Welcome to Strasbourg. Located on the French border with Germany in the historic Alsace region, it is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France. Roughly the size of Lincoln NE and Anchorage AK, the city is probably best-known as the official seat of the European Parliament. Accustomed to being packed with the most senior politicians from across the European Union, for the next two weeks its cafes and restaurants will be filled with people whose sentences all seem to start with the phrase, “You hold…”. The continent’s best bridge players have all come to town, as well as a few notable visitors from further afield.

The first week of the championships will feature the Mixed and Seniors teams events. The Open and Women’s Teams will take place over the second week. The Mixed Teams has attracted a bumper entry of 69 teams. The format is a two-day Swiss qualifier over 10 rounds of 10-board matches, from which 32 teams will advance to the knockout stage.

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

You make a penalty double of West’s 15-17 1NT opening. What action, if any, do you then take when West removes to 2♠?

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you are South holding:

Your 1NT was 15-17. North’s 3♦ bid is a transfer, showing invitational or better values with at least five hearts. What action, if any, do you take now?

Finally, with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting in the South seat with:

Partner’s 1♦ opening almost always shows a five-card suit, and your 1NT response is a game-forcing relay. The double of 4♠ shows short spades. What action, if any, do you take?

While you contemplate what you would do on those, we start in the opening round of the Swiss, with a match featuring the current World Mixed Teams champions. This is the truly transnational FERM (USA/Netherlands/Switzerland/Germany/Denmark) against CBL, a Portuguese team led by the winner of the BBO Bidding competition in March, Pedro Gonçalves.

The match began with both North players in what looked like a fairly straightforward 4♠ contract… Straightforward, that is, until trumps broke 5-0.

Bas Drijver led the ♠10, revealing the bad break immediately. Alexandra Rosado started on a winning line, cashing the ♦A and ruffing a diamond in dummy. When she then cashed both top hearts and tried to ruff a heart with the ♠6, East overruffed and played a club to his partner’s ace. Christina Lund Madsen continued with the ♥Q. Declarer could not gain by ruffing, so she pitched a losing diamond. With three tricks in the bag, Madsen simply played a diamond for her partner to ruff. N/S -50.

Barbara Ferm (left) made her international debut in the Mixed Teams at this event in 2017, reaching the Last 16 on that occasion. She has since played in two World Championships with the same team as she has here in Strasbourg, winning bronze medals in 2018 in Orlando, and gold in Wroclaw last year.

She reached 4♠ after the same auction. Manuel D’Orey Capucho led a club to the ace, and Maria Joao Lara returned a second club. Ferm ruffed and laid down the ♠A to get the bad news. She drew a second round of trumps, crossed to the ♥A, and then played a diamond to the ace and ruffed a diamond, bringing down East’s honours. After cashing the ♥K, Ferm then made the key play of running the ♣Q, throwing a diamond loser from her hand. East won with ♣K but had only black cards left. He exited with a trump but that only delayed the inevitable. Ferm won, cashed her last trump winner, and then advanced the winning ♦J. What could East do? If he didn’t ruff, the diamond would be declarer’s tenth trick. So, he ruffed, but then had to concede the last trick to the ♣J in dummy. An excellent N/S +420 and 10 IMPs to FERM.

The World Champions got their campaign off to a winning start with a 34-6 victory.

Four teams scored maximum 20-0 wins in their opening match, and we join two of them for their Round 2 meeting: it is Cedric Lorenzini’s French Turnips against Janet de Botton’s Anglo-Norwegians. For anyone who thinks I am being rude about the French team, it is important to note the importance of capitalization. In a recent interview with Cedric (pictured right) for the upcoming edition of “World Class”, he explained that his team names are all always something you can eat (Carrots, Broccoli, and his regular Alt team, Peanuts). If I had instead said “Cedric Lorenzini’s French turnips”, that could indeed have been considered a derogatory English description of my friend’s choice of teammates. 😊

Artur Malinowski opened 1♠ on the West hand, and Lorenzini adopted a pragmatic approach, simply overcalling 4♥ facing a passed partner. Unfortunately, the play records are incomplete, simply showing declarer claiming eleven tricks after a spade lead at trick one. It would seem that declarer has only one entry to dummy to take two minor-suit finesses, and can therefore only come to ten tricks without help from the defence. N/S +450.

It is a rarity indeed for Thor Erik Hoftaniska to be found on the musculus side of a man versus mouse debate…

For the French, Donatella Halfon opened 1NT on the West hand. Hoftaniska had a penalty double available, so he began with that, but Halfon retreated to 2♠ when the double was passed back to her. With the worm having wriggled off the hook, Hoftaniska was now faced with the first of this week’s problem. His choice was to bid his strong seven-card suit, but only at the three-level. Is Gunn Tove Vist really supposed to raise with her flat 4-count? That’s a tough ask!

Here the defenders did manage to come to their three tricks and it earned them an extra IMP: N/S +170 and 7 IMPs to TURNIPS to get the ball rolling.

The French had the best of the early action, but a slam swing on the final deal meant that TURNIPS won the match by just 3 IMPs (21-18), so both teams dropped a handful of places behind the early leaders.

Moving on to the second day, we take a look at a match featuring two more possible contenders for the title: KNOTTENBELT v SPARKLING VINTAGES. These teams come into this match with around 80 VPs from their first six matches, so both appear to be well-placed to make it into the draw for knockout stage when play finishes at the end of the second day. But, England v Germany is always a big match, whatever the sport, even though the ‘Germany’ in this case is a pair of Germans augmented by a Danish quartet (chamber music after the bridge, perhaps). Sabine Auken and Roy Welland arrived in Strasbourg in fine form, having come directly from northern Poland, where they won the World Bridge Tour 2023 Masters Teams event in a thrilling finale. Who would bet against them hanging around until the end of this one too?

After three passes, Roy Welland (left) downgraded his hand to a 15-17 1NT. West’s 2♠ overcall was alerted, so perhaps it showed spades and a minor. Either way, it looks like a ‘brave’ bid, vulnerable opposite a partner who could not open in third seat. Auken showed an invitational or better hand with at least five hearts with her 3♦ transfer, and East’s jump to 4♠ then left Welland with the second of this week’s problems.

Looking at both the North and South hands, eleven tricks in hearts looks ambitious, and you would surely prefer to defend 4♠-X and take your certain plus score, be it +200 or +500. But, Welland did not have that luxury. Having downgraded his hand initially and with half of his high cards in his partner’s long suit, Welland chose offense.

With an almost certain club loser, the contract appeared to depend on playing diamonds for one loser. Welland ruffed the spade lead, crossed to his hand in trumps, and played a diamond to the nine. When East won with the ♦10 and returned the ♣Q, things looked bleak for declarer. Welland won the club switch and played a second round of diamonds, ducking when West followed with the king. He ruffed the spade continuation and it looks as if all lines of play will lead to one down from here. Of course, the ultra-favourable club position rode to Welland’s last-gasp rescue and thus it was zero to hero in one easy lesson: N/S +650.

Personally, I’d rather have the +500 available from 4♠-X. At the other table, the Danes did not offer that as an option:

Fiona Brown decided that the South hand was too strong for a 15-17 1NT, so she started with 1♣. Peter Schaltz overcalled 1♠ and Dorthe Schaltz (right) made a tactical raise to only 2♠ after Michael Byrne’s negative double. Brown showed her extra values with a double and Byrne responded in hearts. Dorthe Schaltz had made it hard for Brown to envision her partner’s hand – surely he would hold a couple of losing spades and the South hand is a seven-loser hand, despite its 18 HCP. Thanks to the club position, Byrne also made eleven tricks: N/S +200 and 10 IMPs to SPARKLING VINTAGES.

Fiona Brown (left) forced to game with her 2♣ response and then doubled when the auction came back to her at the four-level. With both the ♦A and the ♣K onside, it seems that declarer might overcome the bad trump break in 4♥, but there is certainly a lot of work to do, so the profitability of the sacrifice is unclear. Declarer in 4♠-X lost the obvious five tricks: N/S +300.

Auken opened 1♦ which almost always shows a five-card suit, and Welland showed a game-forcing hand with his 1NT response. The double of Maggie Knottenbelt’s 4♠ overcall then showed short spades and posed the last of this week's problems.

What does this South hand have going for it offensively? Yes, you hold good support for both of the other suits partner is suggesting. However, you have short diamonds and you are minimum for your original game-force, and sub-minimum with your spade values worthless on offence. Given to a bidding panel, I would expect a majority in favour of defending, but Welland opted to declare and advanced with 5♣.

Knottenbelt led her singleton heart and declarer rose with the ♥A in order to start trumps from dummy. The only real chance seems to be to find West with ♣10-x. The ♣Q won the first round of trumps and Welland duly continued with the jack, covered by king and ace, but there was no sign of the ten. With two aces missing and a trump to be lost, things seem hopeless.

Declarer led a diamond to the king, then advanced the ♥10, covered by jack and queen, before exiting with the ♠K. Knottenbelt won with the ♠A and exited safely with a spade. Declarer needed to repeat the marked heart finesse, so he ruffed his spade winner in order to do so. Back in hand, Welland ‘exited’ with a second round of diamonds. However, a wheel fell of the English bandwagon when West again followed with a low diamond. Declarer rose with the ♦Q and duly made his contract. N/S +600 and yet another 7 IMPs to SPARKLING VINTAGES.

This is looking like an England team lacking a Michael Owen, a Gary Lineker or an Alan Shearer – despite much endeavour there is no one to actually put the ball in the net. SPARKLING VINTAGES won 33-6 and took a large step towards ensuring their place when the knockout stage begins tomorrow. For KNOTTENBELT, there are still three matches to play, and plenty of time to bring Harry Kane off the bench. On the other side, perhaps we should dub Roy Welland “Farmer Roy” – despite spending the whole day knee-deep, he always seemed to come up smelling of roses.

We will be back in Strasbourg soon to bring you the best of the action from the opening matches in the knockout stage of the Mixed Teams.