By Steve de Roos (player in Belgian national team, winner of Champions Cup in 2022)

The World Bridge Tour 2024 BK Istanbul Open Pairs took place at the Büyük Kulüp (the “Big Club”) in Istanbul from 6-9 September. 113 pairs competed this year in a very nice setting.

You started the first session of 24 boards in the morning and you got free coffee, water or Turkish tea accompanied by some nice Turkish cookies and this was repeated every day. During lunchbreak the lunch was included with soft drinks.

The Büyük Kulüp had a very big room available for the tournament and there was an extra room available for one section. The room was very spacious, and all tables had screens. After two days of qualifying, the first 48 pairs would go on to Final A where they would play 2 boards against every other pair. All other pairs would play in Final B. The carry-over is only 2 tops between 1^st and 48^th place so during qualifying you didn’t have to worry too much, you just needed to qualify and you had a chance in the final.

From the first board of the tournament you already had to make a decision. Will you go high or low…?

At our table, the bidding started with:

It looks like game will be made if the Diamonds come in, but there is no way to find this out safely.

As it was, the Diamond King was behind the Ace and you could not make a game, so it was good to stay low.

Board 1 Dealer North, None Vulnerable

Making 4 Diamonds gave a score of 70% on this board, while 3 No-Trump down 3 would have scored 6%.

Sometimes it also depends against who you play. Take this board for example.

Board 7, Dealer South, all vulnerable

Most players made only 11 tricks in Spades but three pairs bid and made slam. I didn’t follow it at the table but I heard that Zia Mahmood said it was one of his rules: "If they don’t cover they don’t have it". So after the Queen of Diamonds does not get covered, you go up with the Ace to find the stiff King. Following his own rule, Zia was one of the three who made it!

Putting pressure on the opponents is something that works rather well. In pairs you can take even more risks than in teams. On the example below, East opened 2♥ showing a weak hand with both majors. West jumped to 4♠ and can you blame North for bidding? 5 in the minor doubled down 2 gave them 4%.

Board 2, Dealer East, N/S vulnerable

The next board is very interesting on defense.

Board 19, dealer South, E/W vulnerable

NS reach 4 Spades by North and the lead is the 10 of Hearts which holds the trick. A Heart to the Jack is followed by the Ace of Hearts. North discards a Club and what do you discard in East? If you partner continues with a Heart the game will go down. Looking at the scores, it seems only one pair found the correct defense.

The scores were very close until the end. On the very last round, the two pairs in contention for the first place had to play against each other. Michal Klukowski and Justyna Zmuda against Zia Mahmood and Christian Bakke. They switched first place throughout Final A.

The first board between them put Christian on lead against 6 No-Trump after below bidding.

He led the “normal” Queen of Hearts for 0%. Had he found the Club lead (and South played the 9), he would have scored almost 100%.

Board 21, Dealer North, N/S vulnerable

On the last board, it was again Christian who had to lead, against 3 No-Trump this time.

Board 22, dealer East, E/W vulnerable

Only a Heart lead would have beaten the contract but he decided to select the “normal” lead of a Spade. This gave them 17% while a Heart lead would have given them 90%.

After four days of bridge, the polish stars Michal Klukowski and Justyna Zmuda came out ahead with 58.49% followed by Zia Mahmood and Christian Bakke with 56.91%. Oguzhan Kadioglu and Mehmet Eksioglu completed the podium with 56.19%.

The tournament offered four days of good bridge while being in the center of Istanbul which made it excellent to do some sightseeing as well. If you like bridge and have the time available then this is definitely a tournament that you should attend.