We have travelled across the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean from Australia to the ’Home of the Braves’, Atlanta, Georgia, the venue for the 2023 Fall NABC. We are here for the primary team event, The Soloway Trophy. A total of 62 teams set out at some ungodly hour on cold turkey day, the Friday following Thanksgiving. After two days of Swiss, the leading 32 teams advanced to the knockout stage, leaving many big names watching from the sidelines. (Geir Helgemo, Boye Brogeland, Erik Saelensminde, Norberto Bocchi, Sabine Auken, Frank Stewart, Debbie Rosenberg, Peter Crouch, Andrew Robson, Bart Bramley, Kit Woolsey and Bob Hamman were all amongst those whose teams finished between 33^rd and 40^th.)

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with only your side vulnerable, you are West holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you are sitting in the East seat with:

What action do you take?

Finally, with both sides vulnerable, you hold as South:

What do you bid?

While you mull those over, we start our coverage in the opening set of a match between two teams who will both have arrived with aspirations of lifting the trophy at the end of the week. The perennial favorites, NICKELL, were up against this year’s Spingold winners, FLEISHER. Early in the set, both West players had to answer the first of this week’s problems.

Steve Weinstein made a constructive raise of his partner’s third-seat 1♥ opening, but Bobby Levin was not interested in game facing a passed hand. Alfredo Versace saw no reason to act when 2♥ was passed around to him, so there matters rested. The defence let an overtrick slip through: E/W -140.

After an identical start, Geoff Hampson (left) backed in with 3♦. That in itself was enough to win the board, but the American pair were not satisfied with that. They wanted the vulnerable game bonus too. This gave the defenders a small but very difficult chance to go plus.

Thomas Bessis found the only lead to give the French pair a chance, the ♦3. Hampson won in dummy with the ♦9 and led a low spade. Winning with the ♠K, Bessis continued with a second trump, again taken in dummy. When declarer next played the ♠A and ruffed a spade with the ♦Q, what would you discard from the North hand?

It looks automatic to let go of a heart, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it does, but that lets the contract through. Hampson continued with the ♣10, covered by the king and ace, and ruffed dummy’s last spade with the ♦A.  A finesse against the ♣J worked, leaving dummy high. A spectacular E/W +600 and 12 IMPs to NICKELL, who led 44-25 at the end of the opening stanza.

Note the difference if North discards a club when declarer ruffs the third round of spades. Again, declarer returns to dummy via a winning club finesse, and ruffs dummy’s last spade with the ♦A. But, North discards his remaining club on this trick, and now declarer has no way to get to dummy to draw the last trump. Whether he plays a club or a heart, North can score a club ruff to put the contract one down. Tres difficile!

Into the second set, and the match between the Bermuda Bowl winners, ZIMMERMANN, and a young American team, KOLESNIK. The youngsters led 34-32 going into the second stanza.

With a balanced hand, Roger Lee decided that his hand was worth a raise only to 2♥ over West’s double. Michal Nowosadzki (right) jumped to 4♠ and Finn Kolesnik doubled. Lee chose to defend, which left Kolesnik with an opening lead problem that he was never likely to get right in practise. (More of that later.)

Kolesnik began with two rounds of hearts. Nowosadzki ruffed and led a club, dummy’s ♣K winning. Declarer played two rounds of trumps finishing in his hand, and then played his second club. Kolesnik won with the ♣A and exited with a third round of clubs. Declarer won in dummy, drew the last trump with the ♠K, cashed his last club winner, and then exited with a low diamond to the ten. Kolesnik won with the ♦Q, but he was then endplayed to give declarer his tenth trick. Well played! E/W +790.

To beat the contract, the defence needs an early diamond lead from the North seat, so Lee needs to get in with the ♥Q. South therefore needs to avoid leading either a diamond or a top heart. When he wins with the ♣A, Kolesnik would then need to underlead his top hearts so that North can win and play a diamond through while South still has safe exits. Now that would have been a defence worthy of a nomination for an IBPA award.

At this table Jacek Kalita (left) made a pre-emptive jump to 3♥ on the North cards. That was enough to persuade Michal Klukowski to compete to the five-level over East’s 4♠. Thus Brian Platnick was left with the second of this week’s problems. Had Platnick doubled, he would have collected +500 and limited the loss on the deal to 7 IMPs. When he pressed on to 5♠, Klukowski doubled. The defence collected the same three tricks as they had at the first table, but that meant E/W -200 and 14 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN.

The Bermuda Bowl winners won the second stanza 41-20 and thus led by 19 IMPs at the midway point of the match.

After the mid-point break, we join the match between the All-Stars of LEBOWITZ, who had finished third in the Swiss qualifier but became the #1 seeds due to their assigned seeding points, and Canada’s ROCHE. At the halftime break, ROCHE led by 3 IMPs (64-61). A potential upset on the cards at this early stage?

Although there is no alert or explanation in the VuGraph records, it seems clear that Agustin Madala’s 2♣ bid showed hearts (based on his partner’s 4♥ bid).

After Robert Lebi’s 1♠ overcall, it was never going to be easy to stop John Carruthers (left) bidding on that North hand. He started with a splinter raise of spades and then competed all the way to the five-level. Although he was flirting with potential disaster, how likely was it that, having tried to play in 4♥, the Europeans would then bid a slam? Would Carruthers have bid a sixth spade if put to the test? The defenders had two hearts and one trick in each minor: E/W +300 so, advantage Canada.

Michael Roche (left) made his first international appearance as a member of the Irish team at the 1984 European Youth Championships. Having moved across the Atlantic, he made his debut for Canada at the 1997 Bermuda Bowl. He has since represented his adopted country in the Open, the Mixed and the Senior teams on numerous occasions.

At this table, Roche kicked off with a Precision-style, natural 2♣ opening on the East hand, silencing South for now at least. Daniel Lyder bid his hearts and Michael Rosenberg introduced spades on the North cards. Thereafter, everyone just kept competing, no one wanting to defend until, eventually, Rosenberg refused to be pushed to the six-level. Had he not doubled 6♥, would Zack Grossack have taken the cheap save? I suspect so, but how can Rosenberg not double with two aces and what looks like a well-placed ♥K.

Of course, 6♥ is not a great contract, needing hearts 2-2 with the king onside, plus the ♦Q in the right place too. But, this was the 10% of the time when the stars aligned for the Canadians. E/W +1210 and 14 IMPs to ROCHE.

ROCHE won the third stanza 48-13, so they led by 38 IMPs (112-74) going into the last set. With the potential demise of the #1 seeds at the first hurdle, that match remains on VuGraph for the final set. The other VuGraph match is NICKELL v FLEISHER, in which FLEISHER holds a 7-IMP advantage, 79-72. That match remained close through most of the set and, with just five boards remaining, FLEISHER led by 4 IMPs, 90-86. Then both South players had to decide what action to take on the last of this week’s problems.

Alfredo Versace (right) chose to start with a quiet 1♠ overcall on the South hand. Both Bobby Levin and Antonio Sementa then showed constructive (or better) raises of their partner’s suit. Steve Weinstein advanced with a 4♦ bid, presumably to help his partner make a decision over the expected 4♠. How good is this West hand in context? With his dull shape, Levin understandably decided that his hand was primarily defensive, so he doubled, and Weinstein respected that decision.

Levin led the ♣K, eight from his partner (standard count) and six from declarer. Levin thus knew that his partner held either Q-9-8, Q-8 doubleton or the singleton eight, so he continued with a low club at trick two. Versace ruffed and led a diamond, Levin winning with the ♦Q and belatedly switching to a spade, thus restricting declarer to nine trump tricks. E/W +200.

A trump at trick two would theoretically have enabled Levin to play two rounds of trumps and perhaps beat the contact by two, although the defence is still not easy. (If declarer wins in dummy and plays a heart, Weinstein would have to win and underlead his top diamonds to get his partner in to play a second round of trumps. If declarer plays a diamond from dummy at trick two, Weinstein would have to play low.) However, even collecting the maximum would not have undone the damage already done in the auction.

Geoff Hampson’s 3♠ overcall injected far more momentum into the auction. Over North’s 4♠, Thomas Bessis (left) tried an imaginative 5♣, perhaps just trying to deflect the defenders away from what looked like a potentially killing opening lead against 5♥. When Cedric Lorenzini took his partner seriously and raised to 6♣, Bessis had to correct back to hearts at the six-level having, perhaps inadvertently, steered his partnership to the winning contract.

Although Eric Greco did the right thing by saving at the six-level, it was not going to look like a winning decision on the scorecard. Here, too, declarer was allowed to make a ninth trick, but that was of little consequence. E/W +800 and 12 IMPs to FLEISHER.

FLEISHER padded their winning margin over the final boards and eventually ran out winners by 32 IMPs, 118-86. In the other VuGraph match, the final set was all one-way traffic. Whilst KOLESNIK had gone into the final stanza with a 38-IMP lead, that proved to be nowhere near enough. There was to be no giant-killing here today, as LEBOWITZ won the final set 73-16 and the match by 19 IMPs (147-128).

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