We remain in France this week, for the Sunday match of the third weekend of the Premier League. There are 12 teams in Division 1 of the three-tier French league, each playing a 26-board match against the other eleven over three weekends. The top four teams then advance to the knockout stage of the competition.

There is just one round remaining, and the VuGraph match features two teams very much in contention for places in the knockout stage. Join the hundreds watching live on BBO for the crunch meeting between a team packed with Bermuda Bowl winners, ZIMMERMANN, and the recently-crowned French Interclub champions, ROMBAUT.

A usual, we start with some problems. First, an opening lead. With neither side vulnerable, you are North holding:

What do you lead?

Next, with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting West with these cards:

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with both sides vulnerable, you hold in the West seat:

What action, if any, do you take?

The action began on the very first deal of the match, with the opening lead problem above facing both North players.

Lead problems often occur when your hand seems to have no attractive choice. Here, you have two prime candidates, so do you start with your singleton heart or with a top diamond?

Frank Multon (left) opted for the latter choice. When Pierre Zimmermann showed an even number of diamonds, Multon continued with a second and third round of the suit. Zimmermann ruffed and, although declarer now had a parking place for dummy’s club loser, he still needed to find the ♥K onside. When South showed up with that card, declarer was one down: E/W -50.

After a similar start to the auction, Jacek Kalita started with a 2NT inquiry, then bid game despite his partner showing a minimum. However, the opening lead problem is effectively the same.

Jerome Rombaut opted for the alternative choice, opening with his singleton heart. Double dummy, declarer can now make the contract by rising with the ♥A, drawing three rounds of trumps ending in dummy, and playing a diamond to the nine and ten. North wins with a high diamond but is endplayed in the minors.

Of course, Kalita took the more practical approach of hoping the heart finesse was working, so he played low at trick one and South won with the ♥K. Clearly, the defence has a number of winning options now – a heart back, ruffed, then three rounds of diamonds followed by a third heart actually beats the contract by three.

Unsure that his partner had led a singleton rather than a doubleton heart, Leo Rombaut not unreasonably switched to the ♦J at trick two. Theoretically, this is fine, but look at the hand from North’s point of view after he captures declarer’s ♦Q with his king.

You can see three defensive tricks, but from where will the fourth come? Hoping to score a heart ruff as the fourth defensive trick, and expecting his partner to have started with a diamond holding such as J-10-x-(x), North returned a low diamond at trick three.

Disaster! Capturing South’s ♦9 with his ten, declarer quickly drew trump and conceded a trick to the ♥K. Away went declarer’s club loser on dummy’ fourth heart, and declarer lost just three red-suit tricks. E/W +420 and 10 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN to open the match.

Our next deal looks like about the most straightforward slam hand there could be:

The Poles demonstrated how easy it should be, with Jacek Kalita (right) effectively bidding Blackwood over his partner’s 1♥ opening bid.

The slam needed little more than trumps breaking 3-2. They duly did: E/W +1460.

By contrast, the French pair never managed to come to grips with the hand at all once Baptiste Combescure had passed on the East cards. Olivier Giard opened 1♦ and then, presumably, forced to game with his jump-shift rebid of 2♠. Clearly, Giard intended to complete the description of his shape by supporting hearts at his third turn, but Combescure’s jump to 3NT stymied that plan.

As they were in a game-forcing auction, quite what was wrong with 2NT over 2♠, I have no idea. The auction would then continue 3♥-4♥ and, probably, 4NT from West. Stopping in 3NT was not best, even though declarer made all 13 tricks: E/W +720 and 12 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN.

Our next deal also produced what looked like a fairly normal result at one table. Faced with the second of this week’s problem hands, did you manage to find the cheap save despite the adverse vulnerability?

East showed a decent hand with at least 5-5 in the red suits with his vulnerable-vs-not 3♣ overcall, and former French junior international Olivier Giard (left) essayed 4♥ over South’s competitive spade raise. The difficult question came when North’s 4♠ bid was passed back to Giard. With two fitting cards in partner’s suits and enough spades to be sure that partner will be short there, West knows that his hand is suitable for a high heart contract. But is it suitable enough to be able to make 11 tricks? And, if not, are you beating 4♠? Giard could not be sure, so he opted to defend.

Combescure led the ♣J around to declarer’s queen. After a spade to East’s queen and dummy’s ace, declarer then led a diamond towards his hand. Giard rose with the ♦K and returned a second round of trumps, won in dummy. A second diamond then went to declarer’s queen and East’s ace, but Combescue had only red cards left. Declarer won the heart switch with dummy’s ace, ruffed a heart to his hand, and ruffed his third diamond with the ♠10. The defence made a club at the end, but that was only their third trick: N/S +420.

I have never really understood the concept of pre-empting with a perfectly respectable opening bid, but North here began with a 2♠ opening showing six spades and 8-12 HCP. Without the room to show both of his suits, Michal Nowosadzki settled for the practical approach by overcalling in his major. South competed to the three-level and Jacek Kalita bid game. Although maximum for his original opening, Jerome Rombaut had nothing unexpected, so he passed, and passed again when Leo backed in with a double.

South opened a low trump, declarer capturing the ♥9 with his jack. Then came three rounds of diamonds, ruffing with dummy’s king. With his trumps now solid enough, declarer overtook dummy’s ♥10 with the queen. South could take his ♥A whenever he liked and the defenders could cash two black aces, but declarer’s hand was then high. N/S -790 and 15 more IMPs to ZIMMERMANN.

Approaching the midway point of the match, both West players had to deal with the last of this week’s problems. What action did you decide upon?

Jacek Kalita chose to double when North’s 3♣ opening was passed around to him. Michal Nowosadzki (right) forced to game with 4♣, showing two places to play. When he then advanced with 4♠ over 4♥, Kalita had to decide between playing a potential 4-2 spade fit and climbing to the five-level in diamonds, on what could well be only a 4-4 fit. The advantage of passing 4♠, perhaps, is that the doubling has not yet started.

The good news for the 2015 and 2019 Bermuda Bowl winners was that Nowosadzki had five spades. However, the rest of the news was mostly bad, as the trumps were 4-2 offside (hardly unexpected on the auction) and the ♦A was also wrong. Declarer managed to make eight tricks: E/W -200.

Perhaps defending 3♣ is not such a bad idea, after all. Let’s see what they made of the problem at the other table.

After the same start, Olivier Giard opted to take a shot at 3NT on the West cards. North led the ♣K and declarer held up until the third round. His next move was a spade to the jack. Pierre Zimmermann won with the ♠Q and switched to the ♦7. Having no real choice, Giard rose with the ♦K and the roof fell in. North won with the ♦A, cashed his remaining clubs, and then played a diamond for South to take two more tricks in that suit. Declarer had a pair of major-suit aces left for the last two tricks. Six down: E/W -600 and another 9 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN.

ZIMMERMANN had opened up a 65-6 lead by the midway point of the match. Although the second half was almost flat, the final margin was still 86-24, and such a heavy defeat was enough to push ROMBAUT out of the knockout stage of the tournament.

With the full 11-match round-robin completed after three weekends, these are the final standings:

The top four teams now advance to the knockout stage. The draw is SOULET vs GAUTRET and ZIMMERMANN vs BRENO.

We will be back in France to see the best of the action from those matches. Next week, we will be in the Finnish capital of Helsinki for the 20^th European Champions’ Cup, where the winner of the major national championships from eleven countries battle it out.