This year’s Summer NABC was held in Toronto, in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. It's full of life, but still has an up-market, safe air to it. My team found many excellent places to eat and never visited the same one twice. In their downtime away from the bridge table, some players went to the Rogers Centre to see the Toronto Blue Jays in action, while others kept it closer to home by taking part in the ACBL’s ‘Beyond Bridge’ evenings. These events provided many different games to play, be they physical or mental, if the bridge wasn’t stimulation enough.

As anyone who has ever been to a Nationals will attest to, there is something for every bridge player regardless of ability level or preference. Be you a teams player or a matchpoint maven, you can pack your week full of bridge with ease.

The tournament started with the Grand National Teams, essentially the inter-state championships. While that was finishing up, many international players flocked to the Convention Centre to play in the Von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs. My team arrived on the Saturday in time for the main event, the Spingold Knockout.

After playing a warm-up game in a one-day Swiss Teams on the Sunday, we were drawn in a four-way on the first day of the Spingold. We would play a 30-board match in the morning. If we lost, we would have a second chance in the afternoon, facing off with the loser of the other match in our ‘group’. We managed to win at the first time of asking in a tight match against a strong, aggressive team. Here’s a deal we gained a swing on which might have been undeserved:

I’m used to writing up my failings. In fact, I recently authored my first book on the subject of my cardplay errors, entitled Why I Lose at Bridge. Perhaps this exhibit will make it into a sequel.

Declaring 3NT after East had made a passed-hand take-out double to show spades and clubs, I received the ♠8 lead to the queen and ace. I knew East had strong clubs, so the ♦A was surely on my left (else East would have opened the bidding), but I couldn’t be sure about the ♦J. Still, it seemed right to run the ♦10 next. If West really had only two diamonds and therefore 5-5 in the majors, he might have acted over 1♦. Also, a 4-4-3-2 hand would make for a less attractive double with the East hand.

When the ♦10 held, I played another diamond to the jack and queen as East pitched a club, then cleared diamonds. West was unwilling to let me back to my hand to cash the diamonds, so he switched to hearts. I took the ♥A and called for the ♣K, keeping West off play for a heart continuation when he had a singleton honour. East could take his three club tricks, but I unblocked the ♣10 from dummy and could later enter my hand with the ♣9 to realize the pointed-suit tricks. It wouldn’t have helped East to exit in hearts.

Well played then? Not quite. West could have beaten me by continuing spades as I’d have no way to score either of dummy’s heart winners. I would make only five diamonds and three spade tricks. What I should have done, obvious now, is cash just one of the top hearts, pitching a club, before clearing diamonds. A spade continuation from West would be no good then, but even if he switched to hearts, I could insert the ♥J from dummy then play two more rounds of the suit. East would win the club shift and be endplayed. He would have to either return a club to give dummy the rest, or a spade to make the South hand high.

3 No-Trump was played the other way up next door. East led a heart to the queen and ace, then declarer played a diamond to the king. West won and continued hearts, to the king, followed by the ♦Q and another diamond. West switched to a club now, East winning the queen then switching to spades. Declarer didn’t want to stake all on the spade finesse, so she went up with the ace then cashed diamonds. East ably bared his ♠Q, so when declarer misread the position by playing a club off, he could score both the ♣A and ♣J for down one and a 12-IMP swing.

Having been rewarded with an afternoon off on Monday, we had a full-day match against ‘The Great’ Bob Hamman’s side in the round of 64. Alas, that didn’t go our way and we wound up losing by more IMPs than the quality of our bridge deserved. At least I can report this fine effort from my teammate Mike Bell:

Passing 4♥ would have been successful as it was, but Mike could hardly be blamed for introducing his second suit. West, who had cautiously pre-empted to only the three-level, kicked off with the ♠A and followed up with the ♠Q. His idea was to try and convince East to ruff if he started with a singleton spade, then return a heart for a ruff and a one-trick set. That’s precisely what East did, but declarer divined the reason for this odd defense and ruffed high.

Next came the ♦A and a diamond ruff, dropping the queen, followed by a trump to hand and a further diamond ruff. When the ♦K came down, the South hand was high, but Bell still needed to get back to his hand to draw the remaining trumps. He had to play a heart and needed to work out how high to ruff it. If West had a trump left and they were splitting 3-2 to begin with, declarer would have to ruff high again, but that would be fatal here, establishing East’s ♣10 as the setting trick.

Bell had been paying attention. He noted that West started with eight spades and four diamonds (after the fall of the diamond royals). West had already followed to a trump, leaving room for no more rounded-suit cards. Declarer duly ruffed the heart low and drew trumps to score up his game.

In the other room, Stefano Tommasini made the more usual 4♠ overcall on his solid eight-bagger, pushing North to the five-level. 5 Hearts doubled went one down for a swing of 11 IMPs. All in vain, unfortunately. We would spend the next couple of days competing in side events, but never fear! As usual, there was another big prestigious event just over the horizon – the Roth Swiss Teams on the final weekend.

After a see-saw final in which the lead repeatedly changed hands, Street defeated Delimpaltadakis 128-116 to win the 2024 Spingold.

ACBL Executive Director Bronia Jenkins presents the Spingold Trophy to the winners (from left): Ron Pachtmann, Massimiliano Di Franco, Nicolas L’Ecuyer and Andrea Manno (inset: Team captain Paul Street and Piotr Pawel Zatorski).