Welcome to Louisville, Kentucky, home of The Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Louisville Slugger baseball bats and Muhammad Ali (yes, the airport here is even named after the sporting legend). Louisville is also the venue for the 2024 North American Spring Nationals, and we are here to bring you the best of the action from the prestigious Vanderbilt Knockout Teams. If previous years are anything to go by, this rates to be a massive slugfest between the top American teams and, fittingly in Ali’s home town, a number of world-class heavyweight invaders from Europe.

A total of 60 teams sat down for the opening day or this year’s Vanderbilt. There were few upsets, with only three of the teams originally seeded in the top 32 failing to make it to the second day. On this visit, we will take a look at the highlights from various matches from the Round of 32 shown on BBO VuGraph. The format for all matches is 60 boards divided into four 15-board stanzas.

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with neither vulnerable, you are sitting in the South seat with:

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with neither side vulnerable, you hold in West chair:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we start in the opening set of the match between #4 ROSENTHAL (USA/Norway) and one of those three teams who ousted a top 32 team yesterday, #34 McALLISTER (USA/England/New Zealand).

Englishman Steve Raine kicked things off with a weak 2♠ opening from the North seat. This was passed around to Chris Willenken (left), who balanced with a natural 2NT, and Norwegian star Geir Helgemo raised to game.

Raine opened the ♠10, and Willenken captured South’s jack with the king. When he then advanced a low club, Raine rose with the ♣Q, which was allowed to win. Holding a likely entry with the ♦K, Raine could have continued spades, setting up his suit, but he was concerned that might be giving declarer his ninth trick (and it would be if declarer held the ♥K, which was quite possible). The alternative winning defence was a heart switch, which would have left declarer with a choice of losing options. If he rises with the ♥A, the defenders will be able to cash four heart tricks when North regains the lead with the ♦K. Alternatively, if declarer ducks the first round of hearts, South wins and fires a spade through his remaining ♠Q-x.

Trying not give away a trick, Raine instead exited passively with a second round of clubs. Alas for the defence, declarer’s diamonds were good enough to withstand this defence. Willenken won with the ♣A, crossed to the ♣K, and then ran the ♦10. North won with the ♦K and belatedly switched to a heart, but declarer now had nine tricks via four clubs, three diamonds and a trick in each major. E/W +600.

Andrew Rosenthal did not open the North hand. Curiously, after two passes, Aaron Silverstein (right) also had a weak two opening, but in hearts. That left New Zealander Matthew Brown with the first of the problems posed above. With no heart stopper and terrible shape for a takeout double, Brown felt he did not have a safe way into the auction. The result was that Brown was left to play peacefully in 2♥ at a cost of 50/undertrick. The defenders held declarer to six tricks, but that was only E/W +100. That would have been a fine outcome had 3NT gone down at the other table, but here it was 11 IMPs to ROSENTHAL.

ROSENTHAL led by 16 IMPs (31-15) after the opening set. McALLISTER cut the deficit to just 4 IMPs going into the last 15 boards, but ROSENTHAL won the final stanza 44-1 to move into the next round.

For the second quarter, we turn our attention to a match with plenty of interest on the other side of the world. It is #15 HANS (Australia/New Zealand) against #18 MILNE (USA/Australia/Israel). HANS led 17-16 after a very quiet opening stanza. The second set was far less sedate and, on the final board of the stanza, both South players had to answer the second of this week’s problems.

One of Australia’s most experience players, Sartaj Hans (left) made his international debut as a member of the Wallabies’ team at the 2004 World Team Olympiad, and he has now been a regular member of the squad for over two decades.

Looking at five decent trumps with his partner having opened the bidding, fellow Australian Liam Milne must have been quite content when Hans passed Andy Hung’s 2♥ bid. That good feeling did not last long, as 2♥ proved unbeatable, and Hung even managed to record an overtrick. N/S +140.

In the replay, Israel’s Asaf Yekutieli, a world junior champion in 2018, elected to rebid his clubs. There is some kind of symmetry here, with both N/S pairs deciding to play in a six-card fit. I suppose these kids are not old enough to have heard of Burns’ Law, or perhaps they just choose to ignore it.

At this table, too, N/S also found a defender holding five trumps. New Zealander Michael Whibley (right) felt sufficiently confident about his trump holding to express an opinion with a red card. And right he was too.

Despite the favorable diamond position, declarer could only manage seven tricks in this six-card fit. N/S -300 and 10 IMPs to HANS.

This board was the cherry on the HANS cake. They won the stanza 44-1 to take a 44-IMP lead (66-17) into the mid-match break. MILNE halved the deficit in the third quarter, but the final set was fairly even and HANS hung on to win by 24 IMPs, 118-94.

For the third stanza, we turn our attention to what should theoretically be the closest match of the round, with #16 BAILEY taking on #17 SIMSON in an all-USA match-up. At the midway point, BAILEY held a 6-IMP lead, 62-56. Towards the end of the set, both West players had to answer the last of this week’s problems…

Daniel Korbel opened 3♥ in third seat, and the ultra-experienced Eddie Wold, a member of the winning American squad in the Senior Teams at the 2013 World Championships, overcalled 4♠. That left Venkatrao Koneru (left), a member of the USA team that won silver medals in the Senior Teams at last’s year’s world championships in Morocco, with the decision to pass or to investigate slam chances. Is it better to stay pre-empted or to suffer the slings and arrows of outraged teammates when you turn a plus score into a minus in search of a slam bonus?

Koneru took his chances and elected to pass, which was good news for his side, as the defenders had three top winners to take against 4♠. E/W +420.

Peter Weichsel also opened 3♥ on the North cards, and the Dutch European and World junior champion from the 1980s, Jan Jansma (right), overcalled 4♠. Jansma’s partner, Joshua Donn, is also a former world junior champion, having won representing USA in 2006.

In the same situation as Koneru at the first table, Donn decided that the West hand was worth a move, and he advanced with RKCB. Jansma’s 5♠ response confirmed that there were two key cards missing, but the damage had already been done. The defenders had no problem cashing their winners: E/W -50 and 10 IMPs to SIMSON.

That was the only double-digit swing on a set that SIMSON won 27-4 to move ahead in the match. SIMSON also won the final stanza, 34-22, and the match by 29 IMPs, 117-88.

For the fourth stanza, we join a battle between two teams packed with European stars. It is #12 GOODMAN (USA/Netherlands/Italy) against #21 HILL (USA/Sweden). The match was tied 51-51 at the midway point, but GOODMAN had built a 16-IMP lead going into the final stanza. This potential slam deal, which turned out to be a battle of the relay systems, produced the only double-digit swing of the that final set.

Ola Rimstedt began with an artificial game-forcing 2♣, and soon found out that his partner was 4-6 in the majors. He agreed hearts at the three-level, but settled for game when Mikael Rimstedt (left) showed a spade control but denied extra values with his non-serious 3♠ bid.

Giacomo Percario led the ♦J against Mikael’s heart game. Declarer won in dummy and immediately saw that he could make twelve tricks if the hearts lie favourably. His best hope for a positive swing on the deal was that South held the ♥Q and that 6♥ would be bid and go down at the other table. He therefore cashed the ♥K and played a heart to the ace, felling South’s queen. He now had 13 tricks and the possibility of a slam swing in the plus column. E/W +710.

Could the reigning European champion Dutch pair at the other table avoid the probably doomed 6♥?

The Tarzan system began with an artificial game-forcing 1♠ relay from Simon de Wijs (right). A series of relays then revealed that Bauke Muller held a 4-6-2-1 shape with the ♠A-K and the ♥A. Armed with that information, De Wijs accurately judged that 6♦ was the best contract.

Cecilia Dwyer Rimstedt led the ♣K and then switched to a spade at trick two. De Wijs won in hand with the ♠Q, ruffed a club, and then drew trumps. When diamonds divided 3-2 he was able to claim his twelve tricks. An impressive E/W +1370 and 12 IMPs to GOODMAN.

GOODMAN won the final set 32-16 and the match by 32 IMPs, 130-98.

In a year of relatively few upsets so far, only three team from outside the original top 16 seeds made it successfully through the Round of 32. One of those two, we saw above, was #17 SIMSON. Another was #20 ROMBAUT (Leo and Jerome Rombaut, Sabine Auken and Roy Welland), who defeated #13 NITABACH (USA/Poland). Over the years, Bob Hamman has been the victim of a number of giant-killings, but this year he is the captain of the team that knocked out the highest-ranked seed to fall so far. The all-USA #24 HAMMAN (Bob Hamman, Neil Chambers, Mitch Dunitz, Iftikhar Baqai, Adam Wildavsky and Douglas Doub) beat #9 BERNAL (USA/Sweden/Portugal) by 118-101 to claim a place in the Round of 16.

We will be back soon with the best of the action from the matches in the Round of 16.