We are back in Tignes in southeastern France at the European Winter Games, where we have reached the knockout stage. A total of 46 teams set off three days ago, but we are now down to the “Sweet 16”. Worthy of note is that two of the three Junior teams in the field have made it into the knockout stage. This is the draw for the first knockout round:

The format is 56-board matches divided into four 14-board segments.

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

What do you bid?

Next, with only your side vulnerable, you hold as North:

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with only your opponents vulnerable, you hold as West:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we begin our coverage in the first set of the match between MARTENS (Monaco/Poland) and FRANCE GREEN (France). Halfway through the set, the score stood at a pedestrian 7-7, but the match was about to turn into a Grand Prix (which might, perhaps, suit the man from Monte Carlo).

Marek Pietraszek opened 1♦ and rebid a weak 1NT after North’s 1♠ overcall. South pre-emptive jump to 3♠ then set Krzysztof Martens the first of this week’s problems. His 3NT was the pragmatic choice, but on this occasion Pietraszek held the perfect hand for a club slam. E/W +660.

At this table, Pierre Franceschetti upgraded his hand to a 1NT opening, and Baptiste Combescure (left) started with a 2♠ transfer to clubs. North doubled to show spades and Franceschetti’s 2NT denied a good club fit, which was of course no surprise to his partner. A jump to 4♣ now showed the good suit and slam interest, Franceschetti cue-bid his diamond control and then denied a high spade at his next turn, which was music to Combescure’s ears.

North led the ♠K and switched to a heart at trick two. Combescure won with the ♥A, played a trump to his hand, then cashed the ♥K and ruffed a heart with dummy’s remaining low trump. When that survived, a spade ruff and a heart ruff with the ♣J came next. Declarer was soon claiming 12 tricks: E/W +1370 and 12 IMPs to FRANCE GREEN.

The French ran off an unanswered 47 IMPs over the second half of the stanza, and thus led 54-7 after the first quarter. No one was up by more in any of the other matches. Indeed, a couple of the higher seeds found themselves trailing at end of the first stanza: LES ALLUMETTES led MULTON 40-12, and the winners of the Swiss qualifier, AZS WRATISLAVIA, trailed 16-22 against GREEK JUNIORS.

For the second stanza, we get our first look at the other age-restricted team still alive, DUTCH JUNIORS, who are 18-34 down after the first set against WIGODER. After nine boards, the score for the set stood at 16-13 in favour of WIGODER. Once again, the Great Dealer had saved the fireworks for the end of the stanza. WIGODER added another 15 IMPs to their total before both North players had to deal with the second of this week’s problems in stoppage time at the end of the first half.

Zia opened a natural weak 2♥ on the West hand and South balanced with a double after two passes. The allure of the vulnerable game bonus proved too much for Youp Caris (right), and he jumped to 3NT. With significantly more values than he might have held for his double, Pim Dupont can hardly be blamed for making a move towards slam. Indeed, it is a close call whether 4NT is even enough, as something like Qx/AKxx/Kx/J109xx, only a 13-count, would give you 12 top tricks.

A singleton in partner’s suit is hardly an attractive lead on this type of auction, and many players would be tempted to look elsewhere. But, are you sufficiently attracted by any of the alternatives? Geir Helgemo wasn’t, which was good for his side, as the ♥3 was the only opening to give the defence a chance. Caris won with dummy’s ♥Q and advanced the ♣K. Zia had no choice but to win, and his return of the ♥J was won by declarer as East discarded a club. With the last outside entry gone from his hand and the clubs still blocked, Caris cashed the ♥K, discarding the blocking ♣Q from dummy. He then started on clubs, but West’s discard on the second round was not a welcome sight.

Caris played a fourth round of clubs to East’s nine, establishing the ♣8 in his hand. Helgemo exited with a spade and declarer played low from dummy, but Zia won with the ♠Q and cashed the ♥10 for one down. N/S -100.

The auction began in identical fashion in the replay:

Sibrand van Oosten opened the same weak two that Zia had in the other room, but his opponents were less forgiving. Boye Brogeland duly reopened with a double on the South cards and Charles Wigoder saw no reason not to defend.

Declarer won the club lead and might have escaped with six tricks had he started trumps immediately. Instead, he played a diamond to the jack and ace. He ruffed the club continuation and tried the ♠Q from his hand. When Brogeland won and switched to the ♦9, declarer was tempted to cover with the ten, and the defenders now had nine tricks. N/S +800 meant 14 IMPs to WIGODER.

WIGODER won the set 45-13, and had thus opened a comfortable 48-IMP lead at the midway point of the match. Elsewhere, AZS WRATISLAVIA won the second set against the GREEK JUNIORS 42-12, so they led by 24 IMPs. MULTON won their second set against LES ALLUMETTES 52-27, reducing the deficit to just 3 IMPs. There was one other match with a single-digit halftime difference, ORCA leading MAVERICKS by 6 IMPs.

We take a look at third-quarter action in that second close match, with a bidding test for the E/W pairs…

Erik Berg set the suit with a Jacoby-style, game-forcing heart raise, and Peter Crouch showed a non-minimum opening bid with short spades. East’s redouble showed the ♠A, which was not what Crouch wanted to hear, so he retreated to 4♥, but Berg was still interested, and he advanced with 4NT, asking for a club control. Crouch cue-bid to confirm a control in clubs but still felt he did not have enough to jump to slam over a 5♦ cue-bid from his partner. Thus it was that the auction petered out (literally) at the five-level.

Once there was no club ruff, declarer just needed trumps no worse than 3-1. He could ruff his diamond loser in dummy, pitch his fourth club on the ♠A, and concede just the ♣A. E/W +680.

Keyzad Anklesaria (left) made his first international appearance as a member of the Indian Junior team at the 1997 World Youth Championships. A long-time member of the famed ‘Formidables’, he made his debut in India’s Open team at the 2016 World Games in Wroclaw. At that same championship, he achieved the best ever result by an Indian pair, earning a bronze medal from the Open Pairs in partnership with Sunit Chokshi.

On this deal, the Indian pair had to contend with competition from the Swedish brothers, although perhaps the momentum that added to the auction helped rather than hindered. Debabrata Majumder cue-bid spades twice and them, in response to Anklesaria’s RKCB, he confirmed his void, committing the partnership to slam (although, with two key cards, that seems a fairly safe bet). Again, there was nothing to the play: E/W +1430 and 13 IMPs to MAVERICKS.

MAVERICKS won the set 40-26 to take over the lead, 105-97, going into the final stanza. There were two other matches with single-digit margins: LES TEIGNES had a big third set to close to within 6 IMPs against BERNAL, and VINCIGUERRA won the third set of their match against CROATIA 32-14 to take a 5-IMP advantage into the final set. We stay with this last match for the fourth quarter, and what a spectacular set it turned out to be for those watching live on BBO VuGraph. In a veritable shootout, the Croatians led 49-43 over the first 13 deals of the set, which gave them a 1-IMP lead in the match when the final board arrived at the tables.

Kiril Marinovski opened 1♣ in third seat and Herve Vinciguerra entered with a rather un-French 1♦ overcall, showing spades and a minor. Philippe Soulet jumped to 3♠ (presumably pre-emptively) and soon found himself playing in game.

The ♦K was not the best opening for the defence. Soulet ruffed, played a heart to dummy’s jack, and ruffed a second diamond. When declarer then led a second heart, Marinovski rose with the ♥A and switched to his trump. Had he won in dummy, declarer would have been able to ruff a third round of diamonds, and he would have still had sufficient entries to establish the thirteenth diamond as his eleventh trick. When, instead, Soulet won the trump switch in hand, he had to force dummy in order to take a third diamond ruff. He did not now have enough trumps in dummy to allow him to set up and enjoy a long diamond trick. N/S +620 looked like a fairly normal result, so how could the French gain the 1 IMP needed to at least tie the match?

In the days of Chemla, Perron, Levy, Mari, etc, the French were serious contenders at any European or World Championship, but that era ended around the turn of the century. Cedric Lorenzini (right) is a leading member of the generation of young French stars vying to re-establish their nation as the major bridge power that they once were. He won this event at the 2018 European Winter Games, and finished second in 2020. In a glittering career as a junior, he collected medals of all hues including three gold, winning The Youngsters Teams at the 2008 World Championships and the European Junior Teams twice, in 2009 and 2013. He was a member of the only victorious French Open team so far in the 21^st Century, at the 2016 European Championships in Budapest.

On this deal, the Croatian North player jumped all the way to game once his partner had shown spades, and Thomas Bessis’s double then left Lorenzini with the last of this week’s problems. We have discussed many times, both in these columns and in commentary, the folly of sacrificing on balanced hands but, inevitably, there will be exceptions to every rule. Bidding 5♦ on this very square West hand is far from attractive, but Lorenzini bravely put his neck (well, actually, his partner’s neck) on the block.

Now it was the turn of Marko Sipus (right) to face a difficult decision. With a five-card holding in the opponents’ sacrifice suit, it is tempting to defend, but of course he knew his partner was void in diamonds. Hoping to find five-card spade support opposite, he ventured a five-over-five.

These were both very tough decisions and yet, at the state of the match, each player had done the only thing that gave his side a chance of winning. Had Sipus doubled 5♦, he would have score +500, lost 3 IMPs on the board, and lost the match by 2 IMPs. Now all he had to do was to make eleven tricks in 5♠-X.

Lorenzini accurately opened with a trump. Sipus won in hand and ruffed a diamond. Now came a heart to the jack and a second diamond ruff. To make the contract, declarer must now play a second heart from dummy. He will then be in the same position as Soulet had been at the other table. When Sipus instead ruffed a club to get back to his hand for the third diamond ruff, he could no longer keep control of the trump suit sufficiently to set up both the long diamond and score a second heart trick. N/S -200 and 13 IMPs to VINCIGUERRA.

VINCIGUERRA won the final set 56-49 (only 14 boards, remember) and the match by 12 IMPs. In other close finishes, ORCA came from behind to defeat the Indians by 5 IMPs.

There were the final scores of the eight Round of 16 matches:

FRANCE GREEN were the only team that had finished outside the top 8 in the Swiss qualifying stage to win their Round of 16 match.

These are the match-ups for the quarter-finals:

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