We return to Delhi, India and the 2023 HCL International Bridge Championships, for the final of the Teams of Four Gold event for the Naresh Tandan Trophy. Just two teams remain alive from the 52 who began the journey five days ago. The format of the final is a 56-board match divided into four 14-board segments.

The final will be contested by the hometown favourites, FORMIDABLES (Kiran Nadar, Bachiraju Satyanarayana, Rajeshwar Tewari, Sumit Mukherjee, Kaustabh Nandi and Sagnik Roy) and Polish visitors AZS BUBOSLAVIA (Kamil Nowak, Piotr Marcinowski, Jakub Patreuha and Patryk Patreuha).

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with only your side vulnerable, you are West holding:

What do you bid?

Next, with only your side vulnerable, you hold as South:

What do you bid?

Finally, with neither side vulnerable, you hold as West:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we start our coverage early in the opening stanza.

Piotr Marcinowski agreed his partner’s spades with a raise to the two-level. When Kamil Nowak then made a game try with 3♥, Marcinowski was left with the first of the problems posed above. There is a case to be made for both accepting and rejecting the try. On the conservative side, you have only 12 HCP and partner couldn’t open the bidding. The pluses are a singleton in partner’s help-wanted suit along with a fourth trump, plus controls in both side suits and few obviously wasted values. That the ♣K was of no use at all and yet game was still a good proposition perhaps suggests that accepting the game try is the right decision.

The defence began with two rounds of hearts, so declarer ruffed, crossed to the ♦K, and ruffed another heart. Nowak then played the ♦A and returned to his hand with a diamond ruff in order to ruff his last heart in dummy. Two top diamonds and eight trump tricks added up to ten winners: E/W +170.

Sagnik Roy (left) made his international debut as a member of the Indian Schools team at the 2016 World Youth Teams. He was a member of the Indian squad that collected bronze medals in the Under-31 Teams at the World Championships in Veldhoven earlier this year. He also won the World Under-31 Pairs at the same event, partnering Sayantan Kushari, a member of the team that FORMIDABLES beat in yesterday’s semi-final here in Delhi.

The Indian pair made short work of this deal. Roy also passed on the East hand as Dealer. However, he then responded to his partner’s 1♦ opening with a jump to 2♠. There is no alert or explanation in the VuGraph records, so perhaps 2♠ showed some sort of intermediate single-suited hand, or maybe it was a Flannery variant, showing both majors. Whatever it meant, Kaustabh Nandi thought his hand was good enough to jump to game despite his partner’s initial pass. Who can argue with success?

Patryk Patreuha found the more challenging opening lead of a trump (suggesting that maybe declarer had shown both majors with his 2♠ bid). Declarer won with the ♠K and played dummy’s singleton heart, which was ducked to South, who continued with a second trump. Limited now to only seven trump tricks and two high diamonds, declarer needed to find a tenth trick from somewhere else. With two ruffing entries to dummy, one option is to establish a long diamond, which works as long as the suit does not break any worse than 4-2.  Roy chose instead to take a second-round diamond finesse. (If the finesse had lost, declarer was protected against a club attack from the North seat, so he would still have been okay as long as diamonds broke 3-3 or the ♣A was onside.) With South holding the ♦Q, that was eleven tricks to the young Indian. E/W +650 and 10 IMPs to FORMIDABLES.

Aliens seem to have temporarily taken over from the North players at both tables on our next deal.  I’ll leave you to judge whether those watching live on BBO were amused or bemused by what they witnessed.

The auction began normally enough, but what do you make of Rajeshwar Tewari‘s 2♥ bid on that North hand? With West’s negative double implying hearts, did he intend this as a cue-bid raise of clubs? If so, perhaps 2♠ would have made that message more clear to his partner. As a passed hand, there is an inference that he must hold some sort of club fit to be bidding at all here, but I doubt that South was expecting his partner to hold such extreme shape as this. Had North just jumped to, say, 4♣, or raised via a 3♠ splinter, might South then not have bid 5♣ over 4♠? When the auction came back to Tewari, he did not feel that he had enough to commit to the five-level himself at this vulnerability.

Sumit Mukherjee led the ♣K and then switched to his diamond at trick two. Kamil Nowak turned down the trump finesse, playing to the ace and then conceding a trump to South’s king. North then found himself squeezed in the endgame to concede the overtrick. E/W +450. Perhaps one of the Poles would have continued to 5♠ over 5♣, but it seems unlikely.

The auction at the other table was perhaps even more bizarre. Third in hand, Roy took the very pessimistic view to pre-empt with a very heavy 3♠ on the East hand. It was surely asking far too much to expect Nandi to raise on his balanced 9-count, so it looked as if the Poles would gain 6 IMPs for their opponents missing a non-vulnerable game. However, Patryk Patreuha was not satisfied with such small fry, so he waded in with a takeout double on his shapely 7-count.

That left Jakub with the second of this week’s problems. Facing a partner who could not open the bidding, perhaps his 3NT was rather an ambitious choice. Having said that, does a simple 4♣ not seem rather feeble on these cards?

Patryk didn’t fancy his chances in 3NT, so he pulled to his ‘robust’ diamond suit at the four-level. As luck would have it, Jakub had a semi-solid six-card suit to which he could retreat. The hands fitted perfectly and there were only two aces to lose. With luck like that on his shoulder, perhaps Patryk should hustle down to the bookies to find a 50-1 outsider to put his money on. After such a display of youthful optimism, it seems appropriate for me to dig out a photo of Patryk (left) representing Poland at his international debut in 2014. 😊

A truly remarkable N/S +600 and 14 IMPs to AZS.

AZS BUBOSLAVIA won a low-scoring opening set 22-19.

The vagaries of system determined the only meaningful swing of a very quiet second stanza.

Roy advanced with an invitational club raise at his second turn. Although he has extra club length, it is still hard to view the West hand as much more than a minimum opening bid, so the decision to pass by Kaustabh Nandi (right) seems quite understandable. Indeed, it looks like the winning option, as 3NT looks destined to fail whether North leads a heart or starts with the ♦Q. On a diamond lead, whether declarer covers or not, the defence can switch to hearts at trick two, which would leave declarer with only eight tricks.

There was a loser in each side suit in Nandi’s club partial: E/W +130.

Marcinowski got the ball rolling with Polish Club’s natural 2♣ opening at this table. East would normally inquire an artificial 2♦, with 3♣ reserved for pre-emptive raises, but it seems that this pair use a non-standard method. Marcinowski showed his second suit and Kamil Nowak (left) bid game.

Whilst 3NT is easily defeated with North on lead, South has to open specifically with a heart to beat the same contract played from the East seat. Is there any reason on this auction for Kiran Nadar to choose a heart rather than a diamond from that South hand? I cannot see one, and nor could Nadar.

A grateful Nowak won the first trick with his ♦K and quickly claimed eight more. E/W +400 and 7 IMPs to AZS.

AZS BUBOSLAVIA won a very low-scoring set 14-4, but that was enough to extend their advantage to 25 IMPs (48-23) at the midway point of the match.

By contrast, the action began on the very first deal of the third stanza. The Indian team might consider themselves a bit unlucky on this deal, as I believe the Poles fully deserved a bad board for doing something that is a pet peeve of mine…

East’s 1♦ opening bid is probably forgivable in Polish Club, and it would be normal in Precision and similar systems. However, I also see those playing natural systems opening 1♦ with this shape. “To give me a rebid,” they explain.

It takes me only a short time to disillusion any students of who mine who arrive with the notion that 1♦ is the right opening playing standard methods. The reasoning stems from their reluctance to rebid 1NT with a singleton in partner’s major. However, if you routinely raise a major-suit response with three-card support (as you should) then a 1NT rebid then shows specifically either one or two cards in partner’s suit. That means that you don’t need to distort your shape on this hand type. Doing so will often lead to a silly contract like the one reached here. Expecting partner to hold more cards in his first suit than his second, Marcinowski of course gave preference to diamonds with equal length. (Indeed, he would also be right to do so with two diamonds and three clubs.) 

Nowak was not a happy bunny in 2♦. Sumit Mukherjee (left) found the best defence, leading the ♥A and continuing with a second heart for his partner to ruff. Declarer was thus held to only four tricks. Fortunately for the Poles, undertricks were only counted in 50s. N/S +200. If only someone could have found a double!

The Indians were a bit unfortunate here. Although they were set a problem by Patryk Patreuha’s natural weak 2♠ opening (more of that later), there was an element of self-inflicted damage. You can make a one-level takeout double on as little as a 10-count if you have the right shape (4441 or 5440). The further you move away from the ideal shape, the more high-card strength you need to compensate. One key factor in determining whether your shape is suitable for a double if the decision to bid or not is close, is four-card support for unbid major(s). For me, it would be a close decision whether to double a 1♠ opening with this East hand, with a 12-count and only three hearts. Doubling 2♠ effectively forces your partner to start bidding at the three-level, so you need an even better hand than you do to double a 1♠ opening. For me, this one is not even that close to a double. It just has too many flaws.

Let’s now move around the table to the West seat, and the last of this week’s problems. Is this a clear pass of a takeout double of 2♠? Yes, you have five trumps, but they are sitting under the bidder. With only 7 HCP, there is no guarantee that your side holds the majority of the points. You also have four-card support for the one suit that partner will (should) hold most of the time. Not that you are thinking of bidding a game or anything, but your length will often detract from the defensive value of your partner’s hand. Yes, I’m sure a number of people would pass, but I’m not so convinced that it is clear. For me, it is probably right to remove to 3♥ (via Lebensohl to deny invitational values). Not that this works well on this layout, and South might well double 3♥. (Another reason why East should not strain to make a double on this hand is that it is very easy for responder to double for penalties when his partner has opened with a pre-empt.)

There was no beating 2♠-doubled on this layout. Indeed, it was cold for nine tricks although declarer dropped a trick in the play. That was still N/S +470 and 7 IMPs to AZS BUBOSLAVIA (despite the silly result from the other room).

When your team has a bad board like this, it is easy to look critically at the E/W actions that led to that result. A question which should be addressed as a team, though, is, “Why didn’t we put our opponents under the same pressure at the other table?” In first seat non-vulnerable, the odds are 2-to-1 that one of your opponents has the good hand rather than your partner. You should, therefore, strain to pre-empt as often as possible. Opening 2♠ on this North hand looks to me like a routine action, and if it is not for you, perhaps you should consider changing your partnership style.

The Polish lead is now 32 IMPs. If FORMIDABLES are to climb back into the contest, this would be a good time to begin the comeback.

We will be back soon with the highlights from the remaining boards of this final.