We are back in Poland this week, to the small village of Tarnowo Podgórne, just a few miles outside the regional capital, Poznan, in the west of the country. Four teams survived a 12-team round robin to reach the knockout stage of the Polish Grand Prix. Both of the 24-board semi-finals followed the same pattern, with the match very close at the midway point, and then a blowout in the second half leaving one team with a comfortable victory. 

In one semi-final, OLCZYK (Jerzy Olczyk-Pawel Niedzielski, Piotr Marcinowski-Mateusz Sobczak and Dominik Filipowicz-Jaroslaw Cieslak) trailed BRIDGESCANNER by 5 IMPs after 12 boards but they won the second half 40-1 to win 75-41. In the other, ODMET (Piotr Zatorski, Michal Klukowski, Krzysztof Buras, Zdzislaw Ingielewicz and Grzegorz Narkiewicz) held a 5-IMP halftime lead over PAB MICHALOWO and then won the second half easily to win 75-24.

So, it would be OLCZYK v ODMET in a 36-board final played in three sets of 12 boards. As usual, we start with some problems.

Firstly, with only your side vulnerable, you are East holding:

What do you bid? 

Next, again with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting in the East seat with:

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with only your side vulnerable you hold as North:

What action, if any, do you take?

The opening stanza had only one double-digit swing and, unfortunately, the VuGraph records are missing the details of play at one table on that deal. OLCZYK led 30-10 at the end of the first set, and we pick up the action early in the second stanza, with one player faced with the first of this week’s problems.

Grzegorz Narkiewicz opened 1♠ in third seat. South’s 3♦ overcall and Krzysztof Buras’s negative double then left him with a problem. His 4♦ bid was probably offering a choice, of games, and the question then became whether to bid on when his partner gave preference to spades. Narkiewicz chose to pass, thus stopping in game with slam a marginal proposition – either spades 2-2 (or singleton queen), or a non-diamond lead. Actually, slam in hearts is slightly better, as you can overcome a 3-1 spade break as long as hearts split 3-2. Not an easy combination to bid. 

South did lead a diamond, the jack to queen and ace, but spades behaved so declarer had twelve tricks. E/W +680.

Curiously, pre-empting over a strong (Polish-style) 1♣ opening worked poorly on this layout.

Pawel Niedielski (left) represented Poland at the European Junior Championships way back in 1976. Through much of the 2010s, he was a member of various Consus teams. 

Jerzy Olczyk opened the East hand with a multi-way 1♣ (clubs, weak balanced or any 18+). Michal Klukowski overcalled 3♦ and Piotr Zatorski upped the ante to the four-level. When Olczyk was able to bid 4♠ on his own, Niedzielski felt that he had to take some action. He advanced with a club cue-bid, which was all Olczyk needed to hear. Although Niedzielski retreated to 5♠ at his next turn, his partner had already heard enough to commit to slam.

Here, too, South opened the ♦J but, with trumps breaking, there was no defence. E/W +1430 and 13 IMPs to OLCZYK.

It was not long before both East players were asked to solve the second of this week’s bidding problems.

Jerzy Olczyk chose to pass North’s 3♥ opening. No one else had anything to contribute.

Olczyk led the ♦K, so declarer won with the ♦A pitching a spade loser. Even so, the defenders still had to make two spades, one club and four trumps, but it was only 50s. E/W +150.  

Grzegorz Narkiewicz (right) was a member of the winning Polish team at the 2004 World University Team Championships. He and Krzyztof Buras are one of Poland’s most experienced partnerships. They won silver medals on their debut in the national Open team, at the 2010 European Championships and, a year later, collected bronze medals from the Open Pairs at the 2011 European Transnational Championships. They reached the final of the Open Teams at the 2012 Olympiad and, more recently, they were members of the Polish team that won the 2019 Bermuda Bowl in Wuhan.

On this deal, the auction began the same way here too, but Narkiewicz was unwilling to go quietly, so he braved a 3NT overcall despite his partner’s initial Pass. 

The opening club lead ran around to declarer’s queen. When declarer led a diamond towards dummy, South could not afford to jump in with his ace, so the jack won. With a diamond trick and a second club trick now in the bag, Narkiewicz ran the ♥J successfully, overtook the ♥10 with his queen, and ran the ♠10 to North’s queen. A second round of clubs came back, but declarer had nine tricks via two clubs, one diamond, and three tricks in each major. Well timed! E:W +600 and 10 IMPs to ODMET.

ODMET won the second stanza 33-29, and thus trailed by 15 IMPs, 44-59, going into the final 15-board set. The first deal of the stanza reduced that deficit considerably, although the swing could, and perhaps should, have gone in the other direction.

Not willing to give his opponents an easy ride by opening at the one-level, double Bermuda Bowl winner Michal Klukowski (left) opened 3♥ after the auction had begun with two passes. What do you make of Piotr Marcinowski’s 3♠ overcall at ‘red’ facing a partner who could not open the bidding? True, you expect the points to be distributed roughly 10-apiece around the table. If partner has a spade fit and no wasted values in hearts, you might be able to make nine or ten tricks. The problem is that, even if you can make nine tricks in spades, partner is almost certain to have enough values to take a bid. Predictably, Mateusz Sobczak advanced with 3NT. Of course, Marcinowski could be virtually certain that contract would be going down, but what could be do other than pass? Bidding again, would surely wake the opponents up to the idea that they should be doubling. Fortunately for Marcinowski, Piotr Zatorski could not find a double on the North hand, so Sobczak got to toil away for 100s.

Klukowski opened with the lead that could have held declarer to just three tricks, the ♥J. However, when that held the trick, finding the low club switch was not clear, and Klukowski continued with a low heart, which ran around to declarer’s nine. Sobczak ducked a spade now, North winning with the ♠Q and playing his third heart. Declarer’s ♥K was allowed to win, so Sobczak claimed four spades to go with the two hearts he had already made: a rather fortunate E/W -300.

That could even have been a good result for OLCZYK…

Dominik Filipowicz was able to open the North hand with a mini, 10-12 HCP, 1NT. Jaroslaw Cieslak transferred at the four-level and thus North landed in a very playable 4♥ contract on minimal values. East led the ♦K and declarer just needed to get both rounded suits right to bring home his thin game.

Filipowicz won with the ♦A and immediately played a trump to the ace. West followed with a red card, but it wasn’t a heart. When declarer later also mis-guessed the clubs, he was two down. E/W +100 and 9 IMPs to ODMET, reducing the margin in the match to just 6 IMPs.

OLCZYK got just the better of a low-scoring set of boards and, with three deals left in the match, led by 13 IMPs, 74-61. The came the deciding deal, and it all came down to the last of this week’s problems. Do the right thing and you win the event, but get it wrong and you come in a close second. 

I suppose Filipowicz had effectively made the key decision when he bid ‘only’ 5♣ over 4♥ on the second round of the auction. Of course, Narkiewicz could have left well alone and defended 5♣… Or could he? More of that later. 

When West competed to 5♥, Filipowicz had a second chance to win the event for his team, but his double is understandable. Not that N/S were ever likely to get rich defending a heart contract. They took what they could, two spade tricks to go with the two minor-suit aces. Two down: N/S +300.

Marcinowski had a toy for this West hand, and he duly opened 2♦ (showing a weak hand with both Majors), which completely changed the momentum of the auction. Piotr Zatorski (right) overcalled 3♣ and Sobczak jumped to 4♠ on the East cards. Michal Klukowski’s decision to press on to game in clubs was probably the key bid in the auction, as it prompted Zatorski to bid again after West had bid a fifth spade. 

Marcinowski doubled 6♣ on the way out but, with the ♦K well-placed for declarer, there was no defence. East led the ♥A but declarer ruffed. Declarer had a slow diamond to lose, but that was all: N/S +1540 and 15 IMPs to ODMET.

West’s double in this auction meant that his counterpart at the other table could indeed have won the match by defending 5♣. N/S +620 would have saved only 1 IMP on the deal. 

The swing on this deal put ODMET 2 IMPs ahead with two deal left. The final two deals were both pushes and thus ODMET had completed the comeback. They won the final 76-74 and, with it, the title of Polish Grand Prix champions. Congratulations to ODMET team: Piotr Zatorski, Michal Klukowski, Krzysztof Buras, Zdzislaw Ingielewicz and Grzegorz Narkiewicz.

We will be remaining in Europe for the holiday season. Next week we will bring to you the best of the action from the annual Channel Trophy, a four-way contest between teams representing England, France, Belgium and Netherlands.