This is it, our last visit to the small Dutch town of Veldhoven and the 2023 World Youth Bridge Championships. Today, the medals will be decided in all five events. These are line-ups for the finals:

Juniors: #2 NETHERLANDS v #8 SINGAPORE;

Women: #2 FRANCE v #5 POLAND;

Youngsters: #5 USA2 v #6 DENMARK;

Schools: #5 POLAND v #8 USA2;

Universities: #5 FRANCE v #6 BELGIUM.

Remarkably, of the 20 teams who finished in the top four of their respective events in the qualifying stage, only two have made it to a final (and no team that topped the leader-board). POLAND, USA and FRANCE all have finalists in two events. The Orange Army will be happy, as the hometown fans have a team to cheer for on the final day of what has been an excellent tournament.

The losing semi-finalists in each category will also play off for the bronze medals.

As usual, we start with some problems, and no complex auctions to decipher this week. Firstly, with both sides vulnerable, you are North holding:

What, if anything, do you open?

Next, with neither side vulnerable, you are sitting in the West seat with:

What do you bid?

Next, with only your opponents vulnerable, you hold in the East chair:

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, an opening lead problem. With only your opponents vulnerable, you hear this auction from the West seat:

What do you lead?

While you consider those, we start in the opening stanza of the Junior final, the home town favourites, NETHERLANDS against ‘The Team of Destiny’, SINGAPORE. After an action-packed set, the Dutch led by 10 IMPs when the penultimate board of this segment arrived at the tables. Both North players had to decide what, if anything, to open on the first of the problem hands above.

For the Asians, Linus Lee opened what looks like a middle-of-the-road, vulnerable 3♣ on the North hand. When this was passed around to Youp Caris (left) in the West seat, he backed in with 3♠. Pim Dupont raised to game via a 4♣ cue-bid, but Caris had nothing to spare and retreated to 4♠.

There were just three aces to lose. E/W +620.

Tim van de Paverd (right) opted for a full-blooded 4♣ opening on his eight-card suit and, when Oscar Nijssen raised to game, the Dutch were guaranteed a winning board. With three aces missing in a spade contract, Xue Heng Teo did as well as he could by doubling 5♣.

Timothy Jian Zhong Wu opened the ♥K and then switched to the ♠10 at trick two. Van de Paverd won with the ♠A, crossed to the ♣A, splitting the trumps, and then advanced the ♦10. Wu covered with the ♦K and was allowed to win the trick. Obviously, the defence can cash a heart winner for one down. However, when Wu instead played a second spade, the board suddenly got a whole lot more expensive for the Asian team. Van de Paverd ruffed, crossed to the ♦A and ruffed a diamond, returned to dummy with a trump, and ruffed the fourth round of diamonds, establishing the long card as a winner. A third round of trumps provided access to dummy, and away went declarer’s heart loser. E/W -750 and 16 IMPs to NETHERLANDS, who close the opening stanza leading 49-23.

Let’s stay with this match for the second stanza. When this deal appeared on the BBO VuGraph screens, it was clear to the large crowd of kibitzers that there was potential for a significant swing.

With no two-suited overcall that showed these suits, Stefan Thorpe (left) went for the pragmatic approach and attempted to buy the contract with a 4♠ overcall on the West cards. But, Xue Heng Teo was not prepared to go quietly. Encouraged by his club fit presumably, he climbed into the unknown with 5♥.

Thorpe had no way to describe his hand now, so he doubled to show extra values and left the decision to his partner. Sibrand van Oosten probably removed to 5♠ not with any great expectation that his side could make eleven tricks, but because his spade length meant that 5♥-X may not go down. Facing an opening bid, it is easy to see why Teo thought that it was the opponents who were saving, hence his double of 5♠.

Teo’s singleton diamond lead was hardly a dagger to declarer’s heart. The ♦Q was covered by the king and ace, and declarer was soon claiming twelve tricks. E/W +750.

With spades 2-2, the third round of trumps provides an entry to take the diamond finesse, so no lead stops declarer making twelve tricks in spades. However, slam in diamonds fails as there is no entry to take the trump finesse. Could the SINGAPORE E/W pair better the Dutch result?

Linus Lee also had no bid available to show his two-suited hand immediately, so he started with a gentle 1♠ overcall on his monster. Tim Van de Paverd responded with a natural 2♥ and Oscar Nijssen (right) rebid his clubs. With such huge support for the suit his partner had bid twice, Van de Paverd had an easy 5♣ bid when Lee now jumped to 4♠. But, Lee still wasn’t done, and belatedly introduced his second suit. Bryan Yang gave preference to spades, but the Dutch already knew they didn’t want to defend on this deal, and van de Paverd took the six-level save.

Yes, his partner has bid very strongly, and Yang’s only value is in one of his partner’s suits. Even so, it is surely still asking too much to expect Yang to bid a slam on that East hand. Can Lee really do any more without any hint of help from his partner?

Had the Singapore pair managed to get to slam, would either of the Dutch players have taken the insurance by bidding a seventh club? We’ll never know. The defenders took two spades and a diamond to beat 6♣-X by two. A very well-judged auction from the Dutch pair: E/W +300 and 10 IMPs to NETHERLANDS.

NETHERLANDS led 99-32 at the midway point, and the match looked to be all but over. SINGAPORE won the third stanza 42-7 to reduce the arrears to 32 IMPs with a set to play, but the Dutch dominated the final set. The SINGAPORE ‘Dream Team’ would have to settle for silver medals. NETHERLANDS were deserved winners by a score of 157-88. Cue celebration by the huge ‘Orange Army’ that were here supporting their team.

POLAND won a nail-biter against ISRAEL, 93-87, to win the bronze medals.

The 2023 World Under-26 Teams winners: NETHERLANDS. 

Congratulations to Youp Caris, Pim Dupont, Sibrand van Oosten, Oscar Nijssen, Stefan Thorpe, Tim van de Paverd, npc Agnes Snellers and coach Wubbo de Boer. 

Let’s take a look now at the action in the final of the Under-26 Women’s Teams, where it is POLAND against FRANCE. The French led by 13 IMPs (46-33) at the midway point of the match. Faced with the third of this week’s problems, both East players had to decide on a course of action on this early deal. 

For the French, Constance Belloy did not intervene on the East cards, so the Poles had the auction to themselves. With two 12-HCP hands and an eight-card Major-suit fit, bidding to what is often a poor or moderate game is almost inevitable. Declarer usually needs a little luck to bring home such contracts. A 5-0 trump break will often endanger much better contracts than this one.  

Joanna Zalewska won the opening spade lead in hand with the king and, with no warning of her impending doom, led a trump towards dummy. Putting up the ♥Q after East had shown out gave the defenders a chance to hold declarer to six tricks, but one trick got away and Zalewska was allowed to get out for three down. E/W +300. 

“Fortune favours the brave”, and that is certainly one adjective that might be used to describe the 3♠ overcall made by Dominika Ocylok (left). Margaux Kurek Beaulieu’s 4♥ bid looks perfectly normal but, of course, on this layout there is a roof about to fall in. Ocylok’s aggressive intervention made it easy for Ewa Morawska to double the French heart game.  

Warned of bad breaks, declarer could perhaps have done better, but the Polish defenders took full advantage of every chance they were given. Declarer eventually emerged with six tricks: E/W +1100 and 13 IMPs to POLAND. 

POLAND dominated the third stanza, winning it 50-17 to give them a 20-IMP lead heading into the final set. FRANCE won the fourth set 28-19, but it was POLAND who won a hard-fought match by 102-91. Having defeated the #2 ranked team here, and the reigning champions and #1 seeds, NORWAY, in their semi-final, it is hard to dispute that POLAND are worthy winners. 

NORWAY defeated NETHERLANDS in the playoff for the bronze medals. 

The 2023 World Under-26 Women’s Teams winners: POLAND. 

Congratulations to Ewa Morawska, Dominika Ocylok, Milena Gryzlo, Magdalena Kapala, Maria Niklaus, Joanna Zalewska and npc Rafal Marks. 

Our final action from these championships comes from the last stanza of the Youngsters final. DENMARK led 27-20 after a quiet first set, but USA2 dominated the second segment and led 87-51 at halftime. Whatever the Danes had for lunch, it worked a treat, and they stormed away with a 60-11 third set to give them a 13-IMP advantage with 14 boards to play. This was the first board of the final set… 

For the Americans, Samuel Pahk chose to overcall in his good six-card major, and Aron Tylvad (right) showed an invitational or better four-card spade raise with 2NT. Nikolaj Hammelev made a game try with 3♣ and Pahk tried to get his second suit into the auction with a double. Tylvad accurately judged that his hand was minimum and signed off.  

However, Hammelev seems either to have discovered an extra ace and thus accepted his own game try, or he was concerned that perhaps North was still not yet done with the auction.  

Pahk led his singleton to the ace, ruffed his partner’s diamond return, and then switched to the ♣K. Hammelev’s game was down before he’s even started. He still had to lose a club and a heart: N/S +50 but, with 4♥ cold for N/S, perhaps still a good result for the Europeans. 

Christian Lahrmann (left) preferred to describe the North hand as a heart/club two-suiter. Jonathan Yue decided the East hand was not quite good enough for an invitational raise, so he simply competed to the three-level. While the American South at the other table had stayed out of the auction, Daniel Tylvad braved the four-level despite only moderate support for his partner’s suits. Lahrmann thought he had enough to raise to game, which left Rory Xiao with the lead problem posed at the top of this article. 

Nothing looked particularly attractive, but Xiao happened upon the only losing option, a diamond. Tylvad won with the ♦Q and immediately cashed the ♦A to dispose of dummy’s spade. Declarer then ran the ♥Q to East’s king. Tylvad ruffed the spade switch, crossed to dummy with the ♥9, and played a trump. Xiao rose with the ♣A, although it didn’t matter as declarer could not have gone wrong from here as the cards lie. (With no trump intermediates and no more entries to dummy, declarer would have no choice but to play for a doubleton ace if his king won the first round of trumps.) N/S +600 and a massive 11 IMPs to DENMARK to open the final stanza.  

DENMARK won the final set 39-13 and thus the match by a score of 150-111. ISRAEL defeated CHINA in the playoff for the bronze medals. 

The 2023 World Youngsters Teams winners: DENMARK. 

Congratulations to Christian Lahrmann, Aron Tylvad, Daniel Tylvad, Nicolaj Alexander Zeeberg, Nicolaj Hammelev, Andreas Rolf-Larson and npc Jan Jorgensen. 

In the School final, POLAND beat USA2 98-52. USA1 squeaked past ESTONIA 97-96, coming from behind at the start of the final set, to take the bronze medals. 

The 2023 World Schools Teams winners: POLAND 

Congratulations to Aleks Bukat, Szymon Grabala, Kacper Kisielewski, Milena Klimiuk, Jan Luczeczko, Jakub Kichalski, npc Roland Lippik and coach Marcin Kuflowski. 

In the Universities final, FRANCE beat BELGIUM 159-136. INDIA defeated CHINA 112-104 to win the bronze medals. 

The 2023 World Universities Teams winners: FRANCE. 

Congratulations to Raphael Basler, Pierre Bedouet, Luc Bellicaud, Colin Deheeger, Melic Dufrene, Romaric Guth and npc Herve Fleury. 

And, so, that’s it from Veldhoven and what has been a wonderful World Youth Championships. It is now less than two weeks until we get to do it all over again with the big(ger) boys and girls.  

We are now heading for Morocco, from where we will be bringing you the best of the action from the 2023 Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup, as well as news from the Mixed and Senior Teams events.