This is our third visit to the European Winter Games, staged in the high alpine ski resort of Tignes in southeastern France. This is crunch day, with the final four matches in the Swiss qualifier determining which 16 teams will advance to the knockout stage of Les Etincelles Cup.

For those of you enjoying warm Spring sunshine as you watch the action on BBO VuGraph, spare a thought for those battling it out at these Championships in Tignes, where this was the scene that greeted players heading out for breakfast today…

Yes, it is certainly still ski season here!

At the end of the second day, the top of the leader-board looked like this:

With just a couple of matches left, we’ll extend that leader-board to show those teams battling it out for the final few places in the knockout.

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

What action do you take?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with only your opponents vulnerable, you hold as East:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we begin our coverage of the third day at Table 2, with a match between the teams currently lying second and third, LES TEIGNES (France) and MULTON (Monaco, USA, Greece and Italy). We start with a competitive bidding decision that swung a significant number of IMPs.

Giovanni Donati (left) made his first international appearance in the Italian Youngsters team at the 2011 European Championships. Highlights of a stellar career as a junior international lasting more than a decade include victory in the World Junior Teams in 2015 and a silver medal from the Under-26 B-A-M Teams at the 2019 World Championships. In his final year of eligibility, he won silver at the European Junior Teams and bronze at the World Youth Championships in 2022. He made his debut in the Italian Open team at the 2022 European Championships in Madeira.

Guy Laffineur doubled South’s third-seat 1♣ opening. Donati transferred to spades and Romain Tembouret competed with 2♥. Giacomo Percario rebid his clubs, pushing Tembouret to the three-level. To get a plus score, Percario had only to avoid a diamond lead, and he got off to a good start by cashing the ♣A and giving his partner a ruff. The ♦J return was covered all round and, when declarer then advanced the ♣K from dummy, Donati did well to discard a spade. This allowed declarer to pitch a spade, but it was one that would not have been a loser anyway. Now, when declarer led a trump from dummy, North followed low and declarer had to guess. Had North not ruffed with the low trump from Q-x, from A-x or from A-Q x? He put in the jack, and thus South scored his singleton ♥Q. The defence still had a diamond, a spade and a heart to come: two down meant E/W -100.

Franck Multon set le chat amongst the French pigeons with his second-seat weak 2♥ opening. Laurent Thuillez overcalled in his seven-card suit and Kiki Ward-Platt raised to game in hearts. Vanessa Reess doubled (perhaps showing spades, perhaps penalties, but evidently not showing a club fit) to leave her partner with the first of this week’s problems.

As we have already seen, 4♥-X is likely to go at least two down and quite possibly more. The decision to pull the double to 5♣ was not a success. The American made the obvious double and led a heart. It appears that declarer should lose a spade and two tricks in each of the minors. One of those five tricks managed to get away from the defence, but that was still two down: E/W +500 and 12 IMPs to MULTON.

MULTON won the match 41-23. That was enough to move back to the top of the leader-board, with CROATIA losing at Table 1 to MARTENS (who move up into third place). After their rollercoaster 20-0, 0-20 start, AZS WRATISLAVIA (Poland) have moved up into fifth place, and they come to Table 1 to take on MULTON in Round 10.

This innocuous-looking early deal raises a number of interesting bidding questions.

I know that Franck Multon officially now represents Monaco, but his bidding is rooted in France, where I understand that raising a major-suit response without four-card support is still a guillotinable offence. Anywhere else, South would have the world’s most obvious raise to 2♠ at his second turn, and you would thus easily land in what is clearly the best contract.

West led the ♠J against 2♥, but the defence did not have quite enough stuff to produce a sixth trick. N/S +110.

Mateusz Sobczak (right) made his international debut in the Polish Schools team at the 2013 European Youth Championships. He was a regular member of Polish junior teams at various levels for best part of a decade, culminating in a gold medal in the Under-26 Individual at the 2019 World Championships. He made his debut in his country’s Open team in 2021.

At this table, Sobczak also rebid 2♣ but, as became evident, he did so because he decided he was too strong for a simple spade raise. When Piotr Marcinowski gave preference to 2♥, Sobczak now continued with 2♠. To understand why this sequence should show this 3-5-1-4 shape and a range from about a good 15 to a poor 18, think about how good a hand you need to jump to 3♠. After 1♥-1♠-2♣-2♥-3♠-? what is partner supposed to do with a 6-count and only four spades? He is going to have to bid 3NT, so you need at least a good 18-count for such a jump to 3♠.

Something like this South hand but improved a little, say Q10x/K109xx/x/AKQJ, would be about a minimum for 2♠ via 2♣, rather than simply bidding 1♥-1♠-2♠. Presumably, judging from his jump to 4♠, Marcinowski was also expecting a better dummy than the one he got.

Just about any defence defeats 4♠. Any defence, that is, except one that starts with the ♠A. This is the first time we have seen the Greek contingent from the MULTON team, and it was an inauspicious start. Nikos Delimpaltadakis led the ♠A against 4♠ and then switched to the ♥4 at trick two. Declarer played the ♥10 from dummy and West declined to cover. Things were now easy for declarer: Marcinowski simply led a trump to the king, cashed the ♥A, crossed to dummy with a club, and started cashing winners. A remarkable N/S +620 and 11 IMPs to AZS WRATISLAVIA.

The Poles won the match 56-12 to move up into third place behind CROATIA and MARTENS, both of whom won. With two matches remaining, the leader-board looked like this:

Those near the top of the leader-board will surely be in the draw for the first round of knockout matches tomorrow. Hovering just above the bubble are potentially serious contenders such as ORCA (England, Wales, Sweden, Norway), SPAIN and both ZIMMERMANN teams, all of whom are just clinging on. Looking to break into that top 16 are PARRAGIL (Portugal), MORAN (Ireland), MAVERICKS (India), BULSTRODE (England, Sweden) and BLACK (England, Sweden). Others further back are looking for two big wins and some help from other results.

Back on BBO VuGraph we are again at Table 1, for the clash between the long-time leaders, CROATIA, and the resurgent Poles, AZS WRATISLAVIA. Both North players were faced with the second of this week’s problems on this early deal.

The Patreuha brothers, Jakub (left) and Patryk (right) made their international debuts as members of the victorious Polish Under-16s team at the 2014 European Youth Championships. They have since been members of Polish junior teams in various categories and still have a couple of years of junior eligibility left, although they made their debut in the Polish Open team in 2021.

On this deal, Jakub pulled his brother’s balancing double of West’s 4♠ overcall to 5♦, and Jurica Caric opened the defence with the ♠A. A heart switch would have netted the defenders four tricks, but Caric could see that forcing dummy to ruff would ensure a trick for his ♦Q, so he played a second spade. Now declarer had a chance to get out for one down.

After ruffing the second round of spades, Jakub cashed one high trump. Then came the ace and king of clubs and a club ruff. A trump back to dummy revealed the loser in that suit, but East had to follow suit when declarer cashed the ♣Q. Declarer’s second heart disappeared on the thirteenth club as East ruffed with his trump winner. The ♥A was the third and last defensive trick: E/W +100.

After the same start as in the other room, Kiril Marinovski chose to take his chances on defence. After all, “Four tricks are easier to make than eleven.”

Marinovski kept Croatian chances alive with his opening lead of the ♣10, which won the trick, and he continued with his second club, covered by jack and queen. Had Vedran Zoric cashed a top diamond at this point, there would have been no story, but the allure of a possible trump promotion was too great to resist. When Zoric continued with the ♣K at trick three, the Polish declarer was in with a chance. Could Piotr Marcinowski (left) take advantage?

Declarer ruffed high, cashed the ♠K, and crossed to dummy with the ♠A. Then came a heart to the jack. Declarer then ran his trumps, and Zoric was in trouble. When the final spade winner was played, Zoric had to discard from ♥K-10 and ♦A-K. Baring his ♥K would allow declarer to cash the ♥A and score his tenth trick with dummy’s ♥Q, so Zoric release one of his high diamonds, Marcinowski now exited with a diamond, endplaying Zoric to lead away from the ♥K at trick 12. A spectacular E/W +590 and 10 IMPs to AZS WRATISLAVIA.

The Poles won the match 40-4, catapulting them to the top of the leader-board, more than 10 VPs clear of the field. At Table 2, FRANCE GREEN scored a narrow won over MARTENS to climb above their opponents into second place.

Down on the bubble for qualification, there are big wins for MORAN and MAVERICKS, ending the hope of BULSTRODE and PARRAGIL respectively. The biggest surprise is BERNAL’s 64-3 drubbing of SANDFIA at Table 4, which drops the previous high-flyers from 7^th place all the way down to 19^th, and out of the qualification places with just one match remaining,

The top teams are all guaranteed a place in the knockout stage, so we turn our attention to one of the battles for survival. And what a clash of titans we have, with ZIMMERMANN GOLD taking on ORCA.

With two-thirds of the boards played, ZIMMERMANN GOLD led 14-6. If the match ended this way, the Bermuda Bowl winners would be in the knockout stage and ORCA would be out in the cold (literally). Both East players were faced with a variation on the last of this week’s problems.

Despite his partner’s weak heart raise, Ola Rimstedt advanced with a 3♦ game try and Mikael duly accepted with a jump to 4♥. That left Piotr Gawrys with the problem posed at the top of this article. Unsure that 4♥ was making and not expecting to make 4♠ when his partner could only compete at the two-level, the double Bermuda Bowl champion saw no reason to bid again.

Gawrys led the ♣K. Declarer won with the ace and immediately led a diamond to the queen. Michal Klukowski won with the ♦A and returned the ♦J. Declarer rose with the king and, when Gawrys followed suit, he claimed ten tricks, losing just a spade and one more diamond. N/S +620.

Erik Berg (right) made his first international appearance in the Norwegian Schools team at the 2004 European Youth Championships. He collected three bronze medals in age-restricted events, from the 2008 World Junior Teams, the 2009 European Junior Teams and at the 2009 European Universities Championships. He made his debut in Norway’s Open team at the 2016 European Championships.

After the same start to the auction, Bas Drijver did not mess around with a game try but jumped directly to 4♥ at his second turn. This was a much more confident-sounding auction than the one at the other table, and Berg chose to believe his opponents and take the save in 4♠.

Drijver started by cashing the ♣A, Sjoert Brink signalling with the ♣10. Now Drijver led the ♥2 to Brink’s king. Had Brink given his partner his club ruff, declarer would eventually have lost a red-suit trick. When Brink instead switched to the ♦Q at trick three, declarer was in with a chance. Peter Crouch won with the ♦A, played a trump to North’s jack and dummy’s ace, and continued with a low spade to his eight. A heart ruffed with the ♠10 then enabled him to repeat the trump finesse and draw South’s last trump. Four club tricks now brought declarer’s tally to ten: N/S -590 and 15 IMPs to ORCA.

A narrow win for ORCA would have left both teams right around the bubble, but ORCA picked another significant swing on the final board of the match. ORCA won 30-14, ensuring their continued progress in the event and eliminating the pre-tournament favourites, The last round did not provide such good news for other British teams hovering around the bubble. BLACK lost to SPAIN, SANDFIA to GREEK JUNIORS, and KNOTTENBELT to DUTCH JUNIORS in Round 12. Those three victorious teams all climbed up into the final qualification spots. The Irish also finished with a disastrous result, MORAN losing 63-18 to drop from 9^th place to out of the top 16.

These were the standings at the end of the three-day qualifier:

The match-ups in the Round of 16 will be:

We will be back soon with the best of the action from those matches.

There is still one more day (four more matches) before the top 16 teams advance to the knockout stage. With a couple of matches remaining, we’ll include those teams fighting to squeeze into the knockout stage on the leader-board.

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