We return to Buenos Aires, Argentina for the South American Transnational Championships. A total of 35 teams set out to play a Swiss qualifier of twelve 12-board matches, with the leading eight teams advancing to the knockout stage.

After four rounds, the top of the leader-board looked like this:

As usual, we begin with some problems. Firstly, with both sides vulnerable, you are North holding:

What do you bid?

Next, with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting West with this picture house:

What do you bid?

While you consider those problems, we begin our coverage with the Round 5 match between the two teams leading the pack, WHIBLEY (Argentina/Australia/New Zealand) and PROTO (Brazil/Uruguay).

Faced with the first of the bidding problems above, Mauricio Machado took the conservative view and simply settled for 3NT. Warned that the long hearts were on his left, it was not difficult for Horacio Oliveira to play diamonds by starting with the king from dummy. The 3-0 break revealed, declarer duly finessed against East’s ♦Q to give him six tricks in that suit. Returning to dummy with a fourth round of diamonds, declarer simply ran the ♠J. West won with the ♠Q and Machado claimed twelve tricks. N/S +490

Nabil Edgtton narrowly missed out on a medal on his international debut, his Australian Schools Team finishing fourth at the 2006 World Youth Championships. He continued as a regular member of the Australian Junior team until 2016. Whilst still a junior, he picked up a silver medal in the Transnational Teams at the 2011 World Championships in Veldhoven. Edgtton made his debut in the Australian Open team at the 2011 Bermuda Bowl. At the 2022 World Championships in Wroclaw, Edgtton and his partner Michael Whibley earned silver medals from the World Open Pairs, the best result ever by a pair from the Oceania region.

In the replay, Luis Proto did not overcall on the West cards, and thus the Antipodeans had a free run. Edgtton started with some sort of relay showing a minor-suit-oriented hand and then raised quantitatively to 4NT. When invited to pick a slam, he then opted for notrumps.

At the other table, making twelve tricks was trivial, but Michael Whibley had not been told about the 7-2 heart split. He won the opening heart lead and immediately ran the ♠J, hoping to learn something about the distribution before broaching the diamonds. West won with the ♠Q and continued hearts, so Whibley cashed his spade winners, West pitching two clubs. It was now time to make a decision in diamonds, and the only information declarer had was that West had started with two spades and East with four. It was quite understandable, therefore, for him to start diamonds by cashing the ace. West’s heart discard spelled doom for declarer: N/S -50 and 11 IMPs to PORTO.

PORTO won the match 26-9 and leapfrogged their opponents into first place. WHIBLEY dropped to third. VENTIN also overtook the former leaders, and then promptly produced a performance that suggested they planned to stay at Table 1.

Luis Proto dredged up a response on the East hand, which left Harry Abt with the second of this week’s problems. I would guess that either 2NT or perhaps 2♦ would be popular choices. The Uruguayan’s jump to 3♣ did not get the job done and, indeed, landed the partnership in a contract they could not make.

Juan-Carlos Ventin opened the ♦A and continued with a second diamond for his partner to ruff. Joaquin Pacareu switched accurately to a spade, North winning and returning the suit. Declarer won with the ♠A and drew South’s remaining trumps, but he had no quick entry to reach dummy’s ♦Q for a discard. North won the first round of hearts and cashed his spade winner for one down. E/W -100.

Frederic Wrang (right) made his international debut in the Swedish Junior team at the 1984 European Youth Championships. The first of many appearances in Sweden’s Open team came at the 2008 European Championships. He was a member of the Swedish team that achieved his country’s best ever result, reaching the final of the 2015 Bermuda Bowl. Another silver medal came a year later at the European Championships. He has collected both European and World Championship medals since joining the VENTIN team in 2015. He also picked up a bronze medal in the 2019 European Open Pairs playing with Swedish ex-pat Gunnar Hallberg.

On this deal, Portugal’s Antonio Palma did not respond on the East hand, but that did not stop the Europeans reaching the top spot. When North’s 1♦ overcall was passed back to Wrang, he backed in with 1NT, showing 18-19, and Palma duly raised him to game.

North led a diamond around to declarer’s ten. A heart to the jack won and now Wrang ran the ♣10. A second round of clubs confirmed that declarer had five tricks in that suit, and a second heart established his ninth winner. North cashed the ♦A and thus dummy’s ♦Q gave declarer a tenth trick. N/S +630 and 12 IMPs to VENTIN.

VENTIN won the match emphatically, 69-6, to open a 5-VP gap at the top of the leader-board. Behind them, WHIBLEY won to move back into second place, and those two teams would meet in Round 7. Meanwhile, BBO VuGraph coverage for this round concentrated on Table 2, where COLE (USA/Italy) met ZIMMERMANN.

We all like to get into the auction over the opponents’ opening 1NT, but doing so can be seriously detrimental if you end up defending.

The Italians reached game in the most straightforward of auctions and Franck Multon led a low spade. Massimiliano di Franco adopted what looked like the most obvious line of play, leading to dummy’s ♥Q and running the ♥9 on the way back. When East won with the ♥J and cleared the spades, declarer’s goose was cooked. N/S -100.

Michal Nowosadzki (left) is a medal-winning machine. He began his international career by collecting a gold medal at the 2004 World Schools Teams Championships. One silver, two bronze and a second gold, from the 2009 European University Teams Championships, completed a successful career as a junior. Since making his debut in the Polish Open team in 2014, he has won the Bermuda Bowl twice, in 2015 and 2019, and added numerous silver and bronze medals to his collection.

The contract and the opening lead were the same at this table, but Alejandro Bianchedi had shown both majors in the auction. Nowosadzki started by cashing three rounds of clubs ending in his hand, forcing a heart discard from East. When he then led a heart towards dummy, presumably intending to finesse the nine, Bianchedi rose with the ace and cleared his spades, hoping that declarer would need a diamond trick. No, Nowosadzki now had three heart winners to go with his six black-suit tricks: N/S +400 and 11 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN.

ZIMMERMANN won the match 32-16, their fifth consecutive victory since their narrow loss to WHIBLEY in Round 2. They moved up into third place. At Table 1, WHIBLEY beat VENTIN 23-15 to take a narrow lead at the top of the table.

BBO VuGraph returned to Table one in Round 8, for a head-to-head clash between two serious contenders, WHIBLEY and CHAGAS. The only major swing of a tight match came on the very first deal:

Diego Brenner (right) made his international debut in Brazil’s Junior team at the 1991 World Youth Championships. Acknowledged as the rising star of Brazilian bridge, he won gold in the Transnational Teams at the 2001 World Championships and then finished third in the 2002 World Open Pairs playing with Gabriel Chagas. He has now been a member of Brazil’s Open team and of the Chagas team at numerous major events for more than two decades.

Brenner’s 4♣ cue-bid showed both majors. East's 4♦ bid was a puppet to 4♥, showing no interest beyond game. Brenner duly bid 4♥ and Villas-Boas chose the suit by passing. North led a club and Brenner ruffed. Next came the ♠A-K and a third spade, ruffed with a low trump in dummy. Brenner then cashed the ♦K and played a diamond towards his hand, catering for a singleton with the pre-emptor. When South followed suit, Brenner won with the ♦A and then ruffed a fourth round of spades with the ♥J. Ruffing a club back to hand then ensured his contract: he had eight tricks and was certain to make two more with the A-Q-10 of trumps. E/W +620.

After the same start, Leonardo Rizzo simply bid 4♥ on the East cards. South led a top club, so the contract was effectively the same, even though played from the other side. Rizzo also started with two top spades but, when he played a third round, he ruffed with the ♥J from his hand. He then played a heart to the ace, cashed the king and ace of diamonds, and continued with a fourth round of spades, ruffing in dummy. When South was able to overruff with the ♥9, declarer was in trouble. Forced to ruff a second club, he had now lost control of the trump suit. If he knocked out the ♥K, North would play a fourth round of clubs, forcing declarer’s last trump. He instead played his last spade winner, but North ruffed with his low trump and still had the ♥K and ♦Q to make. E/W -100 and 12 IMPs to CHAGAS.

WHIBLEY had the best of the remaining boards, and won a low-scoring match 23-19. With both VENTIN and ZIMMERMANN scoring bigger wins, WHIBLEY dropped to third place, but the top of the leader-board had become very bunched, with seven teams within 10 VPs of the lead.

With eight of the twelve matches in the qualifying stage played, these were the standings:

We will be back soon with the best of the action from the final four rounds of the Swiss qualifier.