Greetings from Lodz, Poland’s fourth-largest city, comparable in size to Boston MA or Las Vegas NV. Located in central Poland, about 75 miles southwest of Warsaw, this is the venue for the Lodz Twin Towns Tournament. The event attracted a field from across Eastern Europe, with representatives from Bulgaria (BC Briz Varna), Germany (Stuttgart), Ukraine (Kyiv) and Lithuania (Vilnius) in addition to a number of Polish teams.

In this visit, we’ll take a look at some of the highlights from the qualifying rounds. Matches are of 14 boards split into two 7-board stanzas.

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with neither side vulnerable, you are North holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with only your side vulnerable, you hold in the West seat:

South’s 2NT bid shows a competitive 3♣ or 3♦ bid. (A direct 3♣/3♦ would have shown extra values.) What action, if any, do you take on the West hand?

While you consider those, we start with the final board of the match between the Bulgarians (BC BRIZ VARNA) and the Lithuanians (VILNIUS).

Once the Lithuanians got it into their minds to save on this deal, the Bulgarian pair could only limit their loss. Aleksi Aleksiev raised his partner’s natural 2♣ opening via a splinter jump in West’s suit. Vytautas Vainikonis (left) cue-bid his club control in support of hearts and then took what he expected to be a cheap save in 6♥ when Velnikov bid slam in clubs. That left Aleksiev with the first of this week’s problems, but he was almost certainly playing for small stakes, despite the high level. Even if Aleksiev had bid 7♣, it seems very likely that Vainikonis would have taken the insurance in 7♥.

Aleksiev’s ♣A was not the best opening lead for the Bulgarians. (A diamond opening would have netted them +500 via two ruffs and two spades.) Wojtek Olanski ruffed the club opening, drew three rounds of trumps, and then exited with a spade towards dummy’s queen. Aleksiev went up with the ♠K and desperately tried a diamond, giving away the defenders’ trick in that suit. South later came to the ♠A, but that was it: A paltry N/S +100.

Not that it mattered much. If the Bulgarian result in this room was poor, it was nothing compared with the calamity at the other table.

Erikas Vainikonis (right) started with a 1♣ opening in the replay and Andrei Arlovich’s 1♠ bid after West’s 1♥ overcall was the equivalent of a negative double, denying as many four spades. Kazakov’s jump to 4♥ could presumably be made on a fairly wide variety of hands, so quite why Petko Donchev thought he should double South’s 5♣ is not obvious to me. Indeed, would Arlovich’s redouble not confirm that you have done the wrong thing and persuade you to retreat to 5♥? Apparently not.

Donchev led a top heart, ruffed in dummy. A diamond ruff, a second heart ruff, and a diamond ruff, bringing down West’s ace, followed in quick succession. Now Vainikonis ruffed his remaining heart with the ♣A, overtook the ♣J and drew West’s last trump. The ♠K provided an entry to the ♦K, on which declarer’s spade loser disappeared. 5♣-Redoubled with two overtricks meant a spectacular N/S +1200 and 15 IMPs to VILNIUS.

Despite trailing by 2 IMPs after a quiet first half, the Lithuanians won the match by 38 IMPs, 55-17. Our next match features two teams with plenty of locals rooting for them, LODZ BOARDS against POLISH LADIES. Early in the match, both East players faced the second of this week’s problems.

A double of responder’s 1NT in this situation usually shows a takeout double of opener’s major. Natalia Suszanowicz (left) clearly felt that this hand did not qualify on shape, so she settled for an overcall in her mediocre six-card suit. Is Cathy Baldysz supposed to bid on that moderate West hand? Not in my book.

Declarer had to lose a heart and three trumps: E/W +110

After the same start, Przemyslaw Blaszczyk (right) was willing to take a chance on the off-shape double, and he was rewarded when his partner cue-bid in response. Blaszczyk bid his spades, Robert Stolinski made an invitational raise, and Blaszczyk went on to game.

With clubs breaking 3-3, declarer was able to ruff the suit good and come to ten tricks. E/W +620 and 11 IMPs to LODZ BOARDS. The local team defeated the women 48-17, but it was the ladies who would get the last laugh, as they went on to reach the final of the event.

Our next match features the other local team, LODZ PRESIDENT, against the Lithuanians, VILNIUS. Early in the second stanza, both West players had to answer a variant of the last of this week’s problems.

Artur Wasiak (left) was a member of the victorious Polish squad in the Schools Teams at the 2005 European Youth Championships. The Poles were not playing Good/Bad 2NT, so Wasiak simply rebid 3♣ at his second turn. For the Lithuanians, Wojtet Olanski judged that the West hand was not worth a second move facing just a simple raise.

West led a trump to the king and ace, and declarer led his heart up. West rose with the ♥A and switched to a spade, East taking the ace and declarer unblocking the king. Vytautas Vainikonis switched to a diamond and his partner took his two winners in that suit before exiting with a spade. Winning in dummy with the ♠Q, Wasiak took a successful finesse against the ♣J and claimed the rest when the trumps came if without loss. N/S +110.

After the same start, Erikas Vainikonis employed a Good/Bad 2NT to show a competitive-only 3♣ or 3♦ bid. Perhaps learning that South had no extra values persuaded Modrzejews that the West hand was worth further action. Indeed, he not only competed to the three-level, but made a game try with a 3♦ sue-bid. Cieslak could not have been better, having not raised via a cue-bid on the first round, so he understandably accepted the game invitation. Having sniffed out that his opponents had overstretched, Vainikonis closed the auction with a red card.

Andrei Arlovich (right) led a diamond against 4♥-X, but that gave declarer nothing that he could not make on his own. Declarer played the ♥A and a second trump, so Arlovich took his two trump winners and exited with another diamond. Declarer tried a club to the jack, losing to the queen. Ruffing the diamond return, he tried a club to the nine, and ten. The defence duly took two tricks in each suit other than diamonds: N/S +800 and 12 IMPs to VILNIUS.

However, one swallow does not a summer make, and the LODZ PRESIDENT team was impeccable on the remaining 13 deals of the match, which they won 57-12.

We finish with a look at the action from the match between the Bulgarians, BC BRIZ VARNA, and the other team who went on to reach the final, POLISH SENIORS. My instinct is that the Bulgarian auction deserves to lose IMPs on principle…

To my mind, with two four-card majors, West’s 3NT bid is an atrocity and fully deserves to lose IMPs no matter what the layout. North led a heart, the queen winning, so declarer made 11 tricks. E/W +660.

Michal Kwiecien (left) responded with a normal 1♥, and then created a force with a third-suit 2♦ after Krzysztof Martens had rebid his clubs. Kwiecien then agreed clubs at the four-level, and jumped to slam when Martens showed some interest via a 4♠ cue-bid.

The opening spade lead was covered by ten and jack, and ruffed by declarer. Two rounds of trumps ending in dummy then allowed Martens to cash the ♠A and ruff away North’s ♠K on the third round of the suit. Declarer thus disposed on both hearts on dummy’s spades and ruffed his diamond loser to make all thirteen tricks. E/W +1390 and 12 IMPs to POLISH SENIORS.

POLISH SENIORS won the match 36-21, and they advanced to the final, where they will meet POLISH LADIES.

We will be back soon with the best of the action from that final.