We are in the city of Sopot, on the Baltic coast of northern Poland, for the 2023 World Bridge Tour Masters event. The 12-team field includes many of the best players in Europe. The format is a complete round-robin of 20-board matches split into two 10-board segments. At the end of the 11 rounds, the top four teams will play semi-finals and final for the title. The other two groups of four will play off for minor places.

After eight of eleven matches in the round robin stage, the Norwegians have won all eight matches and lead the field by more than a match.

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with neither side vulnerable, you are sitting in the East seat with:

What do you bid?

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

What do you bid?

Finally, with both sides vulnerable, you are South with these cards:

What do you hid?

While you consider those, we begin with a Round 9 meeting between the two all-Polish teams currently lying in second and third places, NAWROT v AZS WRATISLAVIA. Those watching live on BBO VuGraph were still finding their seats and getting their coffee when action kicked off. On the very first deal of the match, both East players had to decide what to do on the first of the problems above.

Patryk Patreuha (left) chose to show positive values (not having gone through Lebensohl 2NT) with a non-forcing 3♦ response to his partner’s takeout double of 2♠. Perhaps a little better than he might have been, is this hand really worth more? When Jakub Patreuha then jumped to 4♥, Patryk put down dummy.

Piotr Wiankowski led his singleton diamond, which did declarer no harm. Cashing the ♥A and continuing with the ♥Q removed North’s trumps and any danger of a diamond ruff. Declarer eventually lost two trumps and the ♣A. E/W +420.

Yes, 6♦ can be made, if declarer gets the trumps right, but there is quite a bit of work to do (as he also has to ruff a club in the short trump hand). However, you might just as easily go down in slam by playing for trumps to break 2-2.

They seemed to be on the way to that contract at the other table…

After the same start, Anna Sarniak decided that her hand was too good for a non-forcing response, so she began with a 3♠ cue-bid. When Danuta Kazmucha bid the inevitable 4♥, Sarniak bid her diamonds. Passing would have flattened the board more or less, whilst raising to 6♦ would have given Sarniak a chance to win the board as declarer. When Kazmucha instead chose to bid slam in her own suit, her fate was sealed. 6♥ had no chance at all, and South had an easy double too. E/W -300 and 12 IMPs to AZS WRATISLAVIA to open the match,

The very next deal was another bidding test for the same two pairs. The brothers’ auction began as shown in the second of this week’s problems…

With a void in the suit partner opened, is this West hand worth any more than a jump to game? “No”, said Patryk Patreuha.

Dummy came down with a fairly minimum opening but, crucially, virtually no wastage in diamonds. Slam was good, needing little more than one of the two major-suit finesses even if North finds a heart lead. E/W +480.

With most of her high-card points packed into her short suits, one of Poland’s multiple-European Women’s champion, Anna Sarniak (right), chose to open 1NT on the East hand. When Danuta Kazmucha transferred to spades, Sarniak jumped to 3♠ to show her good fit (and perhaps also a minimum, with all bids in between 2♠ and 3♠ available to show maximum openings with a good fit). A series of cue-bids followed and Sarniak’s 5♥ bid, denying a diamond control, was exactly what Kazmucha wanted to hear. Played from the East side, 6♠ is cold on just about any layout. Well bid, ladies!

South led a club, so Sarniak won and played a trump to the ace. She could now claim, conceding just a trick to the ♠K. The ♥Q would go on one of dummy’s club winners and she could then ruff two hearts in her hand. E/W +980 and 11 IMPs to NAWROT.

NAWROT won the first half 47-20, and the match 60-35 after a quiet second half. That consolidated their hold on second place as SKEIDAR suffer their first defeat of the event, losing 23-35 to BUBBLE. Both APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS and DE BOTTON won and climbed ahead of AZS WRATISLAVIA into the top four.

Two matches remaining… The VuGraph match for this penultimate round is the leaders, SKEIDAR, against fourth-placed DE BOTTON.

DE BOTTON’s Norwegian contingent at this all-Viking table conducted an efficient auction to the top spot. Thomas Charlsen (left) opened 1♥ and then reversed into clubs over the game-forcing 2♦ response. Thor Erik Hoftaniska chose to advance with 3♥ now. Charlsen bid out his shape and Hoftaniska showed a diamond control but, with two losing spades, Charlsen was not tempted to venture beyond game.

The defenders cashed their two high spades and switched to a club. Declarer duly drew trumps and claimed the rest: N/S +450.

After the same start, Stian Evenstad rebid his diamonds. Nicolai Heiberg-Evenstad (they are father and son) kept things going with a fourth-suit grope, and then had to decide what to do when his partner essayed 4♥. The youngster elected to make one more try with 5♣. When Evenstad could bid no more than 5♦, it was probably time to give up, but youthful optimism took over and Heiberg raised to slam. Here, too, the defenders started with two top spades: N/S -50 and 11 vital IMPs to DE BOTTON, who won a tight encounter 30-24. With APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS losing 23-47 to NAWROT. That small win was enough to lift the English flag up into third place

This was the top of the leader-board with one match remaining:

The top two could be sure of a place in the semi-finals, but there was a four-way battle for the two remaining spots. The advantage certainly lay with the two teams currently occupying qualifying places, not only because of the extra VPs they have already scored, but because their final matches would be against teams near the bottom of the table. AZS WRATISLAVIA seemed to have the toughest task, as they had to play the leaders, whilst BLACK took on BUBBLE.

The VuGraph match was SKEIDAR v AZS WRATISLAVIA, with the Poles needing a big win to have any chance. Things did not get off to a good start for them, as both South players had to answer the last of this week’s problems.

Piotr Macinowski (right) began his international career as a member of the Polish Schools team at the 2013 European Youth Championships. After a number of close calls, finishing fourth or fifth, he earned a bronze medal at the 2017 European Junior Teams. He also won bronze in the BAM Teams at the 2020 European Winter Games. He made his debut in the Polish Open team that played the 2021 European online qualifying event.

How highly do you value this ace-less, shape-less South hand facing a 15-17 1NT opening? For the Poles, Marcinowski decided that it was worth no more than a raise to game. With spades breaking 4-2 and the club finesse failing, he was right in that there were only 11 tricks in no-trumps. N/S +660.

For the Norwegians, Nicolai Heiberg deemed the South hand worthy of a quantitative raise to 4NT. Looking at that North hand, it is clearly very slam suitable but, with aces and no filling, it screams suit play rather than no-trumps. The key bid in the auction was, therefore, the 5NT by Stian Evenstad (left), accepting the slam try but suggesting alternative strains. When Heiberg offered clubs, Evanstad was more than happy to put down dummy. Well bid!

The club contract has the same 11 high-card tricks that can be made in no-trumps, and the heart ruff in dummy was declarer’s twelfth trick. N/S +1370 and 12 IMPs to SKEIDAR.

Despite this setback, AZS WRATISLAVIA led 42-21 at halftime. However, the Norwegians stormed back in the second half and, although they recorded their third straight loss, the margin was only 61-67. That was enough to keep the Norwegians in first place, but not enough to get the Poles into the top four.

Elsewhere, NAWROT also lost (43-58 to MORAN) but they also retained their place. Behind them, a huge win for APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS (106-18 against THE WINNER) saw them qualifying comfortably in third place. Despite a win for BLACK, DE BOTTON also did enough to remain in the top four, beating SPS CONSTRUCTION 59-51.

The semi-final match-up will be SKEIDER v NAWROT and APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS against DE BOTTON. Matches will be 28 boards split into two segments.

We will be back in Sopot to bring you the best of the action from the semi-final and final.