Welcome to our second visit to Strasbourg for the European Transnational Championships, and what a day it turned out to be. We have now finished the qualifying stage of the Mixed Teams. With 32 teams advancing to the knockout stage, all of the pre-tournament favourites made the cut although some (DE BOTTON in 22^nd place and the World Champions, FERM, in 24^th) perhaps not convincingly. Still, this is now the stage where big names start to be eliminated and you can expect a giant-killer to emerge every day from here in.

The format for the knockout rounds is 56 board matches divided into four 14-board stanzas.

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

You choose to make a negative double of North’s 3♥ overcall. What action, if any, do you take now?

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

What, if anything, do you open?

Finally, with neither side vulnerable, you hold in the East seat:

What action, if any, do you take?

A number of the Round of 32 matches looked to be almost over after the first stanza: DE BOTTON (England/Norway) led EMERALD (Israel) 81-10, and another of the pre-tournament favourites, EDMONDS (USA/Poland/Switzerland) led TCHIN TCHIN (USA/Denmark) 75-12. One of the early leaders from the Swiss stage, JUST MIXED (England/Austria/Germany) were in trouble, down 21-60 to BRIDGE 24 MIXED (Poland).

I chose a match that was still close as our featured match from the Round of 32, 54FUN (USA/Germany) leading BRENO (Italy/Sweden/France) by 2 IMPs (34-32) at the start of the second set. We join the action on the opening deal of the set, with French star Thomas Bessis charged with solving the first of the problems posed above.

Nikolas Bausback (left) made his first international appearance at the 1993 European Pairs in Bielefeld. Although a registered German national, he has represented Luxembourg on numerous occasions since making his debut for the Grand Duchy at the 2006 European Team Championship. He was a member of the Luxembourg team that won the Open Teams at the 2011 European Small Federations Championship.

Bausback’s daring 3♥ overcall, at red opposite a passed partner, reaped huge dividends on this deal. Thomas Bessis could presumably have advanced with a natural 4♦ bid, but his negative double looks like the most flexible choice. Then Hong Ding raised the ante still further, dangling an enormous carrot. Kathie Bertheau (not a fan of vegetables, perhaps) turned down the +800 on offer to emphasize her spades. When Bessis passed after considerable thought, they had settled for a meagre E/W +480.

The Italians failed to exert quite as much pressure in the replay…

Romain Zaleski’s 2♥ overcall did not shut out Lin-Huan Chen’s diamond suit. Although Irene Baroni upped the auction to the four-level before the opener got a second bid, the damage had already been done, and Ding-Hwa Hsieh (right) jumped to 6♦.

South’s club lead did not trouble declarer, who was soon claiming all 13 tricks. E/W +940 and 10 IMPs to 54FUN, extending their advantage.

Both North players had to decide what to do in first seat at ‘red’ with the second of this week’s problem hands…

Bausback opened with a weak two on the North hand, and Ding raised to the three-level in competition. Kathie Bertheau competed in diamonds and it looks as if E/W would have been allowed to go plus had Bessis managed to find a green card. The allure of a vulnerable game bonus was too much to resist. 5♦ had three unavoidable losers: E/W -50.

It looks like opening a weak two on the North hand is not enough to get you to your game. Around the room, 2♠ (or Multi) and 3♠ were the most popular openings. There were also a couple of 1♠ openings and a few passes. Let’s see how passing turned out at the other table in this match.

After passing as Dealer, Romain Zaleski raised his partner’s heart overcall in competition. Lin-Huan Chen (left) liked his hand despite his partner’s minimum raise, and he asked for a heart stopper. Thus, it then fell to Zaleski to find the winning opening lead against the Americans’ game.

I would guess that most players would choose between a heart and the ♣K, but neither is good enough to defeat the contract. Only an opening spade lead restricts declarer to eight tricks to flatten the board. The Americans who named this team probably considered this an hilarious E/W +400 and another 10 IMPs to 54FUN.

It was not all jocularity, though. Both East players had to answer the last of today’s problems on our next deal…

Lin-Huan Chen doubled North’s 1♠ opening but, facing a passed hand, he settled for defending when Irene Baroni’s raise to 4♠ came back to him. The defenders had a pair red-suit A-Ks to cash, so that was one down: E/W +50.

In the replay, Thomas Bessis was not prepared to go quietly on that East hand…

Bessis backed in with a second double when 4♠ was passed around to him. Swedish star and double Venice Cup winner Kathie Bertheau (right) duly retreated into her only four-card suit, and Hong Ding doubled on the way out with the South cards.

The defenders can take two top clubs and a club ruff against 5♥-X, and they don’t need to find the ruff on the go as declarer needs to set up dummy’s clubs and cannot afford to draw trumps first.

Bausback opened the ♠A. Bertheau ruffed in dummy and immediately called for a low club, Ding following with the ten. (Perhaps he is too young to have seen Eddie Kantar’s sage advice, to always play the king first from ♣K-10 doubleton – anyone interested in the full story, hear it in Eddie’s own words in the original 1999 “World Class”, available from Master Point Press.)

Declarer’s ♣J lost to the ace. Although the defenders’ clubs are now blocked, and thus they cannot get a ruff, declarer still has too much to do. Bertheau won the trump switch with dummy’s ace and continued with a low club, picking off South’s now-bare king. But, she is still an entry short both to ruff one more spade and then draw trumps. After winning with the ♣K, South can play either red suit to beat the contract but, when Ding exited with a high spade, he unwittingly solved declarer’s entry problems. Bertheau ruffed in dummy, drew trumps via a finesse, and claimed her eleven tricks. A spectacular E/W +650 and 12 much-needed IMPs to BRENO.

54FUN won the second stanza 43-25 to take a 20-IMP lead (77-57) at the midway point of the match. BRENO reduced the deficit to 12 IMPs going into the final segment, and then blew their opponents away 55-10 over the final 14 boards. So, no giant-killing here and the dangerous BRENO claim their place in Last 16.

Elsewhere, JUST MIXED never recovered from their poor start, and bowed out 158-103 to the Poles after making such a strong showing over the first couple of days of the tournament. Another potential contender, KNOTTENBELT, was also eliminated by a Polish team, losing 120-88 to AKINOM. Most of the pre-tournament favourites advanced in comfort, SPARKLING VINTAGES (Germany/Denmark) seeing off AUSTERLITZ (France) 182-94, DE BOTTON, EDMONDS and ROBINSON (USA).

Did I mention upsets earlier? Let’s see how the reigning World Mixed Teams champions, FERM, are faring. They went into the last 14 boards of their match again MEDIUM RARE (USA/Turkey) trailing by 17 IMPs (109-92). However, by the midway point of the final set, the favourites had turned that into a 15-IMP lead, 128-113. When the final board of the match arrived at the tables, FERM still led by 9 IMPs, 128-119. Could the US/Turkish team find a double-digit swing? The Great Dealer gave them a chance by delivering a bidding challenge for the E/W pairs…

After a natural start, Daniela von Arnim forced with 2NT and Simon de Wijs showed a non-minimum with a club shortage. Von Arnim might perhaps have cue-bid diamonds next to see if her partner would cue-bid in hearts. When she launched Blackwood without doing so, she discovered that there was a key-card missing, but she did not know if it was the ♠K or the ♥A. Perhaps facing a relatively minimum opening with heart length, a grand slam was never on her radar.

Cenk Tuncok led a trump and von Arnim played safely for twelve tricks, ruffing two clubs in dummy. E/W +980.

Hatice Ozgur (left) made her first international appearance at the 2004 World Transnational Mixed Teams Championships. She made her debut in the Turkish Women’s team at the 2008 Olympiad in Beijing, just missing out on a medal, finishing fourth. She was a member of the Turkish team that reached the final of the 2022 Venice Cup in Salsomaggiore, the best ever performance by a Turkish team in any category.

After the same start to the auction, Ozgur showed her slam interest with a jump to 4♣. When Tolga Ozbay could not cue-bid a red suit, Ozgur could be fairly sure that he would hold good trumps. Her jump to 5NT asked for two of the top three spades, and her partner obliged by jumping to the grand slam.

Christina Lund Madsen kicked off with a hopeful ♥K. Declarer ruffed, crossed to dummy with a trump, and ruffed a second heart. She then returned to dummy with the ♦Q and ruffed a third heart with the ♠A. The appearance of South’s ♥A enabled declarer to overtake the ♠J, draw the last trump, and claim the rest. A dramatic E/W +1510 and a priceless 11 IMPs to MEDIUM RARE.

FERM had won the final stanza 36-21, but that left them 2 IMPs short, and MEDIUM RARE advanced into the Round of 16 with a 130-128 victory and the biggest scalp available.

MEDIUM RARE were not the only Turkish team involved in a dramatic finish in this round. TURKISH POWER went into the final set of their match against EYTHORSDOTTIR (USA) behind 107-133. With just four boards remaining, they still trailed 137-162. Remarkably, the Turks gained 25 IMPs over the last four deals to tie the match at 162-162. The Turks then won in the extra board shootout.

We will be back in Strasbourg soon to bring you both the best of the action from the next round of the Mixed Teams and, no doubt, news of more giant-killing.