This is our last visit to Chicago for the 2023 U.S. Summer Nationals. Just two teams remain standing in the prestigious Spingold Knockout Teams. The final will be between #14 BREMARK (Sweden/Portugal) and #4 FLEISHER (USA/Italy/France). With Sweden’s Simon Hult and Frenchman Cedric Lorenzini on opposite sides, I am delighted to report that the BBO expert bidding panel is guaranteed a member in the winning team. With both teams packed with world-class players, those watching live on BBO VuGraph can settle in for some excellent bridge. The format is a 60-board match divided into four 15-board stanzas.

As usual, we start with a couple of problems. Firstly, with only your side vulnerable, you are North holding:

East’s 2♦ opening shows a weak two in one of the majors. What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting in the East seat with:

North’s 2♥ bid is alerted and described as natural, but fairly strong as he could also bid 2♦ showing a weaker major single-suited. What do you bid?

Finally, with neither side vulnerable, you hold in the East chair:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we start with an early bidding test for the E/W pairs.

Strong Club systems usually handle distributional slam hands better than natural methods, but this combination seemed to cause all sorts of problems for the Swedes. Johan Upmark provided plenty of information in response to his partner’s relays, but the one thing that Frederik Nystrom never seemed to uncover was the huge spade fit that his partner held. Declarer just lost the ♥A: E/W +680.

Let’s see how the Italians’ natural methods fared.

Well, that was quick. As soon as Antonio Sementa found out about his partner’s spade support, he rolled out Exclusion Blackwood, and bid the excellent slam when there was only one relevant key-card missing. Easy game! E/W +1430 and 13 IMPs to FLEISHER. At the end of a nip-and-tuck opening stanza, BREMARK led 31-30.

The Great Dealer must have saved the second set of boards for a special occasion. There were six double-digit exchanges, including four slam swings (two of those grand slam swings). Early in the set, both North players were faced with the unusual situation posed in the first of this week’s problems above.

In most defensive methods against the Multi, an immediate double of 2♦ would show either 12-15 balanced or a very strong hand. However, there are still some quite good hands on which South might have to pass 2♦. For example, with a three-suited hand short in one major, South might pass to allow East to reveal his suit, so that he can then describe his hand easily with a takeout double. Even so, Thomas Bessis (left) decided that he was not going to be tempted in on the North hand.

With both red-suit finesses working for declarer, only a club lead (an unlikely choice from the South hand) would have held Frederic Wrang to ten tricks in diamonds. E/W +150.

Chip Martel also opened with a Multi, and Marty Fleisher (right) made the same pass on the West cards. With a possible vulnerable game bonus up for grabs, Simon Hult decided that he was not prepared to be hood-winked by opponents playing for 50s. Indeed, at these colours, there was no guarantee that Fleisher even held diamonds. So, Hult backed in with a double.

With something approaching an opening bid, more than adequate stoppers in both majors and the ♦K to protect from the opening lead, is Leif Bremark’s jump to 3NT such an unreasonable choice?

Fleisher’s double was perhaps the first inkling the Swedes got that they had done too much on these cards. Not that there was anywhere cheap for them to go from here. (Even 4-♠X is -800.)

A heart lead (or the ♠K and a heart switch) would have restricted declarer to just two tricks, but there was no need for the American pair to be greedy. Fleisher led the ♦A and a second diamond to declarer’s king. After capturing the ♣J with the ace at trick three, Fleisher unleashed an avalanche of diamond winners.  After the defenders had cashed their two spade tricks, there were only three tricks left and the VuGraph record shows that declarer claimed a total of four tricks, but the score was entered as 3NT-X down 4. So, that was ‘only’ E/W +1100 and 14 IMPs to FLEISHER.

BREMARK edged a high-scoring second set 46-39, so they led by 8 IMPs at the midway point of the match. The slam swings kept coming in the third set, including two more grand slams. There was also this rather strange deal… 

When East’s 1NT was passed around to him, Chip Martel doubled to show an undefined single-suited hand. Marty Fleisher’s pass-or-correct 2♦ therefore suggested a willingness to compete further if his partner’s suit was clubs. Martel jumped to 3♥, both revealing his suit and showing extra values, but Fleisher had no interest in bidding game. When 3♥ came around to Antonio Palma in the West seat, he re-opened with a double. Frederic Wrang (left) had an obvious 3♠ response, and everyone decided that they had said their piece.

Careful timing was required in this delicate Moysian fit. Wrang won the heart lead and immediately started diamonds. Martel won with the ♦A and continued hearts, forcing dummy to ruff. Wrang played a second round of diamonds and, when no one could ruff, he ducked a spade and claimed nine tricks, the defence making just the ♦A and three trump tricks. Nicely played: E/W +140.

West had to answer the second of this week’s problems in the replay…

No matter how long you play this game, it is always possible to come across something new, and I am fairly sure that I have never seen this auction before. They say there is a fine line between madness and genius, and all I can say is “Chapeau” to Alfredo Versace (right). Having passed 1NT at his first turn, his jump to 4NT in the problem position is insightful, imaginative, and perhaps just a little bit crazy too. Antonio Sementa did as he was asked by choosing a minor, and no one doubled.

Could Johan Upmark find the killing spade lead? Of course not. There was no reason for him to lead anything other than his partner’s suit, and that was curtains for the defence. Sementa won with the ♥A and started trumps, Nystrom winning with the ♦A and returning a second trump. It was now a relatively simple matter of ruffing a heart and cashing the clubs to eliminate those two suits, before playing the ♠A and another spade.

What could the defence do? Upmark could rise with the ♠K, dropping his partner’s queen, but dummy’s ♠J would then be good. Alternatively, he could let Nystrom win with the ♠Q, at which point he would be endplayed to concede a ruff-and-sluff, and away would go declarer’s spade loser. A magnificent E/W +600 and 10 IMPs to FLEISHER.

FLEISHER was enjoying a big set, but BREMARK gained 16 IMPs on the final two deals to make the set score 48-33. That left FLEISHER with an 8-IMP lead (118-110) going into the last 15 boards of this final.

Halfway thought the final stanza, BREMARK had edged ahead by 5 IMPs, 133-128. A 3-IMP gain for FLEISHER reduced the margin to 2 IMPs with just a handful of deals remaining. Four of the last six boards were flat.

The East players both faced a variation of this week’s final problem on our last deal, which produced one of the decisive swings…

Thomas Bessis made a takeout double of Antonio Palma’s pre-emptive jump to 3♦. Cedric Lorenzini’s 3NT response left Frederic Wrang with the final decision on the East cards.

Wrang passed and Palma led a diamond to queen and ace. Six rounds of clubs and a successful spade finesse later, and declarer was claiming ten tricks: N/S +430.

After the same start to the auction, Johan Upmark showed his four-card spade suit in response to his partner’s takeout double. Having failed to find a major-suit fit, Frederik Nystrom then essayed 3NT on the North cards. This effectively left Antonio Sementa (left) with the same decision as Wrang had faced at the first table.

Sementa chose to compete with 4♦. Upmark doubled and the Swedes had one last chance to avoid a significant swing against them. Could Nystrom somehow get his side to 5♣? No, he settled for defending and led the ♣K.

Versace lost just one trick in each suit: N/S +100 and 8 IMPs to FLEISHER.

FLEISHER gained a further 8 IMPs on the following deal, which meant that they won the stanza 29-23 and the match by a score of 147-133.

The presentation of the Spingold Knockout Teams trophy, left-to-right: Chip Martel, Cedric Lorenzini, ACBL Executive Director Bronia Jenkins, Marty Fleisher, Antonio Sementa, Alfredo Versace and Thomas Bessis.

Congratulations to the FLEISHER team. Chip Martel first won the Spingold in 1990. This was his ninth Spingold final, and his fifth win in the event. It was Marty Fleisher’s second Spingold final, having previously won in 2016. Alfredo Versace first won the Spingold in 2001. He has reached the final five times, winning four (although one was subsequently forfeited through no fault of Versace). Antonio Sementa had reached the Spingold final once before, losing in 2017. Thomas Bessis had also reached one previous final, losing in 2013. Only Cedric Lorenzini was making his first appearance in a Spingold final.

A couple of months ago, I interviewed Chip Martel for the upcoming sequel to my 1999 book, “World Class”. Martel will feature as one of the ‘All-Time Greats’ in new edition. During his interview, he mentioned that he would be playing with this team and said how much he was looking forward to it.  You can see why, as this is a truly world-class team. Indeed, Cedric Lorenzini is another of the stars you can meet in the new edition, whilst Alfredo Versace was featured as one of the ‘Young Stars’ in the original volume nearly a quarter of a century ago.

We have been treated to some wonderful bridge during out time in Chicago. I am now headed back to Europe, where I will be in Veldhoven, Netherlands to bring you the best of the action from the World Youth Championships. It will then be off to North Africa for the 2023 Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup in Morocco. Stay tuned as I suspect there will be plenty more Great Hands from BBO VuGraph in the next few weeks.