It was perhaps appropriate that the final of the Open Teams between France Green and Vinciguerra featured French stars past and present. It proved to be a classic encounter with some memorable deals.

Here are two masterpieces from the second session:

It looks as if East decided to treat his hand as balanced, employing the Kokish relay. Once the Heart fit came to light, it was very difficult to avoid the doomed slam.

South led the ♠A and continued the suit and the contract was soon two down, -100.

What spectacular bidding!

South led the ♠A and continued the suit, declarer ruffing with the ♣K, cashing the ♣A and then playing two more rounds of Clubs. He then took the top Hearts, just in case either defender had started with five Diamonds and at least three Hearts. No squeeze was needed. A magnificent +920 and 14 IMPs to France Green.

East led two top Diamonds and declare ruffed in dummy, came to hand with a Spade and led a Heart, collecting East’s Ace. He was soon chalking up +450.

With North resisting any temptation to open 3♣ the auction was less eventful.

East led the ♥A and then switched to the ♦3! When declarer could not beat West’s ♦9, it was not difficult to work out what was going on and a Heart return put paid to the contract, -50 and 11 IMPs to France Green.

By the time, the teams had played 46 of the 56 deals and the scores were tied, 90-90!

When North led the ♣Q EW could be happy they had avoided the slam, +650.

Although South sounded a warning note with his double West’s singleton meant he was not too concerned. However, there were only 11 tricks once North led the ♣Q and 13 IMPs changed hands.

That was the biggest swing of a final session that was dominated by Vinciguerra, the new European Transnational Open Teams Champions!

Quotes

Thomas Bessis: "I was playing with a guy who could not lose this week!"

Cédric Lorenzini: "I played my first ever tournament in Strasbourg 25 years ago. For me it was like playing at home."

Franck Multon: "We were very lucky, our opponents played really well."

Sabine Auken: "Roy is always right, especially when it comes to choosing champagne!"

Roy Welland: "It was a really tough competition."

Boye Brogeland: "I’m very happy we are still able to play with cards!"

Pepsi: "It was great to win such a tough competition".

Gold

Vinciguerra

Thomas Bessis, Marc Bompis, Cedric Lorenzini, Franck Multon, Philippe Soulet, Herve Vinciguerra.

Silver

France Green

Julien Bernard, Alain Lévy, Nicolas Lhuissier, Erick Mauberquez, Jérôme Rombaut, Léo Rombaut.

Bronze

Vinci

Giovanni Donati, Giorgio Duboin, Fabrizio Hugony, Lorenzo Lauria, Alfredo Versace, Francesco Saverio Vinci, Alessandro Piana (npc).

Lankveld

Wubbo De Boer, Agnes Snellers, Berend Van Den Bos, Joris Van Lankveld.

In the Open Pairs Final, Sabine Auken and Roy Welland became the first pair to win this event twice, having also won in 2013. Eliran Argelazie and Lee Rosenthal took silver and Boye Brogeland and Christian Bakke bronze.

In the Women’s Pairs Dilek Yavas and Hatice Ozgur took the title ahead of Cathy & Sophia Baldysz followed by Fiona Brown and Helen Erichsen.

The winners of the Open/Women Final B were Ahu Zobu and Mustafa Akhun.

The BAM went to Pepsi, Nikos Delimpaltadakis, Andrzej Jaszczak, JacekPszczola, Vassilis Vroustis & Kiki Ward-Platt, with France Purple, Jean-LucAroix, Bénédicte Cronier, Philippe Cronier, Wilfried Librecht, Franck Riehm & Jeremie Tignel second and Daisy Chain, Hilda Setton, Quentin Robert, Pierre Franceschetti, Augustin Madala & Dennis Bilde third.