We remain in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the South American Transnational Championships. A total of 35 teams set out to play a Swiss qualifier of twelve 12-board matches, with the leading eight teams advancing to the knockout stage.

After eight of the twelve qualifying rounds, the top of the leader-board looked like this:

As usual, we begin with some problems. Firstly, with both sides vulnerable, you are West holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

If you pass, what do you lead?

Next, with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting East with this interesting collection:

What action, if any, do you take?

If you pass, what do you lead?

Next, with both sides vulnerable you hold as South :

What action do you take?

Finally, with both sides vulnerable, you are in the South seat with this monster:

What action do you take?

While you consider those problems, we begin our coverage with the Round 9 match at Table 1 between the leaders, ZIMMERMANN (Switzerland/France/Poland), and the all-USA team currently in fourth place, MINITER. This early deal offered plenty of scope for a swing in either direction. Both West players were called upon to answer at least part of the bidding/lead problem posed above.

The Polish Bermuda Bowl winners went relatively quietly, with Michal Nowosadzki not taking a second bid on the East hand. That left Jacek Kalita to find the winning opening lead against Kevin Bathurst’s 3NT.

A club lead does serious damage to the contract: not only do the defenders take the first five tricks, but declarer gets squeezed in three suits and has to throw winning diamonds away in order to keep his spade guard. A red-suit exit then endplays him for three down. Not unreasonably, Kalita tabled the ♥J, which was just what the American doctor ordered. Covering with the ♥Q gave Kevin Bathurst two heart tricks to go with his seven diamonds: N/S +600.

Brad Moss (left) just missed out on a medal on his international debut, his USA team finishing fourth in the Junior Teams at the 1991 World Youth Championships. His first medal was a silver in the Transnational Teams at the 2000 World Championship, and then came a first World Championship title, with victory against NICKELL in the all-USA final of the 2010 Rosenblum Cup. That was followed by defeating the home team in the final of the 2017 Bermuda Bowl in Lyon. Playing with his current partner, Joe Grue, Moss finished second in the 2018 World Open Pairs in Orlando.

The Americans were far less accommodating at this table, and Joe Grue rebid his hearts at the three-level, leaving Moss with the first of this week’s bidding problems. Despite his mediocre hand and negligible heart support, Moss bravely ventured a fourth heart over Fernando Piedra’s 3NT. Perhaps he didn’t fancy the opening lead problem!

Theoretically, 4♥-X is an excellent save: declarer has to lose only three trumps and one spade, IF he guesses both black suits correctly. Even against vulnerable opponents, Piedra was not prepared to settle for what he judged would be only a moderate penalty, so he ploughed on to game in his long suit. Moss then added insult to injury by doubling.

Although West’s lead of the ♥J appears to give away a trick, it probably only serves to make things easier, as the defenders can always be forced to open one of the majors and thus declarer can always get out for one down. Piedra made seven trumps, two hearts and a heart ruff in dummy, but he still had to lose three black-suit tricks. N/S -200 and 13 IMPs to MINITER.

This was the only double-digit swing on a relatively quiet set of boards, and MINITER emerged with a 27-10 victory. That was only good enough for second place, as VENTIN walloped CHAGAS 50-0 at Table 2 to open up a 10-VP lead over the field.  In Round 10, it was VENTIN against MINITER at Table 1. Both East players had to deal with a variation on the second of this week’s problems on this early board.

Frederic Wrang started things off with a Multi and John Hurd entered with a 3♦ overcall. When Antonio Palma jumped to game in his eight-card suit, Kevin Bathurst doubled, but Hurd was not interested in defending, and he continued by bidding his motley second suit. With such good trumps, perhaps Bathurst might have considered passing East’s double of 5♣, but he gave preference to diamonds. This gave Palma a second chance to reconsider in the position posed earlier as a problem, although Wrang’s double was surely an influencing factor in Palma’s decision to defend.

Leading the ♣A would have enabled the defenders to score two ruffs and collect +500. Once Palma had opened the ♠A, four tricks was the limit for the defence. A second round of spades went to West’s king, and declarer correctly ruffed low when Wrang continues with a third spade. A top trump revealed that West had a trump trick, so declarer conceded a trick in each minor. E/W +300.

Joe Grue (right) got his international career off to a winning start as a member of the USA team that won the Junior Teams at the 2001 World Youth Championships. A glittering career as a junior was completed with three bronze medals and two more golds, as Grue won the World Junior Teams in both 2005 and 2006. It was nearly déjà vu all over again when Grue reached the final of the 2011 Bermuda Bowl on his debut in the USA Open team but, on that occasion, he had to settle for a silver medal. Not that gold from the world’s most prestigious event was long in coming, as Grue and Moss were members of the USA team that won the 2017 Bermuda Bowl in dramatic fashion.

At this table, Brad Moss opened a natural weak two in spades, and North entered with a 3♠ cue-bid which (although there are no explanations in the VuGraph records) presumably showed both minors. Grue duly bid game in his eight-bagger and South pressed on with a 4♠ cue-bid. When North chose diamonds, Grue decided that his hand was worth one more go, despite the well-worn admonition against bidding five-over-five. One can hardly blame Joaquin Pacareu for doubling, with A-K-x of trumps and plenty of other defence, as well as a partner who had effectively come in at the four-level.

The Chilean was to be disappointed. On Pacareu’s diamond lead, declarer could simply take two club ruffs in dummy. However, with the spade suit lying as it does, the defence could never score more than South’s two high trumps. E/W +850 and 11 IMPs to MINITER.

Whilst VENTIN had scored a big win in the previous round to climb to the top of the leader-board, the boot was on the other foot this time around. MINITER won the match 48-11 to claim first place with two matches to play. ZIMMERMANN also scored a decent-sized win, so VENTIN dropped back to third place. In Round 11, we’ll take a look at the action at Table 2, where ZIMMERMANN take on BRENO. This deal looked fairly innocuous at the first table.

Quite understandably, Massimo Lanzarotti did not fancy a vulnerable, three-level, pre-emptive overcall on a jack-high suit. Pierre Zimmermann made a limit raise in spades and Fernando Piedra awarded himself a fourth.

Lanzarotti led the ♦J, so Piedra won with the ♦A, played two rounds of trumps ending in dummy, and led a diamond towards his queen. Arrigo Franchi won with the ♦K and exited with a high heart, declarer ruffing. With no entry to dummy, declarer could not take advantage of the ♦9: he cashed the ♦Q, ruffed his last diamond, and then tried to guess the clubs for an overtrick. When he got them wrong, he had to settle for ten tricks: N/S +620.

Sometimes, playing just a little more system than everyone else will come back to bite you on the rear end. Doing so here resulted in the Italian South player facing the third of this week’s problems.

Antonio Sementa (left) began his international career with a gold medal in the Junior Teams at the 1992 European Youth Championships. Three years later, he marked his debut in the Italian Open team by winning the European Teams Championship. In 1998, he became a World Champions as a member of the Angelini team that won the Rosenblum Cup. In a glittering career, he has won the European Champions Cup a remarkable six times. He has added two more European Team Championships titles to his resume, and another World Championship with victory in the 2008 World Team Olympiad. He also won the Generali World Masters Individual in 2000.

On this deal, Sementa opened the obvious 1♠ and Dario Attanasio’s jump to 3♥ showed a limit raise. This allowed Michal Nowosadzki in with a lead-directing double. Sementa redoubled to show extra values but Jacek Kalita jumped to 5♥ to leave Sementa with the problem posed at the top of this article. Playing with a 30-point deck, Sementa decided to shoot for all the marbles and jumped to 6♠.

 Sementa ruffed the heart lead, drew two rounds of trumps ending in dummy and, needing to find East with ♣K-J-x, ran the ♣9. West won with the ♣K and declarer still had a diamond to lose: N/S -100 and 13 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN.

ZIMMERMAN won the match 55-31 and leapfrogged the teams at Table 1, who had played a virtual tied match. Meanwhile, this loss sent BRENO tumbling down the table into tenth place, outside the top 8 who would qualify for the knockout stage. With one match remaining, the top of the leader-board looked like this:

The BBO VuGraph match for the final round was MINITER against a team we have not yet seen, supported by all the home town fans, ARG-S. For the Argentines, defeat would likely lead to elimination, whilst MINITER could afford a moderate loss and still make it through to the knockouts.

We met Argentina’s best-known player, Pablo Lambardi (right) earlier in this tournament. I would guess that many players would start with a double on this monster South hand but, confident that someone at the table would provide him with a second bid, Lambardi settled for a simple 1♠ overcall.

Gillian Miniter joined in with a negative double and John Hurd showed his heart support. Now Lambardi introduced his second suit. Miniter bid a third heart and Mauricio Macro jumped to game in clubs. Lambardi accurately judged to raise himself to slam and there matters rested.

Dummy’s ♥A took care of declarer’s diamond loser, so there was just the ace of trumps to be lost. N/S +1370.

Brad Moss had a way to show both of his suits with one bid, a jump cue-bid of 3♦. As 6♣ is, indeed, the right contract, it is hard to argue with Joe Grue’s judgement to jump all the way to slam on his shapely 5-count. The problem was that Brad Moss failed to appreciate quite how accurate his partner’s evaluation was. Perhaps picturing something like Q/xxxxx/xx/Axxxx opposite, he duly raised to the grand slam.

Pejacsevich’s double could only mean one thing! N/S -200 and 17 IMPs to ARG-S.

ARG-S won the match 46-21 to ensure their place in the top 8 when it really mattered. MINITER dropped a couple of places but were also safely through. VENTIN recorded a big win at Table 4 and leapfrogged the three teams above them to lead the field at the end of qualifying, and simultaneously ended STERN’s hopes of making the knockout. WHIBLEY’s defeat of BRENO meant that the eight teams who were in the top eight going into this round all made it safely through to the next stage.

These were the standings at the end of the twelve-round Swiss.

The quarter-final match-ups will be: VENTIN v CHAGAS, ZIMMERMANN v ARG-S, WHIBLEY v COLE and MINITER v MILLENS.

We will be back soon with the best of the action from those quarter-final matches.