We remain in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the South American Transnational Championships. After three days of play and twelve rounds of Swiss matches, the original entry of 35 teams has been reduced to the top eight. Today is the quarter-final stage, with 36-board matches divided into three 12-board sets.

The quarter-final match-ups are: VENTIN v CHAGAS, ZIMMERMANN v ARG-S, WHIBLEY v COLE and MINITER v MILLENS (with the first-named side being the seeded team by dint of having finished higher in the Swiss qualifier).

As usual, we begin with some problems. Firstly, with only your opponents vulnerable, you are East holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting East with:

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with neither side vulnerable you hold as North:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those problems, we begin our coverage on Board 2 of the opening stanza of ZIMMERMANN vs ARG-S.

Fernando Piedra (left) partnered Pierre Zimmermann during the successful Bermuda Bowl campaign and the silver-medal winning European Championships last year. In this event, those two are playing as a threesome with Franck Multon whilst the Poles play throughout in the other room.

Fernando Piedra opened 1♣ in second seat, and Hector Camberos bid a restrained 1♥ for the Argentines. Walter Fornasari gave his partner a gentle heart raise and Camberos raised the ante to the three level. Franck Multon made a negative double at his first turn, Piedra double for takeout and Multon doubled again, presumably suggesting this sort of hand, with the values to bid but no particular direction. Piedra might have decided to defend 3♥-X, but he opted to move forward, rebidding his moderate five-card minor. Having nowhere else to go, Multon raised to game.

Camberos opened the ♥K and then switched to a diamond at trick two. Declarer ruffed, crossed to the ♣A, and took the losing trump finesse on the way back. He ruffed the heart continuation, drew the last trump, and cashed his diamond winners. All that remained now was to find the ♠Q. The auction told Piedra that West began with six hearts. He had since shown up with one diamond and three clubs, so spades were known to be splitting 3-3. That didn’t help. Perhaps West, who had overcalled and taken a second bid, was a slight favourite to hold the missing queen, so Piedra played a spade to dummy’s ten. When East produced the ♠Q, the contract was one down: N/S -100.

For the Argentines, Luis Palazzo (left) chose to open 1♦. Jacek Kalita entered with a jump to 2♥ and North doubled, leaving Michal Nowosadzki with the first of this week’s problems. Perhaps it would be worthwhile discovering what the BBO expert panel think this hand is worth, but I feel it’s a close decision between Pass and 3♥. Would Nowosadzki’s jump to 4♥ receive much support, I wonder?

South had nothing to say over that and what could Pierre Pejacsevich do other than double on the North hand. The Argentine started accurately with a trump. He got in with two of his aces and each time played another trump. That left declarer with three club losers, and Kalita could therefore make only his six trump tricks. N/S +800 and 14 IMPs to ARG-S to get their ball rolling.

Alas for the home town fans, that was about the end of the good news for their team. ZIMMERMANN came right back and they had nosed ahead by 2 IMPs as the set neared its end. Then one East player had to deal with the second of this week’s problems…

Franck Multon (right) won four medals in five appearances for France as a junior, including gold at the 1988 European Youth Championships. He made his debut in the French Open team whilst still a junior, at the 1988 World Team Olympiad. Eight years later, he became a World Champion with victory in the same event. The following year, he added the 1997 Bermuda Bowl title to his resume. France thus ended the 20^th-Century as double World Champions. They are still awaiting their first title of the 21^st-Century.

Meanwhile, Multon joined the ZIMMERMANN team in 2005 and continued to collect gold medals – the Transnational Teams at the 2007 and 2009 World Championships, the Mixed Teams at the 2011 European Transnational Championships, the 2012 European Teams title, the Open Teams at the 2018 World Bridge Series and at the 2016 and 2020 European Winter Games.

On this deal, Multon opened 3♠ on the North cards. Of course, it is dangerous to overcall 3NT, vulnerable against not, on a flat 17-count, but I doubt you could find many red-blooded experts who would even consider an alternative. South didn’t need to be a Bermuda Bowl winner to realize that Christmas had arrived in April.

Piedra led the ♠10, Multon overtaking with the jack. Declarer had to allow the ♠J to win, and Multon switched accurately to the ♦J. Declarer won with the ♦A and played the king and queen of hearts, both of which were allowed to win. The ♣A and a second club put Piedra in, and the defenders had three diamonds and two major-suit aces to take. N/S +800.

Even had the Argentines been able to see both hands, the best they could do was to run to 4♣, but even that would have cost -500. The trouble had already been done, but the same thing should happen in the replay, shouldn’t it?

When you open 4♥, the opponents will often bid on to 4♠. When you open 4♠, though, they are much more likely to simply double and defend. Whilst Multon had considered 3♠ quite enough on that square North hand, Pierre Pejacsevich chose to push the boat out just a little further. Michal Nowosadzki’s double of 4♠ is just as routine as his counterpart’s 3NT bid at the other table. One just happened to work a whole lot better than the other.

The defenders can make only one trick in each suit against 4♠-X, but that was enough to give the Poles a plus score: N/S -100 and 14 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN.

ZIMMERMANN led 37-19 at the end of the opening stanza. In two of the other matches, the top seed was also winning: WHIBLEY by 29-21 against COLE, and VENTIN 35-15 ahead of CHAGAS. In the fourth match, the underdogs had their noses ahead, MILLENS leading MINITER 28-19.

BBO VuGraph coverage for the second stanza switched to the match between VENTIN and CHAGAS. On the second deal of the set, both North players heard identical auctions to leave them with the last of this week’s problems. Not much of a problem you might think, but…

Juan-Carlos Ventin (left) began his international career with a medal, a silver representing Spain in the Junior Teams at the 1980 European Youth Championships. He made his debut in the Spanish Open team that same year, at the World Team Olympiad. He was a member of the most successful Spanish team ever, finishing second in the 2002 European Team Championships, and he also collected a silver medal representing Argentina in the Open Teams at the 2009 South American Championships. More recently, he added to his collection of silver medals by reaching the final of the 2022 Rosenblum Cup in Wroclaw.

Faced with the problem posed at the top of this article, Ventin understandably decided that he had no reason to expect that even 5♦ would be making, let alone that his partner would hold enough to justify a raise. When 5♦ came back around to him, Miguel Villas-Boas chose to ignore the principle that the five-level belongs to the opponents. However, with four top losers and a club ruff against him, the save rated to cost more than the opponents non-vulnerable game was worth, but then a strange thing happened on the way to the forum…

Joaquin Pacareu led the ♣3. Ventin won with the ♣A but could not tell that his partner’s club was a singleton. Mindful of the preference Pacareu had expressed in the auction, Ventin switched to a diamond at trick two.  Pacareu won with the ♦9 and wanted to put his partner back on lead in order to get his club ruff, so he returned the ♦J at trick three. Unable to read the position, Ventin played low and a somewhat bemused declarer was allowed to win the trick with the ♦Q. Villas-Boas quickly drew trumps. With the defence having lost not only their ruff but also one of their top tricks, declarer was able to concede a heart and claim just one down: N/S +100.

We met the incredibly talented Diego Brenner (right) earlier in this event.

After an identical start to the auction, Agustin Madala somehow divined that his partner held a relative monster – two aces and a useful singleton – and raised to slam. Frederic Wrang led a spade against 6♦, and Brenner got to work. He ruffed, cashed the ♥K, and led a second round of hearts towards his hand.

It would not have helped Antonio Palma to ruff, so he threw a spade. After winning with the ♥A, Brenner then ruffed a third round of hearts with the ♦K. Then came a diamond to the jack and the ♦A, drawing the remaining trumps. Another heart ruff set up declarer’s long cards in that suit, and Brenner still had a trump left with which to reach them. The defenders were left with a black-suit trick at the end, but no more. A spectacular N/S +920 and 13 IMPs to CHAGAS, reducing the deficit to single figures.

The remainder of the set was fairly even. CHAGAS gained 9 IMPs on the stanza and thus trailed by 14 IMPs, 68-54, going into the final 12-board set. Two of the other quarter-final matches finished with concessions at this point: ARG-S decided not to insult their opponents by playing the final set down 36-88 against ZIMMERMANN, and COLE realized their event was over too, trailing 28-85 against WHIBLEY. In the other live match, MILLENS padded their advantage by a further 6 IMPs and thus led MINITER by 15 IMPs, 72-57, going into the last set.

The VuGraph coverage stayed with the battle between Brazil and Sweden for the final set. CHAGAS gained 11 IMPs in the first half of the set to close the gap to just 3 IMPs. Then came this all-action deal:

Although they hold only 22 HCP, the Brazilians had two eight-card fits and controls in both side suits, usually a recipe for bidding a thin game. Unfortunately for the South Americans, the defenders’ cards in their suits do not lie kindly, so this would have been a good time to tread cautiously.

Despite the bad breaks, only a trump or a diamond lead legitimately defeats 4♠-X, and Marion Michielsen (left) unerringly opened her singleton diamond.  Gabriel Chagas won and led dummy’s club, Per-Ola Cullin winning with the ♣A and returning a diamond for his partner to ruff.

It may look tempting to exit with a trump to prevent club ruffs, but that would have been the wrong approach, and Michielsen correctly got out with a club. Chagas ruffed and led a trump, getting the bad news. Winning with the ♠A and ruffing your last club will promote East’s ♠7, but that is the only way to avoid going two down. When Chagas allowed dummy’s spade to run to East’s king, Michielsen could exit with another trump, which she duly did. Declarer won in dummy, pitched his club loser on the ♥A, and ruffed a heart to his hand. Now he had the same number of trumps as Michielsen, so he had to draw them all. He could score the ♦K, but he was then left with two losers. E/W +500.

The Europeans seemed headed for a similar fate at the other table, but the timing of the auction meant that someone had to take a decision before their partner had a chance to express an opinion…

When N/S bid their game at the first table, it was North who bid 4♠, which meant that East got to double before her partner could do anything to get in the way. Here, it was South who bid game, and Agustin Madala fatally took a bid in front of his partner’s double.

With declarer having shown both minors in the auction, it was not difficult for Antonio Palma to diagnose the trump lead against 5♣-X. Declarer won in dummy with the ♣Q and played dummy’s diamond. Frederic Wrang won with the ♦A, cashed the ♥A, and gave his partner a heart ruff. Palma then exited with a second round of trumps, leaving dummy with only one.

When declarer took his diamond ruff in dummy, he would have noted the fall of the ♦10 from South. He then had to guess the position. Leading a low diamond, and dropping South now-singleton king would have allowed Madala to score the ♦Q as his ninth trick. When, instead, he led the ♦Q, attempting to pin the ♦J in the South hand, he was three down. E/W -800 and a massive 16 IMPs to VENTIN.

On the very next deal, Wrang and Palma stopped safely in game on a deal where a small slam was certainly with the odds. At the other table, Chagas/Ravenna bid to the grand slam with a trump suit of Axxxx opposite KJxx and a bit of work to do outside too. The spade finesse worked, but declarer could not handle the 4-0 trump split and finished one down. That was another 11 IMPs to VENTIN, which effectively decided the match. VENTIN won the final stanza 30-24 and the match by 102-74, a margin that appeared much more comfortable than it really was.

In the other quarter-final that went the distance, MINITER won the third stanza 41-31, but that was not enough to overturn the deficit. MILLENS won a tight encounter 103-98 to claim their place in the last four.

The semi-final line-up will be VENTIN v WHIBLEY and ZIMMERMANN v MILLENS. We will be back soon with the best of the action from those two matches.