Welcome to ‘August Madness’ and what American fans of college basketball would call “The Final Four”. We are back in the small Dutch town of Veldhoven for our penultimate visit to the 2023 World Youth Bridge Championships. After five days of qualifying and a day of upsets in the quarter-finals of all five events, three-quarters of those still playing will be going home with a medal. What colour it will be is now to be determined.

These are the semi-final line-ups in each of the five categories:

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 each have two semi-finalists, so I’m sure the Orange Army will be out in force to cheer on the hometown teams. We are also guaranteed that at least two teams ranked #5 or lower will make it to a final. Buckle down for what promises to be a bumpy ride.

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

What action, if any, do you take?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with neither side vulnerable, you hold in the South chair:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we start in the Under-26 Women’s semi-final and the opening stanza of the match between FRANCE and the hometown favourites, NETHERLANDS. Many of the hundreds of kibitzers watching live on BBO VuGraph were still enjoying their first coffee of the morning when both East players had a decision to make on just the second deal of the day.

Wilhelmine Schlumberger responded with a jump to 3NT after her partner’s 1♦ opening, leaving Constance Belloy to answer the first of the problems posed at the top of this article. Belloy’s solution was an invitational raise to 4NT, and no doubt Schlumberger passed without even giving it much thought as she was almost sub-minimum for her original bid. No big deal, you might think – it’s a slam on a finesse, so there is no particular right or wrong answer. That may or may not be true in no-trumps, but slam in diamonds looks to be an excellent proposition, although perhaps not so easy to reach.

A major-suit lead would tend to be favoured on this auction, so Fleur Beekman dismissed the attractive-looking club holding to open the defence with the ♠3. This meant that Schlumberger had time to take the losing heart finesse and then subsequently take advantage of the ♥10 falling to make twelve tricks. E/W +490.

The stakes were higher in the replay:

After the same start to the auction, Lotte de Wijs (left) thought for some time before deciding that her hand was worth a force to slam. The only question in her mind was whether diamonds might be better, so she advanced with 5NT ‘pick-a-slam’. Alas, it was too tough for Sarah de Wijs to discern that she should suggest the suit her partner had opened on 10-x-x rather than bid her own albeit weak five card-suit. Thus, the twins ended up in a 6NT that depended on the lead rather than the better diamond slam.

Now it was down to Clara Bouton to find the winning club lead. But, how attractive is that when declarer is known to hold at least four and probably five cards in the suit?

Bouton understandably opted for the ♥5. South’s ♥10 lost to declarer’s king, and De Wijs simply returned a heart to the jack and queen to establish the ♥9 as her twelfth trick. E/W +990 and 11 IMPs to NETHERLANDS to get the ball rolling. At the end of the first stanza, FRANCE led by 6 IMPs, 29-23.

We stay with the hometown team for the second stanza, but switch to the Junior event. NETHERLANDS led 34-20 after the opening stanza but, by the time our next deal arrived at the tables, ISRAEL had tied the match score at 34-34.

Aviv Zeitak overcalled 2♣ and then had to answer the second of this week’s problems when West’s raise to 2♥ was passed back to him. Like some of you, perhaps, I would not have started from here, as I am not a fan of five-card two-level overcalls in a minor. 2♠ now seems to overstate the strength and shape of the South hand, and doubling risks the all-too-likely 3♦ response that will leave you with no good bid, so Zeitak gave up and led a top club against East’s 2♥.

Zeitak switched to his diamond at trick two. Declarer won in dummy and played a trump, but Nir Khutorsky rose with the ♥A and gave his partner a diamond ruff. A second top club was followed by a club ruff, and a third round of diamonds then promoted South’s ♥Q into the setting trick. N/S +100.

For the Dutch, Oscar Nijssen (right) did not overcall at his first turn. He heard a forcing 1NT response and a club bid on his right, and then a preference to hearts from West was passed back to him.

When Nijssen balanced with 2♠, Tim van de Paverd knew that his partner had already bid the partnership’s combined values, but his distribution made it likely that the hands would play so much better than the sum of their high cards would suggest, so he raised spades via a 3♥ cue-bid. Nijssen liked his hand enough to accept the invitation and jump to game despite his lack of a fifth spade.

For a 22-HCP game, the play was perhaps surprisingly easy. Ami Zamir led a heart, ducked to the king, and Oren Toledano switched to the ♠A and a second trump. After losing a diamond, declarer could now throw two diamonds, on the ♥Q and ♣K, and he could ruff the remaining two diamonds in his hand. Ten tricks: N/S +620 and an impressive 11 IMPs to NETHERLANDS.

The underdog NETHERLANDS won the stanza 41-21 and thus led by 34 IMPs (75-41) at the midway point of the match.

We stay in the Junior event for the third stanza, but switch to the match between POLAND and the team that have so far been the tournament’s major giant-killers, SINGAPORE. Is it too early to see them as a ‘Team of Destiny’?

SINGAPORE got out of the blocks first and led 41-24 after the opening set. Order then seemed to be restored as POLAND dominated the second set, winning it 46-8 to lead by 21 IMPs (70-49) at the midway point of the match. Both South players had to answer the last of this week’s problems on the first hand of the third stanza.

It is easy to see why Blazej Krawczyk passed Bryan Yang’s pre-emptive 3♠ overcall. If North has a minimum opening bid, then 3♠ will probably end the auction, and the defence is probably favourite to pick up a small penalty when your side can make nothing. If partner has enough to make game, then defending 3♠-X at equal vulnerability is likely to produce at least +500 and maybe more.

When Maciej Kedzierski re-opened not with a double but with a 4♥ bid, what could Krawczyk do? With his spade values almost certainly wasted, how good was his hand? He could hardly underwrite a five-level contract and so bidding on would be a pure flight of fancy.

A spade lead went to the jack and ace, declarer ruffing. Two top diamonds and a diamond ruff followed, and a club was thrown on the ♠K. A spade ruff and a second diamond ruff now left declarer with only winners. N/S +510.

Timothy Jian Zhong Wu (left) was a member of the Singapore Youngsters team at the 2018 World Youth Championships in China. On this deal, he stretched to bid 3NT over Kacper Kopka’s 3♠ overcall. Xue Heng Teo advanced with 4♦ and Wu gave preference back to hearts. Teo now cue-bid his spade control and, although Wu declined to cue-bid his club control, from here there was no stopping Teo below the six level.

Kopka led the ♣J and Teo, wary that when a defender pre-empts and then leads a different suit it is usually a singleton, rose with the ♣A. A diamond to the jack won at trick two, and now declarer was almost there. The ♦A and a diamond ruff enabled Teo to draw trumps and claim twelve tricks, just conceding a club at the end. A breathless N/S +980 and 10 IMPs to SINGAPORE, halving the deficit on the opening deal of the second half.

SINGAPORE won a low-scoring third stanza 22-19, so they went into the final set trailing by 18 IMPs.

From one potential upset to another, with the defending champions in the Women’s event, NORWAY, going into the final stanza against POLAND behind by a score of 55-85. The Poles didn’t just defend their advantage, but took the fight to their opponents. They bid to 6♥ with a trump suit of K98xx opposite J10xxx. With the defender in front of the king holding A-Q-x of trumps, declarer could have got it wrong (by playing a trump to the king). However, the Poles were playing in what Zia calls Heat 3, where whatever they did worked, so that was 11 IMPs to POLAND when the Norwegians stopped in game. This was the very next deal:

Thea Lucia Indrebo opened the North hand and rebid a weak 1NT after her partner had transferred, showing hearts. Ida Marie Oeberg forced to game with an artificial 2♦, so Indrebo showed her clubs and then retreated to 3NT after Oeberg had shown extra heart length. When Oeberg advanced with an invitational 4NT, it’s hard to imagine that Indrebo even considered bidding on with an ill-fitting minimum.

Slam is essentially about a 50% proposition although, looking at just the N/S hands, it is possible that twelve tricks will make in one room but not the other. Declarer has ten top tricks and a choice of two seven-card fits (clubs or hearts) to play on for two extra tricks. Whichever suit declarer plays on, she will need either a 3-3 break or a doubleton honour. (The presence of the ♣8 means that declarer also benefits from a singleton honour in that suit.) Of course, the way the match was going, both clubs and hearts were bound to behave, and they duly did, so it was impossible not to make twelve tricks. N/S +690.

Dominika Ocylok (right) made her international debut as a member of Poland’s Under-26 Women’s team that collected silver medals at the 2018 World Championships. She then went one better, winning the same event at the 2019 European Youth Teams.

Ewa Morawska passed the North hand, which allowed Ocylok to open a multi-way Polish 1♣ in fourth seat. Ocylok’s jump to 2♥ on the second round was natural and showing the 18+ variation of her 1♣ opening. Morawska showed her clubs and then raised invitationally to 4NT to show her maximum pass. Ocylok offered her partner a choice of slams but Morawska was happy in no-trumps.

Ocylok won the spade lead with the king and laid down the ♣A. She played a club to the king in case East started with Q-J doubleton, then settled for twelve tricks when that chance for the overtrick failed to materialize. N/S 1440 and another 13 IMPs to POLAND.

POLAND won the final set 43-14 and march into the final with an emphatic 59-IMP victory over the defending champions. That was good news for the Poles, so it was perhaps fitting that, at the same time, they should be the victims of a giant-killing in the Junior event. SINGAPORE won a dramatic final stanza 48-13 to advance to the final with a 119-102 win. In the Schools event, there was also a major upset as #8 seeded USA2 beat the #1 seeds in the All-American match-up.

The line-up for the finals in the five categories is:

Juniors: #2 NETHERLANDS v #8 SINGAPORE;

Women: #2 FRANCE v #5 POLAND;

Youngsters: #5 USA2 v #6 DENMARK;

Schools: #5 POLAND v #8 USA2;

Universities: #5 FRANCE v #6 BELGIUM.

Remarkably, of the 20 teams who finished in the top four of their respective events in the qualifying stage, only two have made it to a final. POLAND, USA and FRANCE all have finalists in two events. The Orange Army will also be happy, as the hometown fans have a team to cheer for on the final day of what has been an excellent tournament.

We will be back for our last visit to Veldhoven soon, to bring you the best of the action from the finals.