We are again in Tignes in southeastern France, at the European Winter Games, where we have reached the quarter-final stage of Les Etincelles Cup. A total of 46 teams set off, but a three-day Swiss and one day of knockout matches have reduced that number to just eight. The draw for the quarter-finals looks like this:

AZS WRATISLAVIA (Poland)       v       ORCA (England/Wales/Sweden/Norway)

VINCIGUERRA (France)               v       WIGODER (England/USA/Norway)

BERNAL (Colombia/Italy)           v       ZIMMERMANN SILVER (Switzerland/Poland)

FRANCE GREEN (France)            v       MULTON (Monaco/USA/Greece/Italy)

The format is 56-board matches divided into four 14-board segments. If yesterday’s Round of 16 matches were anything to go by, buckle up for some exciting matches today.

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

East’s opening shows a weak two bid in one of the majors. What action, if any, do you take?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, an opening lead problem. With only your opponents vulnerable, you hold as North:

What do you lead?

While you mull those over, we begin today’s coverage in the first stanza of what turned out to be a remarkable match between BERNAL and ZIMMERMANN SILVER. Both South players had to decide whether to bid (and, if so, what) on this early deal…

Francisco Bernal opened with a natural, weak 2♥ at this table. Fernando Piedra chose not to take action and Agustin Madala raised to 3♥. When Jacek Kalita came in with a double, Piedra had no easy way to describe his hand other than a jump to 5♣. That was not exactly what Kalita wanted to hear, and he was never likely to find the raise to slam.

Slam in either minor is a good proposition, but not easy to bid after this start. The defence started with two rounds of hearts and declarer was soon claiming twelve tricks. N/S +420.

East started with a Multi here, showing a weak two opening in either major, but the problem for South was effectively the same. Alfredo Versace (left) was not prepared to go quietly, and he overcalled 3♣. Despite the singleton in his partner’s suit, Antonio Sementa effectively drove to slam. N/S +920 and 11 IMPs to BERNAL.

Out of the 14 boards in this set, only three were flat, and yet ZIMMERMAN SILVER failed to register a single IMP in their column. BERNAL led 61-0 at the end of the first stanza. Elsewhere, the Poles led 44-17 against ORCA, WIGODER led by 9 IMPs against VINCIGUERRA, and FRANCE GREEN led MULTON after a 75-48 shoot-out that saw over 120 IMPs exchanged over the 14 boards.

For the second set, we take a look at the action in ORCA v AZS WRATISLAVIA. The Poles went into the stanza ahead by 27, but that lead did not last long. Not that the Polish team did not have chances. Polish bidding may be somewhat pedestrian in terms of systemic development, but their players rarely finish second in the card play stakes, so this deal was somewhat unusual.

The East hand is not the most robust of opening bids, but few players would pass it these days. When Mateusz Sobczak did not come in on his flat 15-count, Peter Crouch dredged up a 1NT response, and Erik Berg’s 2♥ rebid just about ended any chance of the Poles getting into the auction.

The play was nip-and-tuck, with both declarer and the defence having chances to ensure a plus score for their side. In the end, it was the Poles who made the last error, and the Norwegian was allowed to score his eighth trick: N/S -110.

The stakes were even higher in the replay:

Representing his native Norway, Espen Erichsen (right) won the Junior Teams at the 1996 European Youth Championships. He also collected silver medals from the 1995 World Junior Pairs and the 1997 World Junior Teams. Although he has played under the English flag since relocating more than 20 years ago, it was with a primarily Norwegian team that he won the Mixed Teams at the 2005 European Transnational Championships. He reached the semi-finals of the same event in 2013.

Patryk Patreuha also opened on the East hand, but Erichsen was not to be shut out, and Richard Plackett raised his 1NT overcall to game.

Declarer has five diamond tricks, two spades, and he can develop a club trick, but that is still only eight. Most opening leads will beat the contract, and Jakub Patreuha’s ♠10 opening gave declarer nothing. Winning with the ♠Q, Erichsen crossed to dummy in diamonds and played a club to his queen. West won with the ♣A and then needed to find the heart switch that would give the defenders four tricks in that suit. When he instead continued with a second spade, declarer was home. East played the ♠K but Erichsen followed with a low spade. East was endplayed in three suits: whatever he did, would give declarer his ninth trick, either with the ♠9, the ♣10 or the ♥K. An excellent N/S +600 and 12 IMPs to ORCA.

ORCA won the stanza 60-36, so they trailed by only 3 IMPs, 77-80, at the midway point of the match. Elsewhere, BERNAL won the segment 42-32 and thus led ZIMMERMANN SILVER by 71 IMPs, 103-32. In the other two matches, MULTON and VINCIGUERRA had both come from behind to claim halftime leads, by 13 IMPs and 20 IMPs respectively.  

For the third stanza, we concentrate of VINCIGUERRA v WIGODER, and what a shootout it turned out to be. The set began with Brogeland/Wigoder reaching a grand slam on a finesse, and in a 4-3 fit to boot. The finesse worked, so that was 11 IMPs to WIGODER, more than halving the deficit. A couple of boards later came the second of this week’s problems…

The legendary Geir Helgemo (left) needs no introduction. When the auction began with two passes to him at favourable vulnerability, I have no doubt that a number of options occurred to him: perhaps 1♠, 1NT, 2♥…. The one that probably did not feature in the calculations, was Pass. Helgemo settled for opening 1♥ on his flat 6-count. When that got past Philippe Soulet in the East seat, Zia advanced with a Drury 2♣, showing a constructive heart raise or better. Of course, Geir retreated to 2♥ and, perhaps surprisingly, bought the contract there.

Even the great maestro cannot make bricks with water alone, and Helgemo simply didn’t have enough straw on this deal, so he finished one down. E/W +50.

The question is, “what can E/W make?” 3NT seems to suffer from having four clubs and a heart to lose on top. Perhaps 4♠ on the Moysian fit is the best spot, with nine top tricks and a possible club ruff in the short trump hand. The defenders have to lead either trumps or diamonds to hold declarer to nine tricks in a spade contract.

Cedric Lorenzini also opened 1♥ on the North hand, but Charles Wigoder climbed in with a 2♦ overcall to get his side into the auction. Having toyed with the spade game, Boye Brogeland finally directed his partner into 3NT.

To prove that when you live by the sword you will sometimes inevitably die by it too, we now see the downside to the 1♥ opening. Had North simply passed and E/W bid to 3NT, South would have an obvious club lead and the contract would be a quick one down. On this auction, Thomas Bessis understandably started with a low heart. Of course, declarer won with the ♥K and claimed his ten tricks: E/W +630 and another 11 IMPs to WIGODER, now ahead by 2 IMPs.

The French rallied later in the set, but WIGODER won a high-scoring stanza 53-39. They would go into the last set down by only 6 IMPs, 110-104, The other big story in the third set was a massive recovery by ZIMMERMANN SILVER, who won the stanza 69-9. Having been all-but dead and buried at halftime, they now trail BERNAL by only 11 IMPs, 101-112. In the other matches, MULTON leads FRANCE GREEN by 14 IMPs, whilst ORCA now hold a 50-IMP advantage over the Poles.

Let’s join the BERNAL v ZIMMERMANN SILVER match for the final set. At the midway point of the set, ZIMMERMAN has outscored BERNAL 9-8 to leave the deficit at 10 IMPs. Then came the opening lead problem posed at the top of this article.

Do you lead partner’s suit on this auction, or are you tempted by your diamond holding?

Jacek Kalita (right) assured himself of the moral high-ground in the post-mortem by starting with the ♠5, which turned out to be good news for the defence on a deal that is a classic no-trump race. Theoretically, declarer has nine tricks, but he has to knock out stoppers in three different suits. This means that, on a spade lead, South is able to establish his spade winners before declarer can make his nine tricks.  E/W -100.

In essentially the same situation except that East’s opening bid had been 1♦ rather than 1♣, Antonio Sementa kicked off with the ♦2. Alfredo Versace captured dummy’s queen with the ♦A and switched to a low heart. Wlodzimierz Starkowski won with the ♥K and led a diamond towards dummy.  Sementa went in with the ♦K and played a second heart, Versace winning with the ♥A and playing a third heart to establish a winner in the suit for the defence.

Versace had thrown a spade on the second round of diamonds. He could afford a club when declarer cashed one of his diamond winners, but he had no good option when the next diamond was played. At the table, he threw a second spade, so declarer scored four spade tricks to go with two in each red suit and the ♣A. If, instead, Versace had thrown his heart, declarer simply plays four rounds of spades, endplaying South to lead away from the ♣K at trick 12. Either way, declarer was destined to make nine tricks after the opening lead: E/W +600 and 12 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN SILVER.

That put the ZIMMERMANN team 2 IMPs ahead with six boards left, a remarkable turn around from 71 IMPs down with 28 boards remaining. It was a lead they were never to relinquish and they won the final stanza 44-15 and the match by a relatively comfortable-looking 145-127.

There were the final scores in the quarter-final matches:

ORCA                                     163-127      AZS WRATISLAVIA

ZIMMERMANN SILVER     145-127      BERNAL

VINCIGUERRA          166-107      WIGODER

MULTON                      188-176      FRANCE GREEN

These are the match-ups for the semi-finals:

ORCA                  v       VINCIGUERRA

MULTON            v       ZIMMERMANN SILVER

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