BBO Vugraph - The South American Zonal Trials
We have crossed the Atlantic Ocean to South America to visit the South American ...
Vugraph Deals #165
Welcome back to the beautiful, Atlantic Ocean island of Madeira, the venue for the COVID-delayed 55th European Teams Championships. The format in the Open Teams is a 29-match full round robin of 16-board matches played over 11 days. We began our coverage last week with a look at the Bermuda Bowl finalists, Netherlands, and we stay with them again this week as they take on two strong Scandinavian teams, first Norway and then Sweden.
As usual, we begin with a couple of bidding problems. Firstly, with just the opponents vulnerable, you are West holding:
What action, if any, do you take?
Next, with only the opponents vulnerable, you hold as South:
Your initial 2♣ response was either natural and at least invitational or a balanced game-force without a four-card major. Your double of 3♠ then asked for a stopper. What action, if any, do you now take?
The bookies are seldom wrong, and the shortest odds available at the start of these championships were for perennial contenders Norway and the two teams who contested the recent Bermuda Bowl final (Switzerland and Netherlands). Day 3 brought a head-to-head confrontation between two of those teams, with Norway lying in fourth place in the table (just behind the Swiss) and the Dutch in fifth place.
The action did not take long to get started. Irrespective of what they did on their first turn to speak, both West players were faced with the first of this week’s bidding problems:
The Dutch got to 4♥ in quick time, but Boye Brogeland was having none of that and essayed a solo 4♠ despite the adverse vulnerability. Theoretically, Joris van Lankveld should double and take the +200 on offer, but he instead showed great faith in his partner’s declarer play and carried on to the five-level.
Brogeland started with a high spade at trick one. He should perhaps have cashed a top diamond next, but he instead exited with his trump. At trick three, Berend van den Bos exited with his diamond, putting Brogeland back on lead. Not liking his chances in either minor, Brogeland played a second round of spades, giving a ruff-and-discard, and now declarer was in control. Van den Bos ruffed in dummy and pitched a club from his hand. He then ruffed a diamond and ran his trumps, squeezing Brogeland in the minors. E/W +650.
The auction was effectively the same in the replay. Here too, South exited with a trump at trick two after cashing a high spade. For the Norwegians, Tor Eivind Grude also got out with his diamond at trick three, leaving Louk Verhees in the same position as Brogeland had been. Much to the delight of hundreds of members of the Orange Army watching on BBO VuGraph, the Bermuda Bowl finalist found the spectacular winning defence, exiting with the ♣K to break up the squeeze. Rumour has it that they could hear the applause in Oslo!
Grude was thus left with an unavoidable club loser at the end: E/W -100 and 13 IMPs to Netherlands. The big crowd did not have to wait long for the next big firecracker. With the Dutch already leading 21-0 after just three boards, along came the first of four potential slam deals in the match.
Van Lankveld led the ♦7 against Boye Brogeland’s 6NT. Declarer has eleven top tricks and finesse position in both hearts and clubs. Obviously, each finesse is a simple 50% proposition. Ideally, declarer would like to combine his chances by taking both finesses, thus making his contract if either the ♣A or the ♥K are onside. Since declarer cannot theoretically afford to take a losing finesse, can you see how he might go about this?
Brogeland demonstrated the theory by taking the 75% finesse first! He won the opening diamond lead in dummy and immediately led a club to his king. The point is that if West does hold the ♣A, he is very unlikely to play a second round of clubs unless he is looking at the A-Q. More likely, he will exit safely and you can then fall back on the heart finesse later.
Of course, there is one other way that this line of play will succeed. Consider the position looking at just the West hand and dummy. When declarer plays a club to the king at trick two, what do you expect the position to be? Holding the ♣A-J over the presumed ♣K-Q, would you not like declarer to think he has found a winning position in the suit? Thus, not unreasonably, when Brogeland played a club to his king at trick two, van Lankveld followed smoothly with a low card.
Voila! Brogeland now had 12 tricks: N/S +1440 and surely a great board for the Scandinavians. Of course, there is often more than one way to skin a cat.
The Dutch reached the same contract, and Helgemo led the ♠4. Whilst Brogeland had taken the psychological line of play, Louk Verhees quickly demonstrated that there was a technical alternative. He cashed the spade winners in his hand and then started on diamonds. At trick ten, declarer cashed dummy’s ♠J, reducing to the ♥AQ and the singleton ♣K in his hand. Helgemo, with ♥Kx and ♣AJ left, had no good discard. He threw the ♣J, so Verhees exited with a club to the now-singleton ace and Helgemo had to lead into declarer’s ♥A-Q to concede the twelfth trick. N/S +1440 and surely the most spectacular flat board of this championship. Did someone order freshly-squeezed orange?
One problem with playing against world-class players is that if you give them even a sniff of an oil rag they are apt to steal the whole locomotive. The auction in the Open Room on Board 5 looked fairly normal:
You really have no idea who can make what, but Christian Bakke’s jump to 4♠ just looks like the practical bid on that North hand, doesn’t it? As the cards lie, the worst that can happen is that you get doubled for -200 when the opponents can make 130 in clubs (a spade to the ace and a heart switch beats 5♣). The defenders quickly collected their four tricks: E/W +100.
I know that readers enjoy seeing experts fall on their face, particularly when the average player can convince himself that, ‘We’d never do that!” So, buckle up, because you get two for the price of one on this deal, first in the bidding and then in defence.
Ricco van Prooijen decided that his hand was worth only a game try, so he advanced with 3♦. This gave Tor Eivind Grude the chance to show his club fit with a 3♠ cue-bid. An 11-trick game perhaps looks quite a long way off on that West hand, so Geir Helgemo took a shot at 3NT – and why not, after all it only went 1♠-2♠, so partner is bound to have enough to stop the spades!
So, there they were, in 3NT with a stopper of Q-x facing the stiff jack in a suit bid and supported by the opponents. But then a funny thing happened on the way to the forum… Van Prooijen led the ♠2 (their system card seems to suggest that they play some sort of attitude leads, so the lower the card the more they like the suit). Declarer played low from dummy and what was Verhees to make of the situation? Surely, declarer holds the ♠K on the auction, and if he holds three spades then playing the ace gives him a second trick in the suit, so Verhees followed with the ♠10.
Helgemo gratefully won with the ♠J and cashed a top club. Was there really any question that the maestro would fail to capitalize on the error? Of course not, he crossed to the ♦A, took the club finesse, and claimed his nine tricks: E/W +400 and 7 IMPs to NORWAY, who were finally off the schneid.
Alas for the Scandinavians, those were Norway’s only IMPs in the match, the Netherlands winning 53-7. Despite the big win, the Dutch remained in fourth place, just behind the Bermuda Bowl champion Swiss. Norway slipped down to seventh place, but the smart money says that we will be seeing plenty more of them amongst the leaders before this championship is over.
The following day, an expectant BBO VuGraph crowd settled in for a clash between titans as Sweden, lying second behind the Bermuda Bowl champion Swiss, took on the Dutch, who had now climbed up into in third spot. On our first deal from this match, the South players had to answer some variation on the second of this week’s problems. The huge congregation of Orange supporters watching in the Open room saw their team build a lead in the first half of the match. However, they were aghast when something clearly went wrong with the Dutch auction here…
Bauke Muller’s 2♣ response was either natural and at least invitational or a balanced game-force without a four-card major. His subsequent double of 3♠ then asked for a spade stopper. Did it, though, imply such good playing strength? De Wijs presumably thought not, but Muller did not think he was worth another move and thus the good slam was missed. N/S +520 and a huge chance for Sweden to get right back into the match.
In case anyone thinks that slam depends on correctly guessing the diamonds, take another look as, thanks to the ♦9, it is a classic textbook example of a loser-on-loser play. Declarer wins the major-suit lead, draws trumps, them plays three rounds of diamonds, discarding the loser in whichever major was led. The other major-suit loser will eventually go on the diamond winner established in dummy.
Events at the other table rather summed up the match for the Swedes:
After the same start to the auction, Simon Hult did not double 3♠. When Peter Bertheau bid 3NT anyway, Hult correctly judged to bid on with 4♣. An exchange of red-suit cue-bids followed before Bertheau took control via RKCB. Hult’s 5♠ response confirmed that the trumps were solid and Bertheau’s 5NT then asked if Hult had anything extra. Not unreasonably, Hult decided that K-J in his partner’s first suit was enough. It wasn’t and declarer ended two down trying for a miracle: N/S -100 and another 12 IMPs to NETHERLANDS, now ahead 45-3.
The final score was a 68-3 massacre. With Switzerland suffering a heavy loss to the Irish, the Dutch had opened a gap of more than 10 VPs at the top of the table. Despite the loss, the Swedes retained their place in the top three, but perhaps this was the match that served notice that the graffiti was on the stone barrier for them.
We will be back in Madeira next week with another look at the Swedes, plus Italy, France and a possible dark horse, Israel, as the 11-day tournament reaches its midway point.
