Today is quarter-finals day in the Soloway Trophy at the 2023 Fall NABC in Atlanta, Georgia. Four of the original Top 8 seeds are still alive. Two teams originally outside the Top 16 have also made it this far (including the Spingold winners from earlier this year, who seem to have been seriously under-seeded at #19 for this event). The line-up for the quarter-finals is:

#1        LEBOWITZ   v          #8        GOODMAN

#2 (15) BREMARK    v          #7        STREET

#3 (19) FLEISHER     v          #6 (11) AMOILS

#4 (20) HANS             v          #5        ZIMMERMANN

The format is 60-board matches, divided into four 15-board segments. As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with only your side vulnerable, you are West holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

Alternatively, with the same hand, you hear this auction…

What action, if any, do you take in this scenario? If you pass and your partner reopens with a double, what now?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with only your side vulnerable, you hold as West:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you mull those over, we start with the match between BREMARK (Sweden and Portugal) and STREET (USA, Canada, Italy, Poland and Israel). STREET led 41-16 after the first stanza. Midway through the second stanza, the deal that produced the two scenarios posed above as the first problem arose. Let’s see what happened.

Frederic Wrang (left) jumped to 4♥ on the South cards, leaving Piotr Zatorski with a problem. Does it not feel right to double on that West hand? Most of the time, partner will pass, but will you be unhappy if he removes to 4♠? (More of that later.) Perhaps afraid of hearing 5♣ (or 4NT pick a minor) if he doubled, Zatorski passed and thus Wrang got to play for 50 a trick, which looked like it might be a good deal for the Swedes.

Zatorski began with a club and Ron Pachtman was allowed to win with the ♣J. Declarer won the club continuation and played a third round, but Zatorski could ruff in front of dummy with the ♥9. The defence still had two trump tricks and the ♠A to come. Two down: N/S -100.

Obviously, East/West could have collected +300 by doubling. However, if West doubles, Pachtman will probably remove to 4♠ on this East hand. That surely looks like good news from the West seat.

Suppose South leads a diamond against 4♠. North can win and switch to a club and South ducks. How does declarer now get to his hand to pick up Norths trumps? Playing another diamond is no good, as North wins and then a club to the ace and a third club promotes the ♠K. However, if declarer continues with a second club, South wins with the ♣A but he cannot do everything. If he plays a third club for the trump promotion, declarer just pitches his second diamond. If does not help the defence for North to cash his second diamond before switching to clubs, as declarer can then ruff the third round of diamonds to get to his hand.

Could the Swedes find their nine-card spade fit in the other room?

The Swedish system dictated that Simon Hult had to open a limited and nebulous 1♦ on the East cards. Paul Street (right) chose to pre-empt only to the three-level on the South hand, setting Leif Bremark the second variation on this week’s first problem.

With that heart holding it is tempting to play for penalties, particularly as neither a negative double nor a game-forcing 3♠ are particularly attractive alternatives. When East then reopens with a double, does that not suggest interest in spades? Even with such well-placed trumps, does it look right to defend 3♥-doubled if your side has a nine-card spade fit, particularly at this vulnerability?

As we have already seen, the defenders should manage to come to five tricks, but a strange thing happened on the way to the forum. Bremark opened the ♦K, declarer winning in dummy with the ace. When Street then led a low club from dummy, Hult did not want to discourage his partner from winning with the ace and playing a trump, so he followed with a low club. You can imagine declarer’s surprise (and delight) when he put in the ♣9 and it won. The ♣A and a third round of clubs quickly followed. West ruffed in with the ♥9, but all the defenders had left to come was the ♠A and two trump winners. That meant an unlikely N/S +530 and a 12-IMP windfall for STREET.

STREET won the second stanza 41-25, so they led by 41 IMPs (82-41) at the midway point of the match. They went on to complete a comfortable victory by 168-98 to claim their semi-final place.

Let’s check in next with the #1 seeds, LEBOWITZ (USA, Denmark and Argentina), as they took on GOODMAN (USA, Netherlands and Italy). GOODMAN led 34-13 after the first stanza but that lead had been reduced to just 2 IMPs (59-57) by the start of the final stanza. With just a handful of boards remaining, the match score had advanced to 89-77 in favour of GOODMAN. Then came…

Dennis Bilde opened a natural weak two on the East hand, but the Italians had just the bid to describe this South hand, so Giacomo Percario (left) entered with a 3♠ cue-bid showing both minors. Agustin Madala raised to game and, although Giovanni Donati could not be sure whether 4♠ was making, he bid 5♣ as a two-way shot.

The defenders had three top tricks against 5♣, so Donati was one down: E/W +100. The good news for the Italians was that they only had three winners against a spade contract.

The Americans were less well-equipped in the replay…

Bauke Muller opened the same 2♠, but Zac Grossack only had the unappetizing choices of Pass, Double, 4NT (showing minors) or a natural suit overcall at the three-level. He opted for 3♦ and he was then faced with another decision when Simon de Wijs’s jump to 4♠ came back to him. Pass? Double? 5♣? Grossack decided that double was the least unilateral of his options, which left Michael Rosenberg with the second of this week’s problems.

Pass and 5♣ were two options. What would 4NT say about the relative suit lengths? With De Wijs having voluntarily jumped to game, Rosenberg decided that there was too much chance of 4♠ making for him to pass, but still that did not answer the question of what to bid. He eventually settled for 5♦ and De Wijs added a red card to close an eventful auction.

The defenders took their three major-suit winners on the go, leaving Rosenberg to guess the trumps to get out for just a 3-IMP loss thanks to the double. When he chose to cash diamonds from the top, Muller scored a trick with the ♦Q. Two down: E/W +500 and 9 IMPs to GOODMAN.

GOODMAN won the final stanza 46-33 and the match by 15 IMPs, 105-90, although it probably felt even closer.

In the quarter-final between ZIMMERMANN (Switzerland) and HANS (Australia and New Zealand), the underdogs led 86-74 at the halfway break. The World Champions came roaring back in the third set. One is always encouraged when picking up a hand with long spades. It improves your chances of being able to outbid your opponents but, on this layout, bidding the senior suit proved to be the first step on the road to ruin…

In typically aggressive Australian style, Andy Hung (right) got the ball rolling with a natural weak 2♠ opening on the North cards. When Jacek Kalita passed Michael Klukowski’s takeout double, Sartaj Hans knew his side was in trouble. Hoping to find his way to a better spot, Hans removed to 2NT, Kalita doubled and the Australians decided to take their medicine right there.

Actually, North/South had done as well as they could after that start. Leading a black suit would have given the defenders a chance to hold declarer to six tricks, but Klukowski understandably kicked off with the ♥J. Declarer won and played a diamond, Klukowski winning and continuing the heart attack. When declarer continued diamonds, Klukowski won again and settled for a plus score by playing his spade. East overtook and cashed four tricks in the suit, but that was it for the defence. N/S -100.

For the Swiss, Bas Drijver did not open the North hand, so it was New Zealander Michael Whibley (left) who laid claim to the spade suit at this table. Nabil Edgtton started with a strength-showing redouble and Whibley jumped in clubs to show a distributional hand. (Would pass have been forcing, and thus this jump shows a relatively weak hand with a lot of shape?) With almost his whole hand in red suits, opposite is his partner’s shortages, Edgtton’s raise to game was perhaps too ambitious. Sjoert Brink certainly thought so, and he expressed that opinion in the traditional way.

Brink accurately started with the ♥A and declarer ruffed. Whibley tried a low club from his hand at trick two, but Brink won with the ♣Q and continued with a heart to his partner’s king. Again, declarer ruffed and the Australian was rapidly losing control. He tried the ♠A followed by the ♠J, but Brink ruffed. Declarer overruffed in dummy, cashed a high diamond and took a third heart ruff. He could crossruff his way to nine tricks from here, but that was still two short: E/W +500 and 9 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN.

ZIMMERMANN dominated the third set, winning it 70-16. They led by 42 IMPs going into the final set and padded their lead to claim their place in the semi-finals with victory by 181-131.

The last quarter-final featured two of the teams not originally seeded in the Top 8, AMOILS (Canada, USA, Israel and Ireland) and FLEISHER (USA, France and Italy). This turned out to be the closest of the matches in this round. FLEISHER jumped out to a 25-IMP lead after the first set but, with one set remaining, it was AMOILS who was ahead, 89-86. There were few swings in the last 15 boards, but this deal did some major damage.

Cedric Lorenzini was able to bid a natural 2♣ at his second turn. Despite 12 HCP, Tom Hanlon (right) decided that an invitational jump to 3♥ was enough at his second turn. Leslie was not interested. With trumps breaking 3-1, that seemed to be well-judged, although declarer managed to slip past the ♣A to pick up an overtrick. N/S +170.

It is rare to find a top Italian pair playing a weak no-trump, but it created the last of this week’s problems for Brad Moss on this deal. Once North had shown hearts, Moss decided to risk an Unusual 2NT intervention to show his two-suited hand.

With game not guaranteed for his side and now bad breaks looming too, Antonio Sementa (left) was not tempted to do anything other suggest taking whatever money was available on defence. Joe Grue had no fit for either of his partners suits, so Moss saw no reason to contract for more tricks than he had to.

The defence could have collected four figures, but they let a trick slip and allowed declarer to make a fifth trick. That was still N/S +800 and 12 IMPs to FLEISHER.

The Spingold winners took the final stanza 28-11 and thus won the match by 14 IMPs (114-100).

None of the original top four seeds had survived, but three of the original Top 8 had made it the semi-final stage, along with the winners of the Spingold earlier in the year. The line-up for the semi-finals is:

#1 (8)  GOODMAN   v          #4 (5) ZIMMERMANN

#2 (7)  STREET         v          #3 (19) FLEISHER

We will be back soon with the best of the action from the semi-finals.