We are in Chicago, Illinois for the 2023 U.S. Summer Nationals, where the Spingold Knockout Teams are now underway. We saw the best of the action from the Round of 64, which (unusually) saw all of the Top 16 seeds surviving. Normality was surely set to return, and it did, with the Round of 32 bowling ball sailing straight down the middle of the lane and sending five of that illustrious group for an early shower.

All matches are 60 boards divided into four 15-board stanzas. Let’s check out some of the action.

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with both sided vulnerable, you are South holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with neither side vulnerable, you are sitting in the South seat with:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we start in the opening stanza of a match featuring #34 ROMBAUT (France). In the previous round, we saw them in action against the #31 seeds, but now they find themselves with a much sterner test as they are pitted against the mighty #2 NICKELL. This early board provided plenty of potential for a swing.

Jean-Luc Aroix (left) made his first international appearance at the 1989 European Pairs in Salsomaggiore. More recently, he was a member of the French team that collected silver medals from the Open BAM Teams at the European Transnational Championships a few weeks ago.

On this deal, Aroix heard Geoff Hampson open with a Strong Club on his right and, despite the vulnerability, he stuck it to Eric Greco with a full-blooded jump to 4♠. Left to guess a contract, Greco had enough shape to take his chances in 5♦, but the excellent 6♥ was never in the picture after this start.

Could Jeremie Tignel find the heart lead to get the French an unlikely plus score on the deal? Not without a Lightner double from his partner. He started with the ♠A and, in response to North’s suit-preference signal, switched to a heart for Aroix to ruff to save the overtrick. It was hard to tell just how good E/W +600 was, but it was surely ‘Advantage France’.

For the French, Leo Rombaut started with a natural 1♥ opening. Although perhaps less attractive after this start, Steve Weinstein also pre-empted to the maximum with 4♠. Jerome Rombaut (right) could do no more than compete to the five-level, which left Bobby Levin with the first of this week’s problems. We have observed before that saving on balanced hands is always fraught with danger, as the penalty is often higher than you might expect, and that is exactly how things panned out on this deal.

Jerome led a top diamond against 5♠-X, got a count signal, and cashed his second diamond winner. He then switched to his singleton club so that his son could take three winners in the suit and give him a fourth-round club ruff. The defence had taken the first six tricks and declarer was left with his trump winners at the end: E/W +1100 and 11 IMPs to ROMBAUT.

The French were out of the traps like greyhounds and led 35-0 after just five deals. At the end of the first stanza, they were ahead by a score of 59-8. A big upset in the making, perhaps!

For the second stanza, we’ll take a second look at another team we saw in action in the previous round. This is #36 DINKIN (USA/Canada/Denmark/Poland/Israel), who had already defeated two higher-seeded teams to get to this stage. However, their opponents today, #4 FLEISHER (USA/Italy/France), are perhaps in a different league to those previous opponents. FLEISHER led 35-5 after the first set. This early deal would probably prove too difficult for most pairs, and yet the French stars made it look simple.

With a combined 25 HCP and 5-3 major-suit fit, I suspect that 4♠ would be a popular contract if the deal was played in a large field of top-class pairs. The problem was that the contract had little play. “That’s okay, they’ll be in it at the other table,” most players would think, and they would often be right.

Chip Martel led the ♥7 to ten, queen and ace. Declarer started trumps but, when North showed out on the second round, he had to abandon that plan. Martel won the first round of clubs with the ace and played a second heart. Marty Fleisher won with the ♥9 and continued with the ♥K, declarer ruffing high. With South now holding the same trump length, declarer tried running the ♦J, but Fleisher won with the ♦Q and exited with a club. Declarer could draw trumps and cash one more club winner but, when North later showed up with the ♦10, Lahrmann was two down. E/W -200.

A member of the BBO expert bidding panel, Cedric Lorenzini (left) completed a wonderful double at the European Transnational Championships in Strasbourg a few weeks ago, winning both the Mixed Teams and the Open Teams. Lorenzini and French superstar Thomas Bessis made light work of this deal.

Lorenzini responded to his partner’s 1♠ opening with a natural 2NT. Krzysztof Jassem overalled in hearts and Bessis closed the auction with a raise to the no-trump game.

Although Lorenzini is far from the fastest player in the world (or, probably, even in his own family – how’s fatherhood going, Cedric?), it did not take him long to play this deal. Jassem led the ♥K to the ace and Lorenzini started on clubs immediately. Patrick Patreuha took the ♣A and played a heart through declarer, but the J-10 provided Lorenzini with a second stopper. He had five spades, two heart and two clubs. A most impressive E/W +600 and 13 IMPs to FLEISHER.

FLEISHER won the second stanza 40-16 and thus led by 54 at halftime. They would eventually run out comfortable winners, 155-71.

Let’s check in again with the match between NICKELL and ROMBAUT. After the huge first set from the French, NICKELL won the second stanza 63-16 to trail by only 14 IMPs (75-61) at the midway point. With two deals remaining in the third stanza, the match score had advanced to 104-91 in favour of the French. Then came…

The auction above, as shown in the VuGraph records, is clearly rubbish. It appears that Steve Weinstein passed the East hand and the French pair then bid unopposed to a fairly normal game contract. Aroix made 11 tricks: N/S +460.

Fortunately, the action was at the other table.

Ralph Katz (left) made his international debut in the 1982 Rosenblum Cup in Biarritz. He finished second in the 1990 World Open Pairs partnering Peter Nagy. As a member of the USA Open team, he earned a bronze medal at the 2000 World Team Olympiad and a silver at the 2007 Bermuda Bowl. Katz has been the regular partner for Nick Nickell since the loss of Richard Freeman in 2009, and he won the 2009 Bermuda Bowl in his first major championship as part of the Nickell team. Their most recent success was victory in the 2022 Rosenblum Cup in Wroclaw.

The French East began with what looks like a normal 2♠ opening and Katz started with a double on his monster hand. When Nickell showed values with a direct 3♦ response (no Lebensohl 2NT), Katz took a shot at slam.

Now the spotlight fell on Pierre Franceschetti. Could he find the killing heart lead? He got halfway there in that he chose a Q-x-x holding to lead from, but he guessed wrong and opened the ♣2. Nickell won and cashed two high trumps. West had a trump trick, but declarer had time to discard his heart loser on the third round of spades. N/S +920 and 10 IMPs to NICKELL.

When NICKELL gained another 10 IMPs on the last board of the set, they were again right back in the match, trailing just 101-103 with 15 boards to play. However, the French held their nerve and completed the upset by winning that final set 32-14 to advance with a notable 20-IMP victory.

We conclude this visit to Chicago with the dramatic ending of a match that was close throughout. At the midway point, #14 BREMARK (Sweden/Portugal) led #19 CAYNE (Netherlands/USA/England) 69-64. At the end of the third set, CAYNE had nosed ahead, 94-81. After the first six deal of the final set, BREMARK had established a 22-IMP lead, 121-99, but CAYNE was not done yet. With four boards to play, they had regained the lead, 129-123. Then came three flat boards, so the mainly-Dutch team clung to a 6-IMP advantage when the final deal of the match arrived at the tables. Of course, this was to be no flat 1NT hand, and both South players found themselves faced with this week’s final problem…

Frederic Wrang (left) made his first international appearance in the Swedish Junior team at the 1984 European Youth Championships. He made his debut in his country’s Open team at the 2008 European Team Championships. He has collected a number of medals from international events, most recently silver in the Open Teams at the 2018 European Winter Games, bronze in the Open Pairs at the 2019 European Transnational Championships playing with Gunnar Hallberg, and silver in the Rosenblum Cup at the 2022 World Series in Wroclaw.

On this deal, Bob Drijver opened 4♣ on the East cards and Wrang chose not to come in on the South hand. When Antonio Palma balanced with 4♠ in the pass out seat, Wrang passed again.

Drijver led the ♥5 around to declarer’s queen. The ♠A and a second round of spades to dummy’s queen picked up the trumps, and declarer was not hard-pressed to make the rest of the tricks from that point. N/S +510 did not, perhaps, look like a result that was likely to close the 6-IMP deficit, but one can never tell.

Danny Molenaar (right) began a decade-long run as a youth international in the Dutch Schools team at the 2000 European Youth Championships. He won a bronze medal in the European Schools Teams in 2004. He made his debut in the Dutch Open team at the 2018 European Team Championships. In between, he won the Open Teams at the 2015 European Transnational Championships and he was a member of the winning Dutch team at the 2017 European Champions Cup.

After the same start, Molenaar overcalled 4♥ on the South hand, and Tim Verbeek advanced with a pick-a-slam jump to 5NT. Molenaar marked time with 6♣, suggesting a willingness to play a suit other than hearts. Johan Upmark doubled and now Verbeek bid 6♥, presumably intending it as offering a choice between the majors. Perhaps Molenaar was not 100% sure that’s what his partner was doing. Maybe he thought that if his partner was offering a choice, his hearts were good enough to play in that suit. Certainly, this is not a common auction, even for the most experienced players.

Upmark led the ♣A and switched to a trump at trick two. When he eventually got in with the ♥J, he was able to score a second club trick for the defence for two down. N/S -100 and a decisive 12 IMPs to BREMARK, who squeaked through to the next round with a 6-IMP victory. Had the Dutch found their way to spades rather than hearts on the last deal, it would have been them who were still playing tomorrow.

In addition to #2 NICKELL, four more of the Top 16 seeds also bit the dust in this round. #9 AMOILS, #10 BAILEY, #12 DELIMPALTADAKIS and #13 GOODMAN were all ousted by lower-ranked teams. Tomorrow, of course, the top 16 must start playing against each other, but your can still expect plenty of surprising results.

We will be back soon with the best of the action and news of the upsets from the Round of 16.