We return to France this week for the third weekend of the Premier League. There are 12 teams in Division 1 of the three-tier French league, and each will play a 26-board match against the other eleven over three weekends. The top four teams then advance to the knockout stage of the competition. After the first two weekends, with eight matches played, these are the leading teams:

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with neither side vulnerable, you are sitting West with these cards:

What, if anything, do you open?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

If you pass, East bids 5♥ and your partner doubles. Are you now going to rethink or will you settle for defending?

Finally, a lead problem on which a huge number of IMPs swung. With both sides vulnerable, you are North and hear this auction:

Has partner doubled simply because he thinks it will go off, or does his double have lead-directional implications? What do you lead?

While you mull those over, we join the large crowd watching live on BBO VuGraph. The coverage of this third weekend begins with the Round 9 match featuring the team currently occupying second place, captained by Eric GAUTRET, as they take on the team led by Martine ROSSARD.

This match was all about slam bidding, with five potential slam hands in the 26 boards. GAUTRET earned the first double-digit swing on Board 1, when they stopped out of a slam that was well below 50%. The key finesse worked, but the 5-0 trump break put paid to declarer’s chances of making 12 tricks. Shortly thereafter, both East players had to deal with the first of this week’s bidding problems.

Having already shown a strong hand with at least 5-5 in the minors, Michel Abecassis chose to pass 3NT. Jean Luc Aroix led a club. Guy Lasserre won in dummy and started diamonds from the top, conceding the fourth round to North’s jack. Aroix could have cashed his ♠A while he was in but, when he switched to hearts, declarer claimed the rest. E/W +490.

Bernard Cabanes (left) played his first European Championship event in 1989. At the 1995 European Open Pairs in Rome, he just missed out on a medal, finishing fourth playing with his current partner, Eric Gautret. More recently, he represented France in the Seniors Teams at two European Championships in 2016 and he was a member of the French Open Team for the 2021 EBL Online World Championship Qualifying event.

On this deal, Cabanes decided that the East hand justified one more try, so he advanced with 4♣ over 3NT. Gautret showed interest with a heart cue-bid, so Cabanes showed his spade control. That was enough for Gautret, who jumped to the club slam.

Had Philippe Toffier found a spade lead, the odds are that, having no reason to assume a bad diamond break, declarer would have gone down in his slam. Of course, Toffier had been dealt an obvious heart lead, so he tabled the ♥Q.

Cabanes won with his singleton ♥K, cashed one high trump from his hand, and crossed to the ♣Q. With the ♣10 dropping, he could then draw the third round of trumps with dummy’s nine. Conveniently in dummy, after cashing the ♥A to dispose of his spade loser, declarer played a diamond and, when North followed, he put in the ten, guaranteeing his contract against any distribution. On this layout, that earned him an overtrick: E/W +940 and 10 IMPs to GAUTRET.

Those watching live on BBO VuGraph did not have to wait long for the next potential slam deal. What did you decide to open on the second of this week’s problem hands?

Guy Lasserre decided that the West hand was a 3♦ opening. Michel Abecassis forced with 3♠ and Lasserre tried to catch up with a control-showing 4♥ cue-bid agreeing spades, but Abecassis could not imagine slam being good facing a pre-emptive opening.

Declarer won the club led and cashed two top diamonds, shaking the club loser from his hand. He followed with a spade to the queen, then the ♥A and a heart ruff. When Abecassis played the ♦Q next, North had no winning answer. If he did not ruff, declarer would pitch a heart loser and, after ruffing his last heart in dummy, he would have a trump left to repeat the winning finesse. So, North ruffed the ♦Q, but that then allowed declarer to ruff both of his remaining hearts in dummy. E/W +510.

Eric Gautret (right) represented France as a Junior at the 1990 European Championships and, more recently, in a team called ‘France Seniors’ (despite his apparent youth) in the Open Teams at the 2016 European Winter Games. His evaluation of this West hand as a one-level opening looks closer to the mark to me, and certainly worked far better at the table too.

With spades agreed at the two-level, Cabanes started with a 2NT puppet and then a 3♦ relay showing slam interest. Gautret’s jump to 4♥ showed a heart control and no club control. That was just what Cabanes needed to hear and he settled for the small slam when Blackwood revealed that one key card was missing.

South’s lead of the ♥K gave declarer a comfortable ride. Cabanes won with the ♥A, ruffed a heart, ran the ♠9, then played a spade to his hand to take a second heart ruff. He still had the ♣A as an entry to his hand, so he drew North’s last trump and his two remaining losers subsequently disappeared on dummy’s high diamonds. E/W +1010 and another 11 IMPs to GAUTRET, who won the match 64-30.

With four teams to advance to the knockout stage, much might hinge on the Round 10 meeting between teams who started the weekend in fourth and fifth place, ZIMMERMANN and S.A. BRENO respectively. There was plenty of excitement for those watching live on BBO VuGraph, as two teams of heavyweights exchanged almost 100 IMPs over the 26 boards.

Early in the match came a tough judgement decision for the North players. One heard the auction shown in the third problem at the top of this article:

Thomas Bessis surely liked his hand, with the opponents bidding his void and his partner jumping to game in his long suit. However, raising to slam was still just too much of a stretch with so many holes. It looks as if the defenders should come to three spade tricks and one in each minor against 5♥-X, but something went awry in the defence.

Bessis led the ♦10, Lorenzini winning with the ace and switching to clubs.  Declarer won with the ♣A, led the ♦Q and ruffed in dummy, returned to his hand with the ♥Q, and exited with his club. Had Lorenzini overtaken with the ♣K, all would probably have been well, but he played low, allowing Bessis to win with the ♣J. Not wishing to lead away from the ♠A-Q but unable to read the minor-suit shape, Bessis exited with the ♣Q. That was a ruff-and-discard and away went one of declarer’s spade losers. Only N/S +500.

Michal Nowosadzki (left) played his first international event, the World Junior Pairs, in 2001. He enjoyed a phenomenal career as a junior representing Poland. In 2004, he won the World Schools Teams Championship and the World Junior Individual. Two bronze medals followed, then two silver medals in 2008, from the European Junior Pairs and the World Junior Teams. In 2009, he returned to the top step of the podium by winning the University Teams at the European Championships. Oh, and since then, in partnership with Jacek Kalita, he has finished second in the World Open Pairs (in 2014) and twice won the Bermuda Bowl (in 2015 and 2019).

In one respect, things were perhaps a little easier for Nowasadzki on this deal than they were for Bessis at the first table. With East starting with a negative double rather than a direct heart raise, Kalita was able first to make a strength-showing redouble before then bidding 5♦ at his next turn. Having said that, it is never easy to bid a slam after you have been penalty-doubled in game in the same suit.

Did you notice that Tom Hanlon missed a difficult chance to save some IMPs in this auction? Had he turned his partner’s double of 5♦ into a stripe-tailed ape by passing, it seems doubtful that Kalita would have bid again, and the Poles would then have scored ‘only’ +950 – just a gain loss against the 800 they would presumably have made defending 5♥-X. However, when Kalita made a forcing pass of Hanlon’s 5♥, Nowosadzki judged well go for all of the marbles.

There was no club ruff available to the defence, and the auction made it easy to get the trumps right. An impressive N/S +1370 and 13 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN.

I thought about setting the East hand as a problem over partner’s 1NT opening. Piotr Gawrys (left) didn’t see it as much of a problem, just an automatic pass. When Cedric Lorenzini backed in with 2♥ on the South hand, having previously failed to open the bidding, Gawrys then did some backing in of his own, re-opening with a takeout double.

Michal Klukowski was happy to pass the double and led the ♠K. Declarer won in dummy with the ♠A (♠3 reverse count from Gawrys) and played a trump to jack and queen. Had Klukowski known that his partner’s second spade was the ten, he would not have cashed the ♠Q next. Having done so, though, did Klukowki then give Gawrys his spade ruff? No, first he toyed with declarer by advancing the ♦Q.

Perhaps thinking that it was Klukowski who held the doubleton spade, Lorenzini played low from dummy. Now Klukowski delivered his partner’s spade ruff and the defence was back where it started, destined to take eight tricks. Having been willing to allow partner to play peacefully in 1NT, I suspect Piotr Gawrys was delighted with the end result: E/W +800.

An excellent board for the Polish/Swiss Bermuda Bowl winners, you might perhaps think. But you are failing to account for the crazy Irishman at the other table.

Frederic Volcker also opened 1NT in third seat. However, Tom Hanlon (right) took a rosier view of his modest collection than Gawrys had done, and he advanced with 2♠ (either clubs or a range ask). Volcker’ 3♣ response was artificial showing any non-minimum, so Hanlon took a punt at game. Jacek Kalita’s double would usually have ended the exciting auction, but Hanlon had remembered to pack his lucky four-leaf clover for the short trip across the Channel, so he upped the ante with a redouble.

And, thus it was that Michal Nowosadzki found himself with the lead problem posed at the top of this article, and a chance to go from hero to zero with the play of a single card.

Is partner doubling just because he has a good enough hand to think the contract is going down? Surely that cannot be the case when you are looking at an ace and a king. Logically, is he not more likely to hold a decent suit that he is hoping you can set up with the opening lead?

This deal was truly a case of ‘the operation was a success but the patient died’, as leading a boring low spade would have defeated 3NT. However, when Nowosadzki not unreasonably opted for the ♥9, declarer was in the ballgame.

Volcker captured South’s ♥Q with his ace and played a club to dummy’s king, which won. He ran the ♦J successfully, then played a second diamond to his queen and North’s king. South won the second round of hearts with the king and continued the suit, but declarer won with the ♥J and played a club. The defence could make their two black aces, but that was only four tricks: E/W +1000 and, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, a breath-taking 5 IMPs to S.A. BRENO.

S.A. BRENO won the match 64-31 to keep their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stage alive with one match remaining in the round robin.

We will be back next week to see the best of the action from that final round, with the crunch meeting between the Bermuda Bowl winners, ZIMMERMANN, and the recently-crowned French Interclub champions, ROMBAUT. Don’t miss it!