We have reached the ‘Sweet 16’ in the Open Teams at the European Transnational Championships, and you will see serious contenders for the title in almost every match from here on in. Today, I looked for a match between two teams that looked evenly matched, and came up with VINCIGUERRA (France/Monaco) v MAVERICKS (Norway/India/Ukraine). Both teams had similar records to reach this point: they both made it into the knockout stage with mid-table finishes in the Swiss, VINCIGUERRA in 17th place and MAVERICKS in 23rd. Both survived their Round of 32 encounters thanks to big final sets. The French team led by 1 IMP going into the last stanza of their match against EKIN MADEN (Turkey) but won the final set 46-14. MAVERICKS started their last 14 boards against Peter Fredin’s PARTYPACK (Sweden) trailing by 18 IMPs, but a 59-26 final set had seen them through with a 15-IMP win. Further confirmation that this match was unlikely to be a blowout for either team was that the score after the first stanza stood at 24-24.

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with both sides vulnerable, you are South holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with neither side vulnerable you hold as North:

What action, if any, do you take?

The second set started slowly and the match score had advanced (in you can call it that) all the way to 26-26 when we got out first potential swing deal. Both South players were faced with the first of the problems posed above…

Two members of MAVERICKS’ Indian contingent quickly got the auction to the four-level, leaving Herve Vinciguerra with the first of today’s problems. The Frenchman’s choice was to pass, and he then passed again when Philippe Soulet backed in with 5♣. With diamonds breaking 3-2, there was nothing to the play: N/S +620.

Slam is better than a 3-2 diamond break, as declarer should also make on any 4-1 break except one of the three low singletons in the East hand.

After the same start to the auction, double European champion and Norwegian star Terje Aa (left)  made a value-showing responsive double. That was enough to encourage Allan Livgard to jump to slam in his long suit.

Livgard ruffed the opening spade lead, trundled off a number of rounds of trumps, and eventually cashed the ♦A and led the ♦J, presumably intending to duck if East covered with the ♦Q. By conceding a diamond, declarer had a parking place for his heart loser. N/S +1370 and 13 IMPs to MAVERICKS.

On some deals, it is difficult to tell who is saving and who is bidding to make…

Subodh Maskara came in with a natural 2♠ overcall of North’s opening 1NT. South joined in with a 3♦ transfer (although this usually shows at least invitational values). West’s jump to 4♠ then ended the brief auction.

The ♣J lead would have given the defenders five tricks, but Herve Vinciguerra opted for the ♦2. Declarer should have allowed North to win with the ♦10 to ensure that South could not regain the lead, but Maskara won with the ♦A and played a trump. Philippe Soulet won with the ♠A and underled his ♦K to get his partner back on lead. In with the ♦Q, Vinciguerra had a second chance to lead a club through dummy’s king. When he instead switched to a heart into declarer’s tenace, one of the defenders’ club tricks eventually disappeared. N/S +50.

After the same start, Thomas Bessis had to start with 2♦ to show a one-suited hand with a major. This allowed Terje Aa to get his heart suit into the auction at the two level. Cedric Lorenzini jumped to 3♠, but Bessis turned down the invitation. However, Aa was not prepared to sell out and backed in with 4♦ on his weak 6-5. Now Lorenzini bid a fourth spade, leaving Allan Livgard with the second of today’s problems.

Partner showed no interest in game when he bid 2♥. Do you therefore expect to have any chance of making an 11-trick contract. Probably not, but can you be sure of beating 4♠? Livgard decided to take out the insurance by bidding 5♦. There were two hearts and a diamond to lose on top, and declarer held the defence to just those three tricks. N/S -100 and 4 IMPs to VINCIGUERRA.

VINCIGUERRA had brought the match score back to 40-41 when the penultimate board of the set arrived at the tables. With both sides likely to make 11 tricks in two different denominations, this deal offered plenty of scope for a big swing.

There are no alerts shown in the VuGraph record, so I cannot tell you whether Philippe Soulet’s 1♠ response was conventional, or an imaginative effort to steal the opponents’ major. South’s jump immediately to Blackwood suggests that 1♠ was just natural.

Aniruddha Bhattacharjee (left) was a member of India’s team at the 2019 Bermuda Bowl in Wuhan. His 5♣ bid on this board was a lead-directing raise to 5♥. Soulet’s pass of 5♣ presumably showed one key-card, in which case there was never any chance that Vinciguerra would choose to defend. Indeed, 6♠ is an excellent contract, failing only because of the unfortunate diamond layout.

Bhattacharjee’s intelligent bid also got the defence off to the best start, Maskara leading the ♣K and continuing the suit. Declarer ruffed in dummy, cashed the ♠A and crossed to his hand with a second trump to the king. When declarer then led a diamond from his hand, it is hard to criticize Maskara for ruffing to make sure that the slam went down. N/S -50.

Had East discarded on the diamond, West would eventually get in with the ♦Q. Playing a high club to force dummy again would then have ensured a late trump trick for East for two down, but an extra 50 rates to be fairly meaningless. (Remember that observation if Mavericks lose by 1 or 2 IMPs.)

For the Norwegians, Livgard started with 2NT, showing a weak diamond raise. Thomas Bessis (right) bided his time to see whether South just retreated to 3♦ or did something stronger. Aa bid out his shape with 3♠ and Livgard showed a minimum, and now Bessis entered the fray with 4♥. Aa was still looking for slam so he rolled out Blackwood and Lorenzini competed at the five-level. Aa had no interest in defending, as slam would have play opposite just about any hand with four-card diamond support.

Lorenzini led a heart to declarer’s ace, and Aa cashed a top diamond. When Bessis discarded, Aa conceded one down: N/S -50.

With both teams getting to the good but failing slam, this deal was an honourable push in this match. However, the board did generate a swing in six of the eight matches in the Open. Two E/W pairs were allowed to play in 5♥ making (one doubled), and five N/S pairs bought the hand in game (again, one doubled, in 5♦). Six N/S pairs went down in 6♦ or 6♠ and three E/W pairs played in 6♥-X going one down.

A speculative double of a game on the last board of the set meant that VINCIGUERRA won the second stanza 23-17, so they led 47-41 at the midway point of the match. Every indicator suggested that this one was likely to go right down to the wire, and so it proved to be. MAVERICKS won the third stanza to take a 7-IMP lead with 14 boards to play. But, the French came back to win the final set 21-8, so VINCIGUERRA moved on to the quarter-finals with a 98-92 win.

There was only one other close match. BRENO (Italy) led FRANCE GREEN by 3 IMPs going into the final set of their match. The French won the final set 19-16 to tie the match at 112-112 after 56 boards, but it was FRANCE GREEN who went into the draw for the next round. Finally, we saw another huge giant-killing performance in this round, with DAISY CHAIN (France/Italy/Denmark/Switzerland) eliminating ZIMMERMANN (Switzerland) 133-103 after the Bermuda Bowl champions had gone into the final set down by just 3 IMPs.

We will be back in Strasbourg soon with the best of the action from the quarter-finals.