We have crossed the Atlantic Ocean to South America to visit the South American Zonal Trials and, particularly, the final of the Women’s Teams. The two teams who have made it to the final are BRAZIL (Lucia Doria, Aline Biondillo, Ana Carolina Vidigal, Lucia Menezes, Fatima Alves and Maria Teresa Falk) and COLOMBIA (Dania Candenas, Sandra Leal, Clara Benedetti, Luz Toro, Elsa Castillo and Helena Salazar). The format is a 24-board match split into two 12-board stanzas.

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with neither side vulnerable, you are West holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

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

What do you bid?

Finally, with both sides vulnerable, you are sitting in the West seat with:

What, if anything, do you open?

While you consider those, we begin with the opening deal of the match.

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we begin late in the fifth stanza, with a deal on which one player seems to have been given a defective bidding box.

Aline Biondillo started with a Multi 2♦ opening on the North cards and Dania Cardenas (left), a junior international in 2016, came in with a 3♣ overcall. How high would you be willing to bid now on the South hand?

4♠ appears to be only one down, so there is a cheap save available against the opponents’ diamond game. Indeed, if Lucia Doria had jumped to 4♥ now (pass/correct), is it not likely that West would double, then double again when 4♠ was passed back to her? Might the Brazilians even have been allowed to buy the contract at the four-level?

When Doria competed only at the three-level, Sandra Leal did indeed double twice, but Cardenas was not interested in defending at that level. She got her side to diamonds, but Leal took a rather conservative view and did not raise to game.

The defenders could make no more than their two major-suit aces. E/W +150 and advantage BRAZIL.

For the Colombians, Helena Salazar opened a natural weak two, and Ana Carolina Vidigal came in with a takeout double. Elsa Castillo (right), a member of Colombia’s Mixed Team at the World Championships last year in Morocco, did not mess around. She jumped directly to game, leaving Lucia Menezes with the first of this week’s problems.

Is this West hand sufficiently offensive to commit to the five-level via 4NT, showing two places to play? Menezes decided not, and she doubled. Vidigal had no reason to bid on, so the Colombians had been allowed to steal the hand at the four-level. But, worse was to come.

Vidigal led the ♣K, and Menezes created a problem for herself by overtaking. West can still defeat the contract by switching to a heart (with or without cashing a high diamond first). The defence will make two clubs and a trick in each red suit. Not realizing that her partner did not hold the ♣J, Menezes returned a club at trick two – disaster! Declarer now had two club winners in dummy. Whatever Vidigal did, declarer’s heart loser was destined to disappear on one of those winners. E/W -590 and 12 IMPs to COLOMBIA to get the scoreboard moving.

The rest of the opening stanza was quiet, and COLOMBIA led 22-6 at halftime. Then the Great Dealer woke up and produced a really exciting set of hands for the second half. The opening deal potentially provided an opportunity for someone to display some expert declarer play.

The Colombians were playing some version of Kokish that I hadn’t seen before, which meant than Dania Cardenas jumped to 3NT, presumably showing a hand too strong for 2NT, so perhaps in the 26-28 HCP range. Even so, Sandra Leal (left) decided that she did not have enough to bid on.

Faced with a blind lead, Lucia Doria opened the ♥9. Declarer can make twelve tricks on that lead, but more of that later. Playing in game, Cardenas effectively settled for the eleven tricks she could see. She unblocked the hearts, crossed to the ♦K, cashed the ♥Q, and took a spade finesse. She then played a low diamond from hand, so Doria went in with the ♦10 and cashed the ♥J. E/W +660.

Maria Teresa Falk (right) started with a 2♥ negative response to her partner’s 2♣ opening. Alves then continued with 2NT, which was presumably forcing. When Falk could do no more than raise to game, Alves took another bid, raising to 4NT to show her extra values, and Falk went on to slam.

Again, with her opponents having bid no suits, South was left with a blind lead, and Clara Benedetti fished out an unfortunate spade. When Luz Toro put up the ♠K, declarer had twelve top tricks. E/W +1440 and 13 IMPs to BRAZIL.

The play in 6NT is most interesting on a club or a heart lead. Clearly, you will need either the hearts 3-3 (or doubleton jack) or the spade finesse. Actually making 12 tricks with the hearts not breaking but the spade finesse working is not so easy. Even looking at all four hands, can you see how to make the slam if South chooses a club or heart lead?

The problem is that, with only one entry to dummy, you seem to be able to make only two spade tricks. Even with the ♠K onside, declarer appears to have only 11 tricks. So, how does declarer make 11 become 12?

Declarer must start by cashing all six winners from her hand in hearts and clubs. That leaves the following ending:

You now play a low diamond from hand. The problem is most easily solved if South plays the ♦10. You can now win and cash the ♥Q. What can North throw? If he releases another spade, you simply take the spade finesse and the ♠A then drops North’s king, so you make three spade tricks. If North throws a diamond, you take a winning spade finesse, then cash the ♦A and exit with a diamond. North wins but then has to lead away from the ♠K at trick 12, again giving you a third spade winner.

Now let’s suppose that South does not contribute the ♦10 on the first round of the suit. If you follow the same line now, North can thwart your plans by jettisoning the ♦Q-J. When you then try to throw him in on the third round of diamonds, South wins with the ♦10 and cashes the ♥J.

Look what happens if, rather than winning with the ♦K, you play the ♦8 from dummy. North wins with the ♦J. He cannot lead a spade, as that would allow you to take the spade finesse twice, so he has to exit with a second round of diamonds to dummy’s king. When you now cash the ♥Q, North is squeezed. If he comes down to a doubleton spade, you take the spade finesse and the king drops under the ace. Alternatively, if he throws one of his two remaining diamonds, you throw a spade from hand and take the spade finesse. When you then cash the ♦A, North’s remaining honour falls and you make your twelfth trick with the ♦9. Like magic!

So, the contract could always be made…? No, South has to lead a low diamond at trick one to beat slam. You cannot afford to duck the first round of diamonds now, as North will win and return a diamond to the king, removing your only entry to dummy whilst the hearts are blocked.

Midway through the stanza, the Colombian South had to answer the second of this week’s problems…

Toro opened the North hand with 1♠, which led to Clara Benedetti (left) facing the problem posed earlier. With your sound red-suit holdings and square shape, do you take a shot at 3NT, or do you show your support for partner’s major? Benedetti opted to jump to 4♠ although, even had she bid 3♠ (presumably forcing), is North going to suggest no-trumps with three low diamonds?

Alves could have beaten the contract by leading her singleton club. The defenders would then be able to take the first four tricks via two minor-suit aces and two club ruffs. Reluctant to pick up partner’s potentially useful holding in the suit the opponents had bid and supported, Alves chose instead the ♦J. Falk captured dummy’s king with the ♦A and immediately switched to the ♣A and a second club. Alves ruffed and exited with a second diamond to the queen. Toro can make the contract now by guessing the spades. Should declarer get it right? With East known to have started with 12 non-clubs and West with only eight, is East not a 60% favourite to hold the ♠Q?

Toro started spades by cashing the ace, and so she was quickly down two. She had not only to lose to the ♠Q but, with her only entry to dummy gone, she could also no longer dispose of her diamond loser on the ♥K. N/S -100.

The Brazilian auction was both simple and effective. With no information to go on except that Lucia Dora (right) had not used Stayman, Cardenas led a spade. With the situation in that suit resolved, declarer lost tricks only to the two missing aces. N/S +460 and 11 IMPs to BRAZIL.

I have long preached about the dangers of passing and coming into the auction later, after the opponents have had a chance to exchange information, as opposed to getting in (and out) early.

Our last deal from this final illustrates the point. Both West players had to decide whether to open on the last of this week’s problem hands.

Maria Teresa Falk opened 1♥ on the West hand. I cannot express how much I dislike Toro’s double on that North hand. Doubling with a singleton in the unbid major is simply begging for trouble. On this deal, North was lucky that East bid spades before South got the chance to do so. The combination of West’s opening bid and North’s double allowed the Brazilians to get their suits into the auction at a low level, and to stop bidding before they landed in serious trouble. Ask yourself what might have happened if North had begun with a 2♣ overcall. If East decides to bid now, the Brazilians would have been in the really deep stuff. 

As it was, by the time that Toro bid her suit at the three-level, the opponents knew enough to keep out of the way. Benedetti’s pass of 3♣, facing such a strong sequence from her partner, is also exceedingly conservative. With such a good hand and three-card club support, surely she is worth at least a move towards game.

It is true that Alves can legitimately hold declarer to ten tricks by leading a spade, but my money says that North would make at least eleven tricks in clubs against almost any opposition. Of course, Alves chose to lead the singleton in her partner’s first suit. The heart was covered by jack, king and ace. Had Toro been playing in 6♣, would she have recognized the need to play safely, and started by cashing the ♣A? In 3♣, she had some leeway, so it was no disaster when she led a led a spade to the ace and West ruffed. Falk then gave her partner a heart ruff to hold declarer to eleven tricks. N/S +150.

For the Colombians, Sandra Leal did not open the West hand. When Dania Cardenas then came in with a jump to 2♠ over North’s 1♣ opening, her side were in trouble. Aline Biondillo had a routine double when 2♠ came back to her, and Lucia Doria had an equally obvious pass. Leal was quite right that 2♠-Doubled would not be a good spot for her side. The problem with looking elsewhere is that doing so increases the number of tricks needed, but this was Leal’s lucky day, as she found four-card diamond support opposite.

Biondillo led her singleton spade, covered by the eight and jack, declarer ruffing. Accurate card play will see declarer escaping relatively unscathed with eight tricks. She began with a low club, North winning and playing two rounds of trumps. Leal won in dummy with the ♦Q and was still on track to eight tricks by playing a heart now. When she instead ruffed a spade, she was in trouble. She played the ♣10 and discarded dummy’s heart, but North won with the ♣J and continued with the ♣A. Again, declarer discarded from dummy. Had Leal continued discarding when North played her final two clubs, she would have made the ♥K in addition to her last three trumps. When she ruffed one of the clubs in dummy, she was three down. N/S +800 and 12 IMPs to BRAZIL.

The second half had turned into a rout, and BRAZIL won the stanza 67-9, which meant that they won the match by 42 IMPs, 73-31.