Ron Tacchi reports from Tignes on the qualifying stage of the Les Etincelles Cup at the fourth Edition of the Winter Games.

The renowned alpine ski resort of Tignes is playing host to the 4^th European Winter Games. For more than ten hours each day players from around the world converge on the state-of-the-art conference centre Tignespace to battle over the green baize. While the snow-covered Alps provide a magnificent backdrop, the players enjoy the benefits of the latest technology which offers unrivalled information combined with a maximum level of security.

The format of Les Etincelles Cup is a three day, twelve round Swiss qualifier leading to four days of knock-out rounds – Round of Sixteen, Quarter-finals, Semi-finals and Final. Those not making it into the knock-out stage compete for the GCK Cup.

Day One

On the first day forty-six teams sat down to play four matches of twelve boards. Teams full of World, European and National Champions were beginning the struggle to qualify for the knock-out phase. Playing short matches, it was more important than ever to avoid costly mistakes.

The final deal of the first session had a point of interest. At eighteen of the tables, a small slam in Diamonds or No-Trumps was bid, but failed most times except when the defence was generous. It is a poor slam as you need the Diamonds to come in for one loser and then the King of Clubs to be onside. However, there is one slam which has better chances, can you spot it? One pair did.

All-female squads

Not the best of slams but one of two finesses and a favourable Club position will bring home the slam as you can ruff a Spade in the short hand and discard two Diamonds on dummy’s Hearts. Unsurprisingly they were the only pair to bid and make 6 Clubs.

At the close of play on Day One, Teams Croatia and Multon were heading the standings with over 60 VPs each but between positions five and thirty there were less than 20 points separating them. There were a host of good teams just behind waiting to pounce and climb up the rankings. In a Swiss event it is generally better to lose the first and win the last match, rather than the other way round.

Day Two

During Day Two there was little change in the top six places – teams up or down a position or two with the exception of Spain who did not have a good day and slipped down to thirteenth. Martens being the team that replaced them. In the pack behind, some teams started their surge such as AZS Wratislavia moving to seventh from nineteenth. The biggest mover of the day was Vinciguerra who climbed from thirty-seventh spot to ninth with four big victories.

The hand of the day occurred in the day’s third match:

When East led a Heart dummy’s Ace won. Declarer took the Ace of Spades and ruffed one. He returned to hand with a trump and then ruffed his last Spade with the Ace of Diamonds. He cashed his Diamonds, the penultimate already forcing East to come down to two Clubs so as to retain his guard in the Heart suit. Now a small Club towards dummy’s King and a Club ducked brought home the contract. An excellent piece of card reading. Only one in three declarers who arrived in the Diamond slam made it without the Ace of Clubs lead.

Day Three

The final day for the knock-out qualification. The top half dozen on the leader board looked safe but between seventh and twenty-seventh position there was only a difference of 20 VPs and with eighty more on offer over the four matches it meant there was hope for nearly two thirds of the competitors. The surprise to most observers was that Team Zimmermann Gold (Zimmermann, Nowosadzki, Brink, Drijver, Gawrys, Klukowski) were lying in tenth position and would need to take care to ensure moving on to the next phase. They did not start well with a small loss against Vinciguerra but recovered in the second match with a narrow victory over Zimmermann Silver. But then disaster struck as they lost to Les Allumettes and then again to Orca resulting in their elimination.

At the start of the day, the Dutch Juniors were lying in 28^th place. They did not have the best of starts, suffering a small loss against Cercle de la Cite. However, after that they recorded three good victories, beating Bridge24PL Mixed, Have Fun and Knottenbelt. This lifted them to sixteenth position and they took the final place in the finals.

Another Junior team, Greece, were languishing in position 31 nearly fifteen points behind qualification. The outlook was not bright when they had a small loss in their first match, but they came back all guns blazing and won the last three matches scoring in excess of 48 VPs and rising to position 14 – they had made up an astounding seventeen places!

Have pity on the team that were lying sixth and probably thought qualification was assured only to experience a day they will want to forget as they scored less than twenty points over the four matches.

A deal of interest came up in the third session of the day.

On the lead of the ♥J, you ruff in dummy and play a trump to hand getting the news about the 4-0 split. You ruff another Heart and cash the two top trumps in dummy. A losing Spade finesse ensues but as foreseen West has no Heart to play and so exits with a Diamond, taken in dummy. You come to hand with a Spade and draw the outstanding trump. Now when you cash your Spades (being careful to win the third round in dummy), East is squeezed in the red suits (if you decide he has the ♦Q) and you bring home your contract.

They were the only pair to bid and make 6 Clubs.

You can see all results, further information and the Daily Bulletins on the website http://db.eurobridge.org/repository/competitions/23tignes/microsite/Results.htm