This is our last visit to Buenos Aires, Argentina for the South American Transnational Championships. After three days of Swiss and two rounds of knockout matches, we now have two teams still standing. The winner will be decided over 42 boards divided into three 14-board stanzas. It is VENTIN (Spain, Portugal, Chile and Sweden) v ZIMMERMANN (Switzerland, Monaco and Poland) for the title of South American transnational champions.

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, a lead problem. With both sides vulnerable, you are sitting North with:

What do you lead?

While you mull those over, we begin our coverage midway through an explosive first stanza. We start with a disaster for the South Americans…

I don’t play transfer responses to 1♣, so I cannot say with any clarity what North is supposed to rebid after South’s 1♠ response denying a four-card major. If 1NT is the correct systemic rebid on this North hand, then I suppose it is incumbent on South to investigate further, although exactly how he should do so is something for a regular partnership to work out. Perhaps South could have avoided the problem entirely by starting with an inverted raise to 2♣? Suffice it to say that 3NT was not where you wanted to play this combination. Pierre Zimmermann led the ♦10, covered by jack and queen, and Franck Multon cleared the suit. When Zimmermann regained the lead with the ♣A, the defence had the remaining diamonds to cash. N/S -50.

In the replay, Antonio Palma got his side into the auction with a skinny 1♦ overcall. Here, too, South’s first bid was 1♠, denying a four-card Major and thus promising at least seven cards in the minors. When Frederic Wrang raised pre-emptively to 4♦, Michal Nowosadzki could be virtually certain that his partner held at least four-card club support, hence his 5♣ rebid on such a moderate suit.

Had Jacek Kalita (left) known that his counterparts were going down in the wrong game at the other table, he could have settled for the 11-IMP swing for simply finding the right strain. Of course, North would have bid just the same with the king rather than the ♥Q, when there would be 12 easy tricks. As it was, 6♣ needed to find the ♥K onside, but the finesse worked and thus justice was served. N/S +920 and 14 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN.

A couple of boards later, came a slam hand on which neither side managed to reach the optimum contract. At one table, reaching the second-best spot was allowed to go unpunished but, at the other, declarer was presented with a losing option…

The presence of both major-suit jacks means that you have 12 top tricks unless spades break 5-1 or worse, so the objective in the auction is to protect the ♦K by playing 6NT from the West seat. Palma opened a natural 2♠ and Wrang made a series of forcing bids before eventually using Blackwood to confirm that there was only one key-card missing. Wrang’s problem was that there may be no entry to the East hand if you do not play in spades, so he settled for the suit slam. As it happens, East holds the ♦J, which significantly increases the chances of surviving even if South does lead a diamond.

The auction had not pinpointed the lead, and Jacek Kalita duly fished out the ♥9. Declarer won in dummy, unblocked the ♠J, crossed to his hand with the ♥J, drew trumps and claimed 13 tricks. Easy game! E/W +1460.

Joaquin Pacareu (right) made a handful of appearances in the Chile Junior team between 2003 and 2008. He marked his debut in his country’s Open team with victory in the Open Teams at the 2009 South American Championships. More recently, he was a member of the VENTIN team that reached the final of the 2022 Rosenblum Cup in Wroclaw.

On this deal, Pierre Zimmermann started with a 1♠ opening and trumps were agreed at the three-level. Multon apparently cue-bid in clubs, and it is not clear exactly what Zimmermann’s 4♥ bid meant. However, the message that Zimmermann did not have a diamond control seems to have resonated with South. Multon’s jump to 5♠ seems to have asked for good trumps, hence the raise to slam.

Pacareu duly found the only opening lead to trouble declarer, a low diamond. With the diamond control clearly marked in the West hand on the auction, it is certainly possible that South has led from either the queen or the ace. Perhaps Zimmermann has practised so much against the likes of Klukowski and Brink that a lead from something like ♦A-x-x-x has become more likely than it might otherwise be. Zimmermann chose to rise with the ♦K, so the defenders took two fast tricks in the suit to put the slam one down. E/W -100 and 17 IMPs to VENTIN.

When the scores were tallied, VENTIN had finished the opening stanza with a 10-IMP lead, 45-35. Game on! The score had advanced to 56-36 when the South American captain was set the first of this week’s problems.

Franck Multon (left) set Juan-Carlos Ventin a test of bottle on this deal. Facing a vulnerable 3♣ opening from his partner, Ventin not unreasonably took a shot at 3NT on the North hand. How do you now fancy your chances when East’s double comes back to you?

With both minors behaving, declarer will make at least ten and probably eleven tricks in 3NT-X. However, Multon’s daring intervention served to jostle Ventin out of his game and into a partscore. N/S +130.

Jacek Kalita started with a 1♣ opening on the South hand. That allowed Marion Michielsen to get into the auction at the one-level. When Michal Nowosadzki then jumped to 3NT, she had already bid her hand and so went peacefully. Michielsen started with the ♠A, got a discouraging signal from her partner, and then switched to a low heart in the hope of finding her partner with the ♥K. Declarer now had twelve tricks: N/S +690 and 11 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN.

This was the only double-digit swing in the second set. It was also about the only plus score on the ZIMMERMANN side of the ledger. VENTIN won the stanza 33-12, so they led by 31 IMPs, 78-47, going into the final set. ZIMMERMANN made steady inroads into the deficit and, with three boards remaining, they trailed by only 10 IMPs, 80-90. Then came…

Cullin opened a Strong Club and Nowosadzki overcalled 1♥ on the North cards. Cullins’s 1NT rebid showed a balanced 18-19, and this time is was Kalita who reopened in the pass out seat. The resulting 2♠ contract, with less than half of the HCP and only a seven-card fit, was not a thing of beauty, and perhaps the Swedes might even have doubled.

Michielsen led a club to her partner’s ace and declarer’s king. Most continuations keep the defenders hopes of seven tricks alive. The exception was the trump switch that Cullin made. When trumps behaved, declarer had maintained sufficient control that he could enjoy dummy’s club winners and escape for one down. E/W +100.

Could E/W find a way to record a larger plus in the replay?

Antonio Palma (right) represented Portugal at three European Youth Championships in the early years of the 21^st Century. He has been a regular in his country’s Open team since making his debut in 2012. As part of the VENTIN team, he has collected silver medals from the Open Teams at the 2018 European Winter Games and from the 2022 Rosenblum Cup in Wroclaw.

The brisk auction left Fernando Piedra trying to make 3NT, and Antonio Palma on lead with the hand posed at the top of this article. Could the Portuguese star avoid the fatal heart opening?

No. Palma led the ♥5 and Switzerland’s Bermuda Bowl winner took full advantage. Piedra rose with the ♥10 from dummy at trick one, gaining a vital extra entry. A diamond to the eight won, so declarer returned to dummy with the ♠A to take a second diamond hook. North showed out on the second round of diamonds, so declarer had to concede a trick to South, but it was too late for the defenders now. Declarer had four diamonds, two hearts, and three top winners in the black suits: E/W +600 and 11 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN, for whom the 1-IMP advantage was their first lead in the match. As it happened, ZIMMERMANN gained a further 6 IMPs and 11 IMPs on the final two boards, padding the margin of an epic comeback victory.

ZIMMERMAN won the final stanza 61-12, turning the match right around and winning by a score of 108-90 after gaining 28 IMPs over the final three deals.

Congratulations to the ZIMMERMAN team: Pierre Zimmermann, Fernando Piedra, Franck Multon, Michael Nowosadzki and Jacek Kalita.

We will now be hot-tailing it across the Atlantic Ocean to the high Alps, near the Italian/French border. We will be there to bring you the best of the action as the European Winter Games gets underway in the tiny village of Tignes, the highest ski resort in the Alps.