This week, we head northeast to Helsinki, the capital of Finland. With the pandemic pushing the 2021 World and European championships into this year, the world’s top players seem to have been going from one event to another for months. Most will be glad to hear that the 20^th running of the European Champions Cup is the final major international event in what has been a packed 2022.

The Champions League is a battle between the National Championship winners from eleven European countries, with the previous year's winners rounding the number of teams up to twelve. That means that there are two Norwegian representative in this year's field. The format is a complete round robin of eleven 10-board matches, with the top four teams advancing to Saturday’s knockout rounds.

Only one problem hand this week. With neither side vulnerable you are South holding:

West’s 1♣ shows 2+♣ and East’s 1♥ is a transfer, showing at least four spades. What action do you take?

Our VuGraph matches for the first day of play come from Round 2. The Dutch and the Swiss had both started with a win in Round 1, and were thus looking to consolidate their position near the top of the leader-board. For the Italians and the Israelis, both of whom had begun with a loss, the task was to win to pull themselves back into the middle of the pack. Neither, though, could have drawn a more difficult task than taking on one of the Bermuda Bowl finalists from a few months ago in Salsomaggiore.

As if their task was not sufficiently daunting, the underdog teams both conceded the first swing of the match on the opening board. Three of the four South players heard the action shown in the problem above, and each chose a different way forward:

Josef Roll started with a takeout double of West’s nebulous 1♣ opening, and East advanced with a 1♥ transfer, showing spades. Amir Levin decided that his hand was worth a free-bid of 2♥, but no more. North had no reason to bid again. The defenders had four easy tricks against a heart contract, two spades, the ♥A and a slow club. With 4♥ failing, N/S +140 perhaps looked like a solid start for the Israelis.

After the same start, Agustin Madala started with a double on the South cards, presumably showing hearts. Giorgio Duboin did his best by advancing with 1NT rather than raising his partner’s hearts immediately. When Madala decided that he could do no more than correct to 2♥, Duboin had no reason to take another bid. Here, too, E/W +140.

In the same position, Sjoert Bink (left) took a much rosier view of the South hand, deeming it worthy of a 2♣ cue-bid. Bas Drijver advanced with 2NT and Brink, ignoring his five-card heart suit, raised to the no-trump game. Verace led the ♣8 and declarer had nine easy tricks simply by driving out the ♥A. N/S +400 and 6 IMPs to SWITZERLAND.

Simon de Wijs (right) was the only player to prefer a 1NT overcall on the North cards. Bauke Muller transferred to hearts and then offered a choice of games. So, at this table it was North who steered his partnership into the top spot.

East led a spade at this table, which may have marginally raised declarer’s blood pressure, but finding the opening bidder with the ♥A after ducking the ♠A for a round or two was hardly a big ask: E/W +400 and 6 IMPs to NETHERLANDS.

Midway through the match, the E/W pairs were confronted with a slam-bidding test:

Yoram Aviram forced to game with a fourth-suit 2♦ at his second turn. Gilad Altshuler rebid his chunky five-card club suit and Aviram raised to set the suit. An exchange of cue-bids followed, but the auction ran out of steam at the six-level.

Declarer won the opening heart lead with dummy’s ace, played one round of trumps to hand and ruffed a spade in dummy. He then ran the ♥Q, discarding a spade from his hand. North won with the ♥K, but declarer could now draw trumps and claim the rest. E/W +920.

The Dutch auction started in similar fashion, but their methods then diverged from anything standard. Whatever the auction showed, Berend van den Bos’s jump all the way from 3NT to 6♣ does seem particularly wasteful of all that bidding space that could perhaps have been put to some productive use.

North led a diamond at this table, solving declarer’s problems in that suit. Joris van Lankveld ruffed two spades in dummy in the process of drawing trumps and then took a heart finesse for an overtrick. E/W +940 and 1 IMP to NETHERLANDS.

Could Switzerland’s Polish Club contingent do better?

Michal Klukowski started with a natural and limited 2♣ opening, showed his spades at his second turn, and then bid out his shape with 3♦. Piotr Gawrys set the suit with 4♣ and then jumped to 6♣ when Klukowski cue-bid in diamonds. Might he too not have investigated further?

North led a trump here. Declarer won in hand, ruffed a spade, played a second trump to his hand and took a heart finesse. With the ♥K coming down, declarer now had an easy 13 tricks: E/W +940.

The Dutch were the only N/S pair to get into the auction. Would it help their cause?

After a natural start to the auction, Brink came in with a 1♠ overcall on the South hand. Lorenzo Laura (left) passed and Drijver raised to 2♠. Alfredo Verace doubled for takeout and Lauria confirmed that he had real clubs. When Versace then forced with a 3♠ cue-bid, Lauria essayed 3NT.

News of spade values opposite is surely bad news for Verace’s hand, but he was not yet ready to give up. He kept the ball rolling and set the suit with 4♣, and an exchange of red-suit cue-bids then enabled Lauria to Blackwood on the West hand. When Versace showed three key cards and a spade void, Lauria decided he had heard enough and jumped to the grand slam.

Having bid and supported the suit, North led a spade. (An interesting footnote is that, at each of the four tables, a different suit was led against West’s club slam.) Lauria ruffed the spade in dummy, cashed the ♥A and ruffed a heart. He then ruffed a second spade, cashed the ♣A, and took a second heart ruff. The appearance of the ♥K from North meant that declarer now had the rest of the tricks with no finesses taken. E/W +1440 and 11 IMPs to ITALY.

On the penultimate deal of the match, all four tables bid to 4♥ on the same auction:

Looking at all four hands, you can see that East/West can make 5♦ with a correct trump guess, losing just one trick in each of the black suits. However, the aggressive jump to game on the North hand by Josef Roll (right) was just enough to shut East out and buy the hand cheaply for the Israelis.

Van Lankveld led a diamond to his partner’s ace and the club switch enabled the defender to take two tricks in that suit. There were still two major-suit aces to be lost: N/S -100.

In the other match, the auction and the play were exactly the same as this, producing a flat board.

Altshuler was the only West played not to lead a diamond. Instead, he chose to attack with the ♠J. Aviram won with the ♠A and declarer followed with the ♠K, as he probably would from all of his possible holdings. Knowing that he still had an entry with the ♦A, Aviram saw no urgency to play a club through declarer and, not unreasonably, tried to give his partner a spade ruff. Both declarer and West followed, so declarer won in dummy and played a trump to the queen.

West won with the ♥A and was now faced with a decision – did his partner hold the ♦A or the ♣K? When he guessed wrong, cashing the ♣A and continuing the suit, not only had the second undertrick escaped, but so too had the contract. A spectacular N/S +420 and 11 IMPs to NETHERLANDS.

The Swiss defeated the Italians 20-14 on what seemed to be a moderately quiet set of boards. Not that you would have been able to say that if you were watching the other match on BBO VuGraph, as Netherlands blew away the Israelis 38-0. 

We will be back next week with the best of the action from two more matches as the round robin comes to an end.