A total of 24 teams qualified for the national final of Division 1 of the French Interclub Championship. The format for the final is an eight-round Swiss of 12-board matches played over two days. This week, we will see the best of the action from the opening day’s play. 

As usual, though, we begin with a couple of problems for you to consider. Firstly, an opening lead. With only the opponent vulnerable, you are North and hear the following auction:

What do you lead?

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you are North holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

The opening round pitted two heavyweight teams together on BBO Vugraph, with B.C. Garches Vaucresson captained by Hilda Setton taking on Courseulles sur Mer Cote de Nacre B.C. led by Philippe Marill. The only swing in a quiet set of deals came when one North player had to solve the opening lead problem posed above.

Quentin Robert (left) was a member of the French team that won the Junior Teams at the 2009 European Youth Teams Championships. In 2017, he collected a silver medal from the Open Teams at the European Transnational Teams Championships in Montecatini.

On this deal, he had bid spades and yet Alain Levy had jumped to 3NT facing a weak club raise from Frédéric Volcker. Should Robert lead his long, broken suit or look elsewhere?

He chose the ♥2 as his opening salvo, Levy winning with dummy’s ♥K and running the ♦J successfully. Declarer then cashed his top diamonds but failed to bring down the queen. Levy continued with four rounds of clubs ending in his hand, then led a heart towards dummy. Robert won with the ♥A and played a spade to his partner’s ace. Pierre Franceschetti could cash the ♦Q, but that was the end of the road for the defence. Declarer had a winner in each major left for the remaining two tricks: E/W +630.

In the replay, Cédric Lorenzini’s started the auction at the two-level and showed a 18-19 balanced, Thomas Bessis raising to game without further investigation. Having not had a chance to bid her spades, Benedicte Cronier had no reason not to lead her long suit. She found her husband with the ♠A, and Philippe Cronier continued the suit, knocking out declarer’s king. When the diamond suit failed to provide four tricks, Lorenzini had to rely on finding South with the ♥A. It was not to be, and North cashed enough spades to put declarer two down. E/W -200 and 13 IMPs to MARILL, who won a low-scoring match 20-5.

The BBO VuGraph match for Round 2 was Set B.C. captained by Patrick Mouttet against B.C. St. Honore, led by Stephane Messika. The St. Honore N/S pair, Guy Laffineur and Nicolas Roussel, had an outstanding match, bidding a good 6NT missed at the other table and taking the winning decision on each of our next two deals. Both North players were faced with this week’s bidding problem:

Italian star Irene Baroni (right) made her international debut in her country’s Under-26 Women’s team in 2004, and three years later collected a silver medal from the Junior Teams at the European Youth Championships. She reached the semi-final of the McConnel Cup at the 2018 World Championships in Orlando and, earlier this year, she collected another bronze medal at the European Championships in Madeira, this time in the Mixed Teams. 

Bernardin Leca certainly got full value out of his two jacks, with a vulnerable jump to 4♥ over East’s double. Undeterred, Baroni soldiered on with 5♦ when the bidding came back to her, and Patrick Mouttet saw no reason to take further action on the North cards in the position posed as a problem at the top of this article. 

Leca led his singleton club and the defenders quickly collected two clubs and a heart. Mouttet played a third round of clubs and declarer ruffed high. Baroni continued with a high diamond from hand and a second round of trumps to dummy’s ♦10. However, the 3-1 trump split meant that she could not take advantage of dummy’s established club winners. No matter, she ruffed a heart, drew South’s last trump, cashed the ♠A and then ducked the second spade around to North’s now-singleton king to get out for two down. E/W -200.

In the replay, the auction was identical up until the point when East’s 5♦ bid came back to Nicolas Roussel in the North seat. Roussel might have doubled for a 7-IMP gain, but he chose to play for all of the marbles and essayed 5♥. East kicked off with two rounds of diamonds, declarer ruffing. Two high trumps took care of business there, then came the ♣A and a club ruff. Dummy may not have had much, but what little there was, right down to the ♠9, was worth its weight in gold. With the ♠A almost certain to be on his left, declarer played dummy’s low spade to his eight. East won with the ace and continued diamonds. Declarer ruffed, unblocked the ♠K, returned to dummy with a second club ruff, and advanced the ♠J for the marked ruffing finesse against West’s queen. N/S +650 and a hard-earned 10 IMPs to MESSIKA. Then came:

Roussel opened 1♦ and bid out his shape with 3♠ over the natural 2NT response. Laffineur agreed diamonds at the four-level and then showed a spade control when his partner cue-bid in hearts. Blackwood confirmed possession of the ♦K, 5♥ asked for more information, and Laffineur showed both the ♦Q and confirmed that his spade control was the king with his 5♠ bid. When Roussel made one more try with 6♣, Laffineur correctly deduced that he had whatever his partner was looking for and jumped to the excellent grand slam. Well bid! N/S +1440 and 11 IMPs to MESSIKA when the opponents stopped in 6♦ at the other table. The three big swings earned by Roussel/Laffineur resulted in a 38-13 win for the Bridge Club St. Honore team.

Clearly exhausted after creating a set containing four slam deals, The Great Dealer took a nap with the result that only 13 IMPs changed hands in the Round 3 VuGraph match. The final match of the day saw the return of the MARILL team to the VuGraph screen, this time against B.C De Marle, captained by Philippe Caralp. This turned out to be another quiet affair, but Benedicte Cronier demonstrated that great players do not need high-card points to have an influence on the outcome:

If there was any dispute about Bénédicte Cronier’s (right) status as a world-class player, one need only look at her record in the prestigious Generali World Individual Masters tournament. She played four times, winning the Women’s section in 2000, and collecting two silver medals and one bronze from her three other appearances. 

Her international career had begun with a gold medal in the 1984 European Junior Teams. Three years later, it was gold again, on her debut in the French Women’s team, at the 1987 European Championships. Six more European titles have since followed, plus three World Championship gold medals, with victories in the Venice Cup in 2005, 2011 and 2015.

Although dealt a balanced collection with only 2 HCP, Cronier deemed her hand worthy of a pre-emptive raise of Philippe’s heart overcall. South passed on the off chance that he might be allowed to play 3♥ but, when E/W backed into the auction, he offered his opponents the chance to double him at the four-level. They duly accepted the chance to take a penalty.

A black-suit lead could have netted the defenders more than their non-vulnerable game was worth, but Ricardo Salvador not unreasonably opened the ♦K, saving declarer a trick in that suit. Philippe Cronier lost just two spades and one trick in each of the other suits: E/W +300.

After the same start, Jérôme Rombaut passed on the North cards. He bid 3♥ at his second turn but, by then, Alain Levy and Frédéric Volcker had already exchanged enough information to know it was their hand. When Volcker rebid his clubs freely at the four-level, Levy knew enough to raise on his doubleton queen. In an attempt to defeat the contract the defenders lost one of their aces, but that was incidental: E/W +420 and 3 IMPs to MARILL.

CARALP, unbeaten in their first three matches, won another low-scoring affair, 11-6, to retain their place atop the table. With four of the eight matches played these were the overnight standings:

We will be back next week with the highlights from Sunday's play.