Welcome back to Ratchaburi in southwestern Thailand. The capital of Ratchaburi Province, located 50 miles west of Bangkok adjacent to the border with Myanmar, is the venue for the 39^th Thai National Youth Games. On this visit, we concentrate on the Women’s Teams. The two teams advancing to the final are SUKHOTHAI (Thikhamphon Konket, Natthawadee Bunmee, Napasorn Dee-ngam, Woranitha Phongpha, Waratchaya Yontraditthaworn and Anuthida Kraikijrat) and KAMPHAENG PHET (Kulthee Luengprasert, Boonphisut Jittriyaphong, Siripatsorn Jittriyaphong and Suriwipa Chanwongkit).

The format of the final is a 24-board match split into two 12-board stanzas. As usual, we start with a couple of problems. Firstly, with neither side vulnerable, you are South holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, an opening lead problem. With only your opponents vulnerable, you are sitting in the North seat and hear this auction:

What do you lead?

While you consider those, we start with the opening deal of the match.

Siripatsorn Jittriyaphong decided against opening 2♥ on the North hand, and thus East’s 1♣ left Kulthee Luengprasert with the first of the problems posed above. She decided to pass and, when West bid spades and Natthawadee Bunmee rebid her clubs, it was even more difficult to take positive action on those South cards. No one likes to defend a two-level minor-suit contract, but backing in on that North hand would be quite a view.

Declarer began trumps by playing low to the jack and North’s bare queen, and she later lost to South lone ♦K too, so the defenders took more tricks than they might have done. However, the bidding had stopped low enough that declarer’s plus score was not in danger. E/W +90.

In the replay, Suriwipa Chanwongkit opened the East hand with a Precision-style, natural 2♣ which, theoretically, you might think, makes it more difficult for South to intervene. Undeterred by her unsuitable shape, Waratchaya Yontraditthaworn was not to be shut out, and she contributed a takeout double. That did not get an immediate response from her partner, but Anuthida Kraikijrat decided that her hand was good enough to compete when 3♣ was later passed around to her.

The defence to 3♥ began with a high club and a trump switch from Chanwongkit. Boonphisut Jittriyaphong won with the ♥A and could have limited declarer to eight tricks by returning a second trump. When she instead switched to a diamond, Kraikijrat was able to crossruff her way to nine tricks: N/S +140 and 6 IMPs to SUKHOTHAI to get the scoreboard ticking.

A couple of deals later, came the first potential slam deal of the match.

Boonphisut Jittriyaphong started with a Strong Club opening. After hearing a positive response, she then used a series of relays to find out more. By the time the auction reached the four-level, she knew just about everything about the East hand, so she signed off in 4♠, which was technically the correct contract on the E/W cards. E/W +680 when North did not find the heart lead.

In the replay, East/West bid to slam without giving away a great deal about their hands. That left Siripatsorn Jittriyaphong with the 26-IMP lead problem posed at the top of this article.

The one thing this auction surely tells you is that your partner does not hold either the ♣A or a trump entry, so is there any point in leading your singleton, as Jittriyaphong did at the table? Indeed, with dummy having bid that suit, is it not more likely that you will pick up something like Jxxxx or Qxxxx in partner’s hand and give declarer an easy time setting up the suit for discards?

Although David Bird’s excellent books on opening leads highlighted suits headed by the K-J as the most dangerous to lead from, there are exceptions to every rule. On this layout, the defenders need to establish a heart winner before the ♦A is knocked out. Looking at this North hand, is it not possible to visualize that might be quite a likely scenario?

After the club opening, Napasorn Dee-ngam had no problem drawing trumps and establishing dummy’s ♦K as a parking place for her heart loser. E/W +1430 and that meant 13 IMPs to SUKHOTHAI, when it could/should have been the same number in the other column.

There were a number of close decisions to be made in competitive auctions on the next deal…

Kulthee Luengprasert overcalled 2♣ on the South cards. Most people play 2♠ in this auction as a one-round force, showing the values for a game invite or better, so Dee-ngam had just enough to take action. Even so, Natthawadee Bunmee would have been left with a very tricky rebid problem had North passed, but she was rescued by Siripatsorn Jittriyaphong’s 3♥.

What do you think of the 3♥ bid on that North hand? With a singleton in partner’s suit and length on the suit bid on her right, does the hand not scream ‘misfit’? The best policy when it looks like neither side has much of a fit is to stop bidding as soon as possible. After all, is it not likely that whoever wins the auction will go minus?

Not unexpectedly, the 3♥ bid simply prompted South to rebid her clubs, which was hardly what Jittriyaphong could have been hoping would happen.

West led the ♦10 against South’s 4♣. Declarer played low from dummy and Bunmee got to decide the fate of the contract at trick one. Playing low, and allowing the ♦10 to force declarer’s king, would have give the defenders four tricks (one spade and three diamonds). When Bunmee instead won with the ♦A, the defence was struggling. In fact, she played the ♠A and a second spade, which allowed declarer to score an easy tenth trick via a diamond ruff in dummy. N/S +130.

Even if East returns a trump at trick two, declarer can still score a second diamond trick by force if she guesses the suit correctly, as East’s diamond pips are not quite good enough.

In the replay, Waratchaya Yontraditthaworn set her opponents a much tougher problem with her 3♣ jump overcall. If West passes, will Chanwongkit take another bid on that East hand? The problem with bidding is that 3♠ is game-forcing, but Boonphisut Jittriyaphong decided that she had to take the risk. The only good news for her was that Kraikijrat did not double 4♠.

The defence began with three rounds of clubs, declarer ruffing with the ♠7 and North overruffing. Kraikijrat then cashed the ♥A and gave her partner a heart ruff. The defenders had taken the first five tricks and declarer still had to lose to both the ♠Q and the ♦K: Four down. N/S +400 and another 7 IMPs to SUKHOTHAI.

Although this final had not yet even reached its midway point, the last board of the set helped to nail KAMPHAENG PHET coffin that much more firmly shut. They had been unlucky to concede some of the adverse swings in this set, but the IMPs lost on this deal were entirely self-inflicted.

Playing a weak 1NT opening in third seat is a questionable decision as, with the majority of the missing high cards most likely to be on your left, you will often run into a penalty double. East was spared that fate here, as Yontraditthaworn had only a 2♥ overcall.

Declarer ended up losing two tricks in each of the majors in addition to the minor-suit aces: One down. N/S -100 look like something close to a par result.

East started with 1♦ here, and thus Kulthee Luengprasert was able to get her long suit into the auction at the one-level. Dee-ngam’s 1NT seems like a fair description of her hand and, it looks to me, should have ended the auction for something close to a flat board.

Quite why Luengprasert thought her hand was worth a second bid is unclear to me. Other than the sixth heart, what part of this South hand have you not already bid? You also know that your partner is unlikely to hold three-card support, and you have been warned that your LHO has the suit stopped. Whilst South’s 2♥ bid is questionable, what do you make of North’s subsequent decisions on this deal? We have already discussed bidding on misfits in this article, and yet North thought it was a good idea to introduce a ropey five-card club suit into an auction where her partner has already shown a decent six-card suit. The raise to 4♥ is the icing on the cake and ensured that wherever they decided to stop bidding the contract would be doubled.

The defence dropped a trick here, but that cost only a couple of IMPs. N/S -500 and another 9 IMPs to SUKHOTHAI.

SUKHOTHAI led 50-6 at the midway point of the match. They also won the second half, 32-23, and thus the title with victory by an impressive 53 IMPs, 82-29. Congratulations to Thikhamphon Konket, Natthawadee Bunmee, Napasorn Dee-ngam, Woranitha Phongpha, Waratchaya Yontraditthaworn and Anuthida Kraikijrat.

We are now heading to Delhi in northern India, the venue for the Mohanlal Bhartia Memorial Grand Prix, from which we will bring you the best of the action from the final of the Championships Teams.