Ron Tacchi reports from Tignes on the finals of the Les Etincelles Cup and GCK Trophy at the fourth Edition of the Winter Games.

The Alpine resort of Tignes was bathed in sunshine as the players assembled to contest the finals of the Les Etincelles Cup and the GCK Trophy. It was a perfect day for winter sports enthusiasts, both outdoors and in.

At the end of a week of hard-fought bridge the medals were awarded to the winning teams. In Les Etincelles Cup the Gold medals went to Orca (Peter Crouch, Erik Berg, Espen Erichsen, Richard Plackett and Ola & Mikael Rimstedt), the Silver medals were presented to Multon (Franck Multon, Kiki Ward-Platt, Giovanni Donati, Giacomo Percario, Nikos Delimpaltadakis, and Vassilis Vroutis) and the Bronze medals were awarded to Vinciguerra (Hervé Vinciguerra, Philippe Soulet, Cédric Lorenzini and Thomas Bessis) and Zimmermann Silver (Jacek Kalita, Fernando Piedra, Michal Kwiecien and Wlodzimierz Starkowski).

The GCK Trophy went to Wigoder (Charles Wigoder, Boye Brogeland, Maciej Dabrowski, Zia Mahmood and Geir Helgemo), second were Zimmermann Gold (Pierre Zimmermann, Sjoert Brink, Bas Drijver, Piotr Gawrys, Michal Klukowski and Michal Nowosadzki) and third Bernal (Francisco Bernal, Agustin Madala, Antonio Sementa and Alfred Versace).

During the first session this deal gave declarer a chance to bring home a delicate contract:

Closed Room:

In the Open Room the contract was 4 Diamonds which just made. West led the Ace of Spades and continued the suit. Declarer needed to play accurately. A Heart from dummy saw East take his Ace and play back another. Declarer took the King, ruffed a Heart, came back to hand with a Club and ruffed another Heart, West having discarded two Clubs. Declarer cashed two top trumps, returned to hand by ruffing a Spade, drew the last trump and claimed. On a Diamond lead, declarer would have had no chance.

In the third session, Board 7 again had a role to play:

Open Room:

South led the ♣9 and declarer won in dummy to lead a Spade to his King taken by South’s Ace. A second Club saw declarer win in dummy discarding a Diamond. A small trump from dummy to the King lost to South’s Ace and another Heart went to North’s Queen. A Diamond from North was taken by declarer who cashed his second Diamond and played a Heart but when the suit failed to break he finished three down.

North led the ♦4 and declarer won with dummy’s Ace and played a Heart for the 4, Jack and Queen. At this point North needed to find a Spade switch, but naturally he continued with the ♦Q and declarer ducked, won the next Diamond in dummy, unblocked the ♣Q and played a Heart. He could not be denied nine tricks and 14 IMPs.

During the GCK trophy, there was a defensive gem.

Open Room:

In the Closed Room EW had stopped in 4♥, scoring +620.

Meanwhile in this Open Room, South led the ♣Q and declarer won with the Ace, played a Spade to the Ace and the ♥2. If North follows with the 10, declarer will win with the Jack, cash the ♥A and have a simple route to twelve tricks.

However, Piotr Tuszynski was not about to go quietly into the night. He played the ♥K and declarer won with the Ace and played a second Heart. Do you blame him for putting in dummy’s 9? North won with the 10 and carefully returned a Club for South to ruff. Now a Diamond switch completed a tremendous defence.

Here are the list of the champions:

If you missed this edition of the Winter Games, make sure you are in Tignes next year, April 15-21!

You can see all results, further information and the Daily Bulletins on the website http://db.eurobridge.org/repository/competitions/23tignes/microsite/Results.htm