Vugraph Deals #161

Marc Smith visits the latter stages of Heat 2 of Alt-‘22

After four of the eight matches, the standings at the midway point of this heat were:

Elsewhere, AMATEURS had opened a sizeable lead at the top of Group B ahead of two English teams, JUPITER and JEDI KNIGHTS.

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

What action, if any, do you take? 

Next, with just your side vulnerable, you hold as South:

What action, if any, do you take?

Round 5 saw a head-to-head meeting of the teams lying second and third, whilst the leaders took on bottom-placed CANTOR. 

Zack Grossack made a negative double of Marcel Verhaegen’s 1♠ overcall, but that did not stop Gabriele Zanasi transferring to hearts. Larry Lebowitz’s 3♦ rebid then ended the auction in what was, theoretically, the par contract.

Verhaegen led his singleton club, but Lebowitz rose with the ace and drew two rounds of trumps. Declarer had one trick to lose in each suit: N/S +110.

At the other table, Argentina’s Alejandro Bianchedi intervened with a weak jump overcall on the West cards, leaving South with the first of this week’s bidding problems:

A very experienced player, Neil Silverman became a World champion by winning the Rosenblum Cup at the 1986 World Championships in Miami Beach. He also finished in the top 15 of three consecutive World Open Pairs, in 1982, 1986 and 1990, playing with three different partners. More recently, he was a member of the USA-2 squad that won the Seniors Teams at the 2017 World Championships in Lyon.

Silverman might also have rebid his diamonds at his second turn. When he instead chose the more aggressive option of 2NT, Federico Primavera raised him to game. Had Alejandro Bianchedi led a boring spade, declarer would have been home. The Argentine’s opening of the ♥7 gave the defenders a chance, though. Silverman won in hand with the ♥K and ran the ♣9, and now the spotlight fell on Finn Kolesnik, a bronze medallist in the Under-21 Teams at the 2019 World Youth Championships. To defeat the contract, the young American needs to take the ♣K and continue with a low heart. Declarer wins in dummy but can cash only eight tricks before relinquishing the lead, enabling the defence to cash an avalanche of heart winners. 

When Kolesnik ducked the ♣K, Silverman switched tacks. With a second club trick in the bag, he now ducked a diamond. That gave Silverman five diamonds, two clubs and one heart, and the defenders can no longer set up their hearts without giving declarer his ninth trick. If they refuse to play hearts, declarer then has time to establish his ninth trick by force in either black suit. N/S +600 and 10 IMPs to ULI in a match that finished in a 33-33 tie. 

Meanwhile, SELIGMAN won 34-23 to open a 14-VP lead over the chasing European team. The Poles moved above LEBOWITZ into third place, but they were more than 30 VPs behind the leaders. This meant that again there was a meeting of the two teams lying second and third in Round 6, with ULI playing POLAND24.PL MIXED.

In one room, North/South bid unopposed to game on Board 12:

Walter Schuster opened the North hand and then raises his partner’s 1♥ response to the two-level. Federico Primavera found out that his partner had a minimum with four-card heart support, made one slam try via a 4♣ cue-bid on the way to game, but gave up when his partner showed no signs of interest. The defenders had two top spades and a club to make: N/S +620.

At the other table, Dutchman Bob Drijver lit the blue touchpaper and the auction took off into the strathosphere when South had to deal with the second of this week’s biding problems.

When West’s 3♣ opening was passed around, Maciej Kolarz doubled and his partner essayed 3NT, leaving the problem position detailed earlier. After the same start to the auction, BBO Bidding Challenge expert panellist Barnet Shenkin passed to produce a flat board in the match between SCORWAY and CANTOR. 

Kolarz decided that the hand was worth an invitational raise to 4NT. Bartosz Chmurski thought he had enough to accept the invitation, and did so via 5NT, leaving open the possibility of finding a suit fit at the six-level. Kolarz was happy with notrumps, but it made no difference as there were only ten tricks in either hearts or notrumps. N/S -200 and 13 IMPs to ULI, who won the match 29-19 to consolidate their hold on second place. Ahead of them SELIGMAN won by a similar margin, 41-33 against MACAVITY, so little change in the gap between the top two.

Fittingly, the final match of the round robin stage of the event pitched together the leading two teams in a head-to head encounter, with the Europeans needing a substantial victory to close the gap on the leaders. Board 3 was a potential slam hand, although not one of the 18 E/W pairs managed to bid to the top spot. It generated a significant swing in the match between the top teams. At the first table, the Italians had the auction to themselves:

Gabriele Zanasi was a regular member of the Italian Junior team between 2009 and 2015 and he won the Junior Pairs event at the 2013 World Youth Open Championships playing with Massimiliano di Franco. He was also a member of the Italian team that won the 2014 European Champions Cup.

Saverio Margiotta rebid his clubs after his partner’s 1♠ response, and Gabriele Zanasi advanced with an artificial, game-forcing 2♦. Although his partner had bid diamonds twice, Zanasi chose not to support that suit and instead bid his spades for a third time, so Margiotta gave up and produced dummy. 

The ♠10 is the only opening lead that does not help declarer, and Starkowski’s ♥J did Zanasi no harm at all. After winning with the ♥Q, Zanasi played the ♠Q, North taking the ace immediately to return a heart. Declarer was now just about forced to take a winning position in diamonds: after cashing his top two trumps, he had to dispose of his heart loser, so he started diamonds by playing to the king. Away went the heart loser and one diamond on dummy’s high clubs, and a diamond to the ten then left declarer with eleven tricks, losing just two trumps: E/W +650.

Of course, the Dutch got into the auction first here, with Bob Drijver opening the South hand with a Multi (a weak two in hearts on this occasion). Marty Seligman came in with a double over North’s pass/correct 2♥ and Jacek Pszczola showed some strength with a stop-asking 3♥ cue-bid. When Seligman then jumped to 4♠, Pepsi decided he still had something in reserve. He advanced with 5♣ (self-alerting it as ‘I think this is natural’). Quite what Seligman made of 5♣ is unclear, but he continued by bidding his second suit, and it seemed momentarily as if the partnership was on its way to the only making slam (diamonds). If he was certain that 5♦ was natural, surely Pepsi would have raised. As it was, his pick-a-slam 5NT got the partnership to the right level, but to the wrong strain when Seligman chose spades.

Only a low trump lead gives this contract in any chance of making, and Drijver easily avoided that, choosing instead the other black seven. Seligman won in dummy and cashed the other club winner, disposing of his heart losers, then played a trump. When North showed up with two trump tricks, the contract was doomed and a diamond misguess later meant that declarer was two down: E/W -200 and 13 IMPs to ULI. Curiously, only one of the 18 EW managed to play this hand in diamonds, and they stopped at the four-level!

The dial swung back in the other direction later in the set, when it was the Europeans who overreached to a poor slam.

A natural auction found the diamond suit for the Italians, and Saverio Margiotta presumably intended his jump to game as showing weakness. Gabriele Zanasi still thought he was worth a raise to slam, even though there was plenty of evidence that the hands did not fit well. Not that 6♦ was a hopeless spot – with a 2-2 diamond break, declarer will make twelve tricks if the hearts are 4-3 or the queen comes down doubleton. On the actual layout, there was no chance, and even 5♦ proved to be too challenging for some declarers.

Zanasi ruffed South’s high spade lead, crossed to the ♥A, and then played the ♦A and a diamond to the king. When South regained the lead with the ♣A, he was able to cash the ♦Q, and declarer quickly ran out of tricks and finished three down: E/W -150.

Whether for systemic reasons or just because he judged it was the right bid, Jacek Pszczola rebid 2NT after the same start to the auction. With such good cards in the minors, Marty Seligman quite reasonably then looked no further than the nine-trick game.

North led a club, dummy’s king being allowed to win. A diamond to the ace and one back to the jack and queen then established that suit. When South tried a low spade and the queen won, Pepsi had nine tricks simply by unblocking hearts and knocking out the ♣A. E/W +400 and 10 IMPs to SELIGMAN.

SELIGMAN won the match 39-25, establishing an assailable lead in excess of 20 VPs over second-placed ULI. The Swiss format dictated that the two would play again in Round 8, but the Americans were assured of the title no matter what the result. The Europeans did manage to win the rematch, but only 37-21, so the final margin of victory was still quite emphatic. These were the final standings in Group A:

In Group B, JUPITER edged AMATEURS into second place, with HARRIS and JEDI KNIGHTS close behind.

We will be taking a sojourn from the Alt for a few weeks. First, we visit the historic English city of Warwick for the final of the Spring Foursomes, before heading out into the Atlantic Ocean to the tiny island of Madeira to begin out coverage of the COVID-delayed European Championships.

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