And then there were eight. We return to the Dutch town of Veldhoven and the 2023 World Youth Bridge Championships for quarter-final day. After five days of qualifying, there are now just eight surviving teams in each of the five categories. Win today, and you are guaranteed a medal.

The #1 ranked team had choice of the opponents from amongst the teams finishing fifth through eighth, then the #2 team, etc. These are the quarter-final line-ups and their seedings based on their respective placings in the qualifying stage:

Juniors: #1 USA1 v #8 SINGAPORE, #4 SWEDEN v #5 POLAND, #3 ISRAEL v #7 ITALY, #2 NETHERLANDS v #6 GREECE;

Under-26 Women: #1 NORWAY v #6 HUNGARY, #4 ENGLAND v #5 POLAND, #2 FRANCE v #8 DENMARK, #3 ITALY v #7 NETHERLANDS;

Youngsters: #1 POLAND v #7 CHINA, #4 USA1 v #5 USA2, #2 ISRAEL v #8 ENGLAND, #3 FRANCE v #6 DENMARK;

Schools: #1 USA1 v #7 CHINESE TAIPEI, #4 HUNGARY v #5 POLAND, #2 CHINA v #8 USA2, #3 ESTONIA v #6 NORWAY;

Universities: #1 CHINA v #8 SCOTLAND, #3 ISRAEL v #6 BELGIUM, #2 INDIA v #7 BULGARIA, #4 POLAND v #5 FRANCE.

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

What action do you take?

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you are sitting in the East seat with:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we start in the Junior event and the first stanza of the match between SWEDEN and POLAND. Midway through the set, this deal provided the Swedish pairs with doses of both good news and bad news…

Alexander Sandin (left) and his long-time junior partner, Sanna Clementsson, began their international careers together, just missing out on a medal in the Swedish Under-16 team that finished fourth at the 2014 World Youth Championships. They then earned bronze medals in the same event at the 2015 European Championships. Advancing to the Youngsters Teams, they won both the European Championship in 2017 and the World title a year later. Sandin also won a silver medal in the World Under-21 Pairs in 2019.

On this deal, Sandin opened 1♣ and then found himself with the first of this week’s problems when West’s weak jump to 2♠ was passed back to him. His choice was a jump to 3NT.

Could Jakub Bazyluk find the heart lead? The bad news for the Swedes was,  “Yes” – Bazyluk tabled the ♥J. The good news was that Thomasz Kielbasa could not read the position and he allowed the ♥J to run to declarer’s bare queen. With the favourable diamond position, Sandin was soon claiming all 13 tricks. E/W +720 and a bullet dodged by the Swedes, perhaps.

Castor Mann overcalled only at the one-level, which allowed Maciej Kedzierski to show some values on the North hand with his 1NT response. Erik Hansson raised to 2♠, but Blazej Krawczyk (right) was now looking for bigger things on that South hand. He started with a 3♠ cue-bid and, when his partner bid diamonds, he jumped to 6♣ . Hansson expressed his opinion of that with a red card on the way out, prompting Mann to table the ♦Q as his opening lead.

Declarer had to guess whether the opening lead was a singleton queen or from some holding including the Q-J. Krawczyk played low from dummy at trick one and thus eventually picked up the diamonds for no loser. N/S +1540 and 13 IMPs to POLAND.

The Swedes had opened the scoring in the set and led 4-0 after three boards. Thereafter, it was all POLAND, who white-washed their opponents 67-0 over the rest of the set. With The Poles ahead 67-4 after just 14 boards it looked like it was all over very quickly, and so it was. POLAND advanced with victory by 166-92.

Let’s delve into the Youngsters Teams next, and a battle between CHINA and POLAND. After a hard-fought first stanza, POLAND led 12-9. On this deal, it looks like the Chinese pair were certain about what they were doing, whilst the Poles seemed to be stumbling in the dark, although there was the possibility that they would score a huge goal anyway.

Ziao Wang (left) and Xansi Ma made their international debuts together in the Under-16 Teams at the 2019 World Youth Championships. After Ma’s double of West’s 1♦ opening, it seems likely that both Chinese players knew Wang’s 2♥ bid was natural, despite East’s response in the suit. Ma introduced his clubs at his second turn, to show the nature of his hand, but then raised to the heart game on the next round of the auction.

The defence was not overly taxing, West cashing the ♠A (queen from East), then the ♦A followed by the ♠K. A third round of spades was ruffed in dummy, bringing down the ♠10 and thus promoting declarer’s nine. Wang cashed one club, to pitch his remaining diamond loser, then picked up the trumps and claimed his ten tricks. N/S +420

Yuanzhe Niu (right) made his international debut in China’s Schools team at the 2015 World Youth Championships. He became a World champion with victory in the same event in Lyon two years later.

The auction began the same way, but the 2♥ bid was alerted on the North side of the screen. No explanations were requested, so it’s unclear whether North knew that 2♥ was natural, but the subsequent auction suggests not. North chose not to bid his club suit at his second turn, instead asking for a diamond stop, and Wojciech Bak duly replied in the affirmative by bidding 3NT. Then things became exciting, with Niu doubling and Franciszek Kurlit redoubling.

Was Niu going to lead a spade and beat 3NT-XX by a trick, or open a low diamond and allow it to make four expensive redoubled overtricks? We’ll never know, as Niu ran to 4♦. Kurlit might have bid 4♥ now to flatten the board, but now he decided it was time to mention his solid seven-card suit for the first time. Unfortunately for the Poles, there were three top losers in a club contact (not to mention a couple of heart ruffs available too). East led the ♠Q, continued with the ♠J, then switched to a diamond, so the ruffs all went begging, but that was still one down. N/S -50 and 10 IMPs to CHINA.

POLAND won the second stanza 46-37 to lead by 12 IMPs at the midway point of the match. CHINA won the third set and led by 8 IMPs going into the final 14 boards. CHINA also won the fourth stanza, by an emphatic 49-12 and thus won the match 132-87.

For the third stanza, we visit the Under-26 Women’s event, and a meeting between HUNGARY and NORWAY. The East Europeans led by 1 IMP after the opening stanza but the Scandinavians had taken a 26-IMP advantage at halftime. Could the Hungarians get back into the match against the defending champions and pre-tournament favourites?

Kaja Brekke (left) and Agnethe Hansen Kjensli were both members of the Norwegian team that won the Under-26 Women’s teams title at the 2022 World Youth Championships in Salsomaggiore.

The Hungarians began with two natural bids before Brekke’s 2♦ intervention on the South hand. Zsuzsanna Beko passed, denying as many as three spades, and Kjensli upped the ante to the three-level, leaving Andrea Toth with the second of this week’s problems. “6-5, Come Alive!”, but is this hand good enough to take another bid?

Toth decided that the answer was “No” and Beko had no reason to bid again on the West hand. Brekke was thus left to toil away in her diamond partial. After the ♠Q lead, the Hungarians could have held declarer to just six tricks (two rounds of spades, ♥K, ♣ A, ♥A, heart ruff and a third spade to promote the ♦Q). They dropped one trick in defence, but that was still two down, vulnerable: E/W +200.

Thea Lucia Indrebo (right) and Ida Marie Oeberg were both members of the Norwegian team that won the Women’s Under-26 Teams title at the 2019 World Championships in Slovakia. Indrebo was also part of the team that retained the title last year.

Hanka Lajos did not think the South hand worthy of a two-level overall with both opponents bidding, so the Norwegians had the auction to themselves. Oeberg rebid a 11-14 1NT and Indrebo made a forward move by inquiring and then rebidding her spades despite her partner denying three-card support. With her maximum, Oeberg was happy to accept the invitation, so she jumped to 3NT. Indrebo did not fancy her chances there, and offered a choice of the black suits. With both black suits behaving, both games were destined to make, but spades is significantly better as it does not need the spade finesse to work.

Indrebo ruffed the second round of diamonds and led a trump to the queen and king. She won the heart return, drew trumps and claimed when the clubs split evenly. E/W +620 and 9 IMPs to NORWAY.

NORWAY won both the third and the fourth set to power into the semi-finals with victory by 173-107. Would anyone bet against them winning a third consecutive World title in this category?

For a final deal on this visit to Veldhoven, we return to the Junior event, and what turned out to be a ding-dong battle featuring the #1 seeded USA1 team. Their choice of quarter-final opponent was SINGAPORE, who had only made it into the knockout stage with a dramatic gain on the final deal of qualifying to pip the Chinese team to the last spot by 1 IMP.

SINGAPORE jumped out to an early lead, 41-12 after the first set. The Americans reduced the deficit to 8 IMPs by halftime, but SINGAPORE rallied again and led 90-77 going into the final stanza. There were not many big swings in the final set but, on both of those that did occur, the Americans were at least culpable in their own demise. This one seemed to border on the suicidal…

The Singapore pair used a method popular in certain parts of Europe. Xue Heng Teo (left), making his international debut at these championships, opened the North hand with 2♥, showing a weak hand with both majors. Timothy Jian Zhong Wu gave preference to spades at the two-level, and there matters rested.

The Americans did not put up a particularly testing defence. A minor-suit lead looks marked from that West hand, but Benjamin Kristensen cashed the ♠A before switching to a diamond at trick two. Declarer captured East’s ♦Q with his king, played a trump to the king, and then played three more rounds of diamonds, discarding dummy’s club loser as East ruffed with his master trump. There was now just the ♥A to be lost: N/S +170.

If you bid to a game with a combined 17 count on a 4-4 fit, what do you think the percentage chances are that you will make your contract? Unless the distribution is extraordinary, I suspect that the answer is not that far from zero. On this deal, the Americans’ trump suit is K-9-8-6 opposite four to the seven. I think we can all agree that you have to be lucky to find that suit playing for only two losers. And, even after that, you still need a winning diamond finesse to get out for one down in 4♠-X. N/S -200 and 9 IMPs to SINGAPORE.

4♠-X could easily have cost 800, saving against the opponents’ 3NT that was booked to go two down. North’s 4♠ bid swapped +200 and a 1-IMP gain for a very lucky -200 and ‘only’ 9 IMPs out. Not that South was completely blameless either. Overcalling 1♦ after a 1♣ opening usually shows a significantly better hand than would overcalling 1♠, which at least takes up space and gives you a moderate chance of outbidding the opponents. Overcalling 1♦ on this South hand, particularly facing a passed partner, is inviting trouble with virtually no upside. The less said about South’s 2♠ bid the better. At best, it can encourage partner to get you way too high, as he will surely expect a much better hand than this one. Thus, ends today’s rant.

SINGAPORE deservedly won the final stanza 35-19 and the match 125-96. Of all the teams at these championships, I think there is no doubt which has exceeded expectations most. Congratulations to all members of the SINGAPORE Junior team on their medal, whichever colour they end up with.

The SINGAPORE win against the #1 seeds was certainly the biggest shock of the quarter-finals, but there were plenty of other upsets too. #5 POLAND’s defeat of the pre-tournament favourites, #4 SWEDEN was a minor example. Two lower-seeded teams also made it through in the Women’s event, with the hometown team #7 NETHERLANDS hammering #3 ITALY and another #5 team, POLAND, also obliterating #4 ENGLAND. In the Youngsters, only one of the four top seeds survived, as #7 CHINA beat #1 POLAND, #6 DENMARK squeaked past #3 FRANCE, and #5 USA2 won the All-American battle against #1 USA1. In the Schools event, #8 USA2 ousted #2 CHINA and #5 POLAND defeated #4 HUNGARY.

The Universities event saw the closest matches, with three of the four quarter-finals decided by single-figure margins. #2 INDIA just squeaked past #7 BULGARIA 128-126. #5 FRANCE beat #4 POLAND (completing a clean sweep with five wins out of five for the #5 seeds against the #4s) by just 7 IMPs. The biggest upset here was #6 BELGIUM’s defeat of #3 ISRAEL by another 2-IMP margin, 122-120.

These will be the match-ups for the semi-finals:

Juniors: #8 SINGAPORE v #5 POLAND and #2 NETHERLANDS v #3 ISRAEL;

Women: #1 NORWAY v #5 POLAND and #7 NETHERLANDS v #2 FRANCE;

Youngsters: #5 USA2 v #7 CHINA and #2 ISRAEL v #6 DENMARK;

Schools: #1 USA1 v #8 USA2 and #3 ESTONIA v #5 POLAND;

Universities: #1 CHINA v #6 BELGIUM and #2 INDIA v #5 FRANCE.

POLAND still lead the way with their team through to the semi-final stage in three events, although USA also has three teams alive, albeit two of them playing each other in one semi-final. FRANCE, NETHERLANDS, CHINA and ISRAEL all have two semi-finalists, so I’m sure the Orange Army will be out in force tomorrow to root on the hometown teams.

With at least two teams ranked #5 or lower guaranteed places in a final, we will be back soon with the best of the action from what promise to be an exciting set of matches.