Marc Smith visits the round robin stage of Alt Board-a-Match Invitational II

The mid-month event this time around is the second running of the Alt Board-a-Match Invitational. Although there are no ‘big swings’ at B-a-M, there are still a sprinkling of spectacular deals and plenty of world-class players on show. This week, we take a look at the most interesting deals from the opening rounds of the round robin stage of this event.

With 14 teams lining up, the format is an all-play-all round robin of 13 x 8-board matches. The top eight teams then advance to the knockout stage. As usual, we begin with some problems for you to consider. We will find out later how your choices would have worked. Firstly, with just the opponents vulnerable, you are West holding:

What action do you take now, and what is your strategy?

Next, with just the opponents vulnerable, you are West with this hand:

What action do you take?

Finally, with both sides vulnerable, you hold as East:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we start in the first match of the round robin, with a question of strategy in a sacrifice situation. Many West players faced the first of this week’s problems. Here’s how the respective strategies played out in one match:

Americans Andrew Stark and Franco Bassegio were semi-finalists at the 2010 World Pairs in Philadelphia. Here, Stark adopted the policy of pre-empt as high as you dare and let the opponents take the last guess. Not an unreasonable approach and, looking at a side suit ace, he perhaps had some hope that the opponents had overstretched. Not this time: N/S +1430.

Italy’s Andrea Manno was twice a silver medallist as a junior, at the 2007 European Youth Championships and the 2009 World Youth Congress. He also picked up a silver medal in the Open Teams at the 2013 European Transnational Championships, so he is surely one to watch for the future. His strategy here was to give the opposition a little rope and see what they did with it. When his experienced Egyptian/Georgian opponents made their way to slam, he decided that they knew what they were doing and took the save. Well judged: N/S +800 and the point on the board to MIKADINHO, who became the early leaders with a 6-1 victory in Round 1.

Curiously, at only four of the 14 tables did East/West take the save, one of them, remarkably, in 7♦ undoubled! However, only two of those three who conceded -800 as East/West won the point on the board. The other found their teammates scoring +710 in 5♥, so their efforts were in vain. Seven North/South pairs were allowed to play peacefully in 6♥, but in only one match was the board flat at N/S +1430.

This deal from Round 2 was presented as this second of this week’s problems. Effectively, though, both West players in our match found themselves in similar positions, so it was a question of evaluation. How did you advance?

For the Dutch, Jan Timmer was not enamoured by his singleton spade and weak clubs, so he bid a simple 3NT, ending the auction. North’s diamond lead gave declarer an easy tenth trick: E/W +430.

If you advanced with 3♦ over 3♣, partner will probably bid a fourth-suit 3♥, leaving you with the same decision.

When Boye Brogeland bid 3♠, Espen Lindqvist effectively had very similar information to his counterpart at the other table, ie partner had a strong hand with both black suits. Lindqvist set the suit with 4♣, heard a diamond cue-bid from his partner, and then Blackwooded to the slam.

With both black suits breaking, declarer was always going to have a comfortable twelve tricks. The ♥A lead certainly didn’t make things any more difficult: E/W +920 and the point on the board to SELIGMAN, who won the match 4-1 to move up into third place.

A good rule on misfitting hands is to stop bidding as quickly as possible. This deal from the Round 4 match between SALVO (Turkey) and GUPTA (USA, England, Netherlands) illustrates what can happen when you ignore this mantra:

Omer Umur decided that this two-suited West hand qualified for a Three Spade opening. Neither of the Dutch stars had anything to say at that level, so there matters rested. Declarer managed to scramble six tricks: N/S +300 hardly looked like a great board for the Turks.

For the Americans, Daniel Korbel started with a natural weak 2♠ opening. Most players would not have a non-forcing 3♣ bid available, but Naren Gupta did and, if not on this sort of hand, when are you ever going to use it? The problems really began when Korbel tried his luck in 3♦. Smelling a rat, Nafiz Zorlu, produced a sharp red card and now East/West were in trouble. Gupta quite understandably retreated to his eight-card suit, but the damage had already been done and Nezih Kubac ended the brief auction with a double.

Kubac led a diamond and Zorlu captured dummy’s ♦10 with his jack. Ace and another trump killed the dummy and declarer was left with three losing hearts in his hand. No matter what he did, Gupta could make only eight tricks: N/S +500. SALVO took the point on the deal as they marched to a 5-2 victory that elevated them to second place.

When you have a misfit, the sooner you stop bidding the better the chance that no one will double. And, once the doubling starts it rarely stops. And talking of doubling, Board 7 of Round 5 failed to produce a single flat board. What, at first glance, looks like a competitive partscore deal illustrates the principle that it is rarely good news when your team plays in a doubled contract at both tables.

Gary Donner took the bull by the horns and opened the South hand. Sandra Rimstedt made an inverted diamond raise and Kees Bouwen waded in with a pre-emptive overcall in spades. Jan de Winter increased the pre-empt, perhaps to put pressure on North. ‘Double’ said Rimstedt, no pressure at all, and to compound the Dutch discomfort Donner then found the trump lead that limited declarer to one diamond ruff. North/South collected three hearts and two diamonds to hold declarer to eight tricks: N/S +500 on a deal with no game available.

For the Dutch, Aris Bremer decided against opening vulnerable on the flat 11-count. As so often seems to be the case, though, failure to open these hands often leads to a feeling that one needs to catch up later. After an opening bid from Jan van den Hoek and an overcall by Zach Grossack, both South and West showed invitational (or better) raises of their partner’s suit. Both North and East then made a game try, although whether either is worth that facing a passed partner is a matter of conjecture. Still with some catching up to do, perhaps, Bremer accepted the invitation and Giorgia Botta expressed doubt in the usual way.

Grossack led his singleton ♣Q to the king and ace. A club ruff, the ♠A and a second club ruff quickly put the contract two down: N/S -500, but just a single point to DONNER at this form of scoring for a result that would have delivered a 16-IMP swing in a normal teams match.

DONNER won the match 5-2 to climb into second place. After five of the 13 matches, there was little to choose between the half a dozen teams at the top of the leaderboard:

We will be back next week to see the best of the action from the next rounds of matches.