We are in the small town of Veldhoven in The Netherlands, the venue for the 2023 World Youth Bridge Championships. The marquee event here is the Junior Teams (or the Under-26 Teams), but we will also be checking in periodically with the action from the other four categories.

This is the third day of a five-day round robin from which the top eight teams will advance to the knockout stage. Today we pass the midway point of the qualifying stage, and serious contenders should be emerging from the pack. The day started with these teams leading the way in their respective events:

Juniors: USA1, NETHERLANDS, SINGAPORE, ISRAEL, CHINA;

Under-26 Girls: DENMARK, FRANCE, HUNGARY, ENGLAND, NETHERLANDS;

Youngsters: POLAND, USA1, JAPAN, ENGLAND;

Schools: CHINA, HUNGARY, USA1, THAILAND;

Universities: ISRAEL, INDIA, CHINA, BELGIUM

.

Only one problem today. With both sides vulnerable, you are North holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

We start with a meeting of the leading two teams in the Under-26 Women's event, DENMARK and FRANCE. The second board of the day was a distributional monster that should wake up anyone not yet feeling the effect of that early morning injection of caffeine.

It may look like nothing can go wrong as long as E/W can stay out of slam on the trump finesse but, at a number of tables, it proved not to be quite that simple. Let’s see what happened in this match…

Amelia Rosa Bune (left) made her international debut in the Danish Schools team at the 2018 World Youth Championships. A year later, she collected a silver medal from the European Under-16 Teams. She joined her older sister, Sophie, in the Under-26 Women’s team at the European Championships here in Veldhoven last year.

On this deal, Margaux Kurek Beaulieu’s four-level overcall made life difficult for the Danish sisters. Sophie re-opened with a double of 4♦. Amelia’s spade bid was music to her sister’s ears, and prompted Sophie to advance with a five-level cue-bid. What few values Amelia had were in her partner’s suits, but was it enough to bid a slam? "No", she decided, and her retreat to 5♠ ended an exciting auction.

North led a trump and Bune played low from dummy. Winning with the ♠K, Kurek Beaulieu realized that the best chance for the defence was that trumps were 4-4-4-1 around the table, so she forced dummy with a high diamond. Bune not only had a fifth trump but also the priceless ♣K, so she drew trumps and was soon claiming the rest. E/W +480.

For the Danes, Clara Brun Pedersen’s simple 1♦ overcall allowed West into the auction on the first round. Constance Belloy’s jump to 4♠ showed a big hand, but Wilhelmine Schlumberger had no interest in climbing higher.

Pedersen led the ♦K and declarer ruffed. It looks as if playing ace and another trump guarantees the contract against anything but a 4-0 break in one of the black suits. However, Belloy could not resist the allure of the trump finesse, so she crossed to dummy with the ♣K and led the ♠Q. South won with the bare ♠K and forced dummy with a second round of diamonds. Declarer ruffed with the ♠J and cashed the ♠A. Unable to get to her hand to draw the last trump without cutting herself off from all those club winners, the trump split left declarer in serious trouble. Belloy ended with just eight tricks: E/W -100 and 11 IMPs to DENMARK.

The rest of the match did not go as well for the overnight leaders, and FRANCE ran out 56-21 winners and thus swapped places with the Danes at the top of the table.

With 11 of the 23 matches played in the Juniors event, USA1 and NETHERLANDS sat atop the table with a lead of more than 20 VPs over third-placed ISRAEL. The two leading teams met head-on in Round 12. The opening deal of the match gave both North players a chance to exercise their imagination on this week’s bidding problem.

Zack Grossack (right) began his international career with a silver medal in the Youngsters Teams at the 2012 World Youth Championships, and a gold from the 2013 World Junior Teams. He has followed that with two more World Championships titles, winning the Junior Teams in 2017 and 2022. A few weeks ago, he picked up a bronze medal in the Mixed Teams at the European Transnational Championships in Strasbourg.

On this deal, Grossack rebid 1NT (theoretically 18-19 balanced) after West’s fourth-seat double of his 1♦ opening. In reality, he was always intending to take up a little space with a 2♦ rebid, but was simply attempting to spread some confusion on the way.

After two doubles, Oscar Nijssen realized that something funny was going on and gave up looking for a penalty. His jump to 4♦ persuaded Tim van de Paverd to pick a major, but it was difficult for him to show any great enthusiasm on what was, after all, a fairly moderate hand. Having already bid very strongly, Nijssen did not think he could do more, and settled for game.

Van de Paverd won the opening club lead in dummy, crossed to the ♥Q, and successfully ran the ♣J. The ♥A then revealed the layout of the trump suit. Next came two top spades and a spade ruff. The marked trump finesse then left dummy high. E/W +710.

After the same start, Sibrand van Oosten (left) also set off on a path of deception, but with a psychic 1♥ bid. Ben Kristensen doubled (showing hearts?) but Stefan Thorpe innocently added to the confusion by raising his partner’s suit. Kevin Rosenberg advanced with 3♥ (natural? asking for a stopper?) and heard 3NT from his partner.

To say the least, it is never going to be easy to bid a slam in a suit that has been bid and raised by the opponents. Fortunately for the Americans, they had a second string to their bow. Not done yet, Rosenberg continued with 4♣, and then jumped to slam when Kristensen advanced with a heart cue-bid.

Rosenberg ruffed the opening lead and laid down the ♣A-K. The queen did not fall, but that was okay. Dummy had a trump left to take care of declarer’s spade loser, and it was easy enough to pick up the hearts for four tricks after South’s raise. E/W +1370 and 12 IMPs to USA1.

A dominating performance from the Americans saw them cruise to a 45-1 win. That left USA1 more than 20 VPs ahead of the Dutch, who kept second place, but with a much-reduced advantage over the chasing pack.

We stay with the Dutch, as they take on USA2 in the final match of the day. The opening board of this set proved to be a particularly tricky bidding challenge for the E/W pairs.

Brent Xiao (right) first represented the USA in the Youngsters Teams at the 2018 World Championships. On this deal, Richard Jeng opened a Precision-style, three-suited 2♦, showing either a 4-4-1-4 shape or (43)-1-5. Xiao inquired with 2NT and discovered this his partner had a non-minimum with 3-4-1-5 shape.

There is no alert or explanation for the 4♣ bid in the VuGraph records. Perhaps it was a cue-bid, but then Jeng’s 4♦ would make no sense, as his partner already knows he has a singleton there. More likely, Xiao decided that the partnership did not have enough for slam, and 4♣ was an ‘end signal’. 4♦ was therefore forced and 4♠ told partner to pass. E/W +680.

Was this too conservative on the West hand? Perhaps, although a spade slam can be beaten with the ♣A and a club ruff. This was not so easy to find with the short hand as declarer. However, there is no defence to 6♣, and perhaps that is the obvious suit to play with a 10-card fit.

Sibrand van Oosten got his side off to the best start by opening a natural 1♣. The Dutch then had to contend with some serious pre-emptive bidding by the Americans, with Amber Lin (left) putting maximum pressure on her opponents with her jump all the way to the five-level.

Stefan Thorpe re-opened with a double and Van Oosten admitted to spade support. However, when Thorpe then bid 6♣, Van Oosten not unreasonably bid his hearts. After all, why had Thorpe doubled rather than just bidding 6♣ if he didn’t want to play in one of the majors? It’s a very good question!

The Dutch had reached the second-best slam contract, but at least they had played it from the better side, without the singleton on lead. Could Cornelius Duffie find the ♣A opening lead? Of course not. He led a diamond, and the Dutch had dodged a serious bullet. E/W +1430 and 13 IMPs to NETHERLANDS when a similar swing could easily have gone the other way.

Of the 24 tables in the Junior Teams, only four pairs (Singapore, Argentina, Greece and Australia) managed to bid to 6♣. Ten pairs played in 6♠, five of them making the contract (three of those from the East seat).

Having been dismembered by one American team earlier in the day, the Dutch righted their ship with a 30-14 win against USA2. NETHERLANDS clung on to second place, still a long way behind the leaders and only just ahead of ISRAEL, but with a sizeable gap back to fourth-place SWEDEN. With just two days remaining in the qualifying rounds, the ‘Orange Army’ of hometown fans can probably look forward to seeing their team in the knockout rounds.

These are the leaders in each category after three days:

Juniors: USA1, NETHERLANDS, ISRAEL, SWEDEN, CROATIA;

Under-26 Girls: ENGLAND, DENMARK, FRANCE, NORWAY, ITALY;

Youngsters: POLAND, USA1, DENMARK, ISRAEL, ENGLAND;

Schools: USA1, CHINA, HUNGARY, NORWAY, ESTONIA;

Universities: ISRAEL, INDIA, CHINA, POLAND, BELGIUM.

Poland is the only country with their team in the Top 8 in all five events.

We will be back soon with the best of the action from Day 4 in Veldhoven.