10. When Sverrir Armannson rose with the ♣K from dummy, though, Franceschetti won with the ♣A and tried to cash the ♣Q. Declarer ruffed and was then able to limit his losses to one spade and the two high trumps. E/W -500 and 5 IMPs to BALDURSSON. Had Franceschetti switched to a spade after the ♣A, declarer could not have avoided also losing a spade ruff, and the 800 penalty would have meant a 3-IMP gain for BANANAS.

At Table 1, DE BOTTON and QUARANTEAM fought out a close match that ended with a 17-12 win for the English flagcarriers. However, both of those teams were overtaken by three teams who recorded big wins in this round, RIPPEY (42-1 against CANTOR), ZHAO (36-7 over BLACK) and THE BOYS – NOT ALL FROM BRAZIL (a 39-0 whitewash of BRIDGEWINNERS).

The third of the problems posed at the top of this article brought universal agreement amongst the four East players in the top two matches, with all four choosing to open an off-centre 1NT. This shape hand (1-3-4-5) in the 15-17 HCP range is notoriously difficult for standard methods. If you open 1♣, what can you rebid over partner’s expected 1♠ response? 1NT shows 12-14, you do not want to rebid that club suit, and you are not strong enough for a reverse to 2♦. One option is to downgrade this particular 15-count and, treating it as a 12-14 hand, rebid 1NT. Another is to open 1♦ intending to rebid 2♣, but that approach brings it’s own can of worms and I am not a fan of that strategy at all. With all four players opening 1NT, the destination of the IMPs rested on their next choice at three of the four tables. Let’s see what happened:

For RIPPEY, Frenchman Philippe Bedouet started with 1NT but then went quietly when Chen Zhao’s 2sx overcall was passed back to him. The defenders failed to cash their top winners, so declarer got a heart away on the clubs and thus lost just two red aces and a trump, but it was only an overtrick so no big deal: N/S +170.

Here, it was Netherlands against Canada, and Guy de Leon also began with 1NT. When Keith Balcombe’s 2♠ overcall came back to him, though, de Leon backed in with a takeout double. Despite holding five trumps, I would guess that this development did not exactly fill Thibo Sprinkhuizen with joy. He led a heart, so the defenders managed to collect all four of their tricks, but that was hardly cause for celebration: N/S +570 and 9 IMPs to RIPPEY.

In THE BOYS – NOT ALL FROM BRAZIL vs QUARANTEAM at Table 2, Ireland’s Tom Hanlon’s aggressive tendencies were not tested. Playing Meckwell, Katherine Todd overcalled 2♦, showing diamonds and a major. No one was tempted to bid over this and Leslie Amoils led the ♣Q. It was not long before declarer was caught in a defensive crossruff in the black suits: N/S -50.

The real action happened at the other table, though:

Netherlands vs Brazil might easily be a prequel for a FIFA World Cup final, and Marcel Verhaegen got the ball rolling here with the obligatory 1NT on the East cards. Marcos Thoma (yes, this team does have some Brazilians) duly overcalled 2♠, which was passed back to Verhaegen, who followed the example set by his Dutch counterpart in the other match, and doubled. Gabriele Sanasi did not like the defensive prospects, despite five trumps, and so removed to 3♥. This, though, was a case of out of the frying pan into the furnace, as Stefano Tommasini had an obvious penalty double.

The defenders led trumps but did not quite get the subsequent timing right to collect the four-figure maximum available. Declarer managed to score a spade ruff in dummy and two club ruffs in hand to ‘escape’ with six tricks: N/S +800 and 13 IMPs to THE BOYS.

ZHAO defeated RIPPEY 38-24 to move to the top of the table, whilst THE BOYS saw off QUARANTEAM 30-11 to remain right on their heels. Ominously moving up behind them, though, was perennial winners of Alt events, MOSS, who defeated DE BOTTON 27-16 to move into third spot.

In Round 4, it was ZHAO vs THE BOYS at the top table. Right behind them, there was MOSS vs RIPPEY and another familiar Alt matchup, GUPTA vs DE BOTTON. This deal created a big swing in both of the top two matches:

Louk Vehees opened the North hand with a featherweight vulnerable 1hx in third seat, and Tom Hanlon intervened with a heavyweight jump overcall of 2♠. Leslie Amoils can hardly be blamed for passing, but the hands fit well and, with the ♦K onside, declarer  an always make ten tricks. E/W +170.

The Dutch are never backward in coming forward, so it was no surprise to see Bob Drijver open this West hand. North overcalled at the one-level and Bart Nab’s 2♥ bid was a transfer to spades. Drijver completed the transfer and Nab advanced with a descriptive and forcing 3♦. With his minimum opening bid, Drijver signed off but confirmed a modicum of spade fit. That was all Nab needed to bid the vulnerable game, and played from the right side to boot.

Tommasini led his singleton diamond, and declarer overtook with the jack in order to lead a trump towards dummy. North hopped up with the ace, but had no route to his partner’s hand for a ruff. Drijver won the club switch and advanced the ♠Q. South won and switched to a heart, but declarer was in control. He won with the ♥A, ruffed a club, drew the last trump, and took the diamond finesse. The diamond blockage meant that declarer could not get his heart loser away, but that was still E/W +620 and 10 IMPs to ZHAO.

In MOSS vs RIPPEY, Sylvia Moss also opened the West hand, and the Americans quickly reached their game:

Things were not as comfortable with East as declarer on a heart lead. Fearing a 6-1 break, Roger Lee understandably rose with the ♥A, but that was a potentially fatal mistake. He led a trump to the ten, jack and king and Mike Rippey continued hearts to his partner’s king. Had North played a third round of hearts now, declarer would have to ruff high, with the nine. When North then regained the lead with the ♠A, a fourth round of hearts would have promoted South’s lowly ♠6 into the setting trick. When Nowak switched to a club after winning with the ♥K, though, declarer needed nothing more than to find the ♦K onside. When it was, he had his ten tricks: E/W +620.

At the other table in this match, Esteban Vallet’s initial pass on the West cards resulted in him facing the last of this week’s bidding problems, with catastrophic consequences for the French pair:

Jacek Kalita opened 2♥ in third seat, showing hearts and a minor. Pierre Bedouet overcalled 2♠ and Michal Nowosadzki essayed a ‘pass-or-correct’ 3♣ for the Poles. Perhaps Vallet thought his double showed the unbid suit with spade tolerance or, perhaps, just showed a maximum for his original pass. Bedouet had no doubt that it was a penalty double, though. Declarer just lost the obvious three aces: E/W -870 and a massive 16 IMPs to RIPPEY.

ZHAO consolidated their place at the top of the leaderboard with a 40-15 win over THE BOYS, whilst MOSS defeated RIPPEY 38-28 (despite the board we have just seen) to move into second place. GUPTA beat DE BOTTON in a very low-scoring encounter, 17-8, to claim third spot.

We will be back next week with the best of the action from the next matches in this event. Until then, you all keep safe and enjoy your bridge.