After a tremendous week following the action in the Mixed Teams, we now get to repeat the whole process with the Open Teams event. There are 93 teams in the Open and the only difference in the format from the Mixed is that there will be three days, and 15 rounds, in the Swiss qualifying stage (rather than 10 rounds). After 15 rounds, the leading 32 teams will then advance to the knockout stage.

As usual, we start with some problems, and a bumper stack this week. Firstly, with only your side vulnerable, you are South holding this powerhouse:

Have you done enough? If not, what do you bid?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

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

I’ve stuck you with the original double. What action, if any, do you take now?

Next, with only your opponents vulnerable you hold as South:

What do you bid?

And, finally, with neither side vulnerable, you are sitting in the South seat with:

Your partner opens a natural weak two. What action, if any, do you take after East’s double?

If you raise to 3♥, West bids 3NT, which is passed back to you. Do you take any further action?

While you consider those, we start our coverage with the Round 2 match between two teams who scored 19+ VPs in their opening encounter, KAPLAN (USA) v MAURITIUS (Netherlands). We join the action on the second deal of the match, and what looks like it should be a fairly trivial slam hand for players at this level.

Adam Wildavsky (left) opened with his system strong bid in fourth seat. His 2♥ was Kokish (hearts or very strong balanced) and 2NT after the forced 2♠ confirmed 23+. 3♣ was regular Stayman and 3♠ a slam-try agreeing hearts. That was all the incentive Wildavsky needed, and Blackwood confirmed possession of the ♥K. The play was equally straightforward, declarer making five hearts, five clubs and two aces. N/S +1430.

The Americans were not willing to just sit there and watch the Dutch pair bid. Third in hand at green, one would think you have to bid something on that East hand, and Robert Todd did not disappoint. His choice was 1♠, which eventually left Bob Drijver with the first of the problems posed above. Having already doubled twice, forcing partner to bid at the four-level, do you have another go or fold your tent in 4♥? Drijver decided that he had done enough. Twelve tricks here too: N/S 680 and 13 IMPs to KAPLAN.

Remarkably, what looks as if it should be a fairly routine slam hand, proved to be anything but. Around the room, slam was bid and made at only 43 of the 92 tables. 31 pairs played in game, 14 went off in 7♥ or 7NT, and there were a handful of other results including a couple each in 6♣ and 6♦.

Adam Kaplan showed a constructive club raise with his 2♦ cue-bid. Sitting South, what would you make of your partner’s jump to 3♥? Perhaps it depends on whether a simple 2♥ would be forcing? If not, does that mean 3♥ is forcing? In my partnerships, we have a general rule that all jumps below game in competitive auctions are fit-showing. Whilst this North hand does not quite conform, holding only three diamonds rather than four, a fit jump would not be an unreasonable option. Of course, it would then be clear for South to correct back to diamonds,  a trump suit with nine cards generally playing better than one with only six.

Bob Drijver passed 3♥ and Robert Todd led the ♣3. Ricco Van Prooijen (right) ruffed and advanced the ♥9, which ran around to West’s ace. A second club was ruffed and declarer played a second trump, the jack, East taking the queen. With declarer now down to the same number of trumps as you, does it not look obvious to force him by playing the ♣A now?

In fact, East needs to switch to a spade to beat the contract, both to establish your trick in that suit and to remove the entry to dummy. When Todd continued with the ♣A, declarer ruffed with his penultimate trump and cashed the ♥K, leaving East with the only outstanding trump. Unfortunately for the defence, when Van Prooijen started running diamonds, East could score his trump but then had to surrender the lead to the ♠A, at which point dummy was high. An unlikely looking N/S +140.

The Americans did manage to play in their nine-card fit…

Rather mysteriously, the De Wijs-Muller system card says they play a 15-17 1NT, but here Muller seems to have opened either a 12-14 or a 10-12 NT on his flat 11-count. Be that as it may, Wildavsky got into the auction with 2NT, presumably showing both minors, despite the suit disparity. Amber Lin gave preference to diamonds, which encouraged Wildavsky to make an invitational raise. Lin offered hearts as an alternative but, of course, Wildavsky was not interested. Finally, Simon de Wijs emerged, like a snake from the bushes, with a double of the final contract.

Muller led a spade, ducked to the queen, and de Wijs switched to the obvious trump. Declarer captured East’s ♦Q, unblocked the ♠A, ruffed a club, and advanced the ♠J. Muller covered and declarer ruffed. Wildavsky took a second club ruff and then played the master ♠10, discarding a club from his hand. De Wijs still had a trump, so he ruffed and the defenders still had two club winners to come. Two down: E/W +500 and 12 IMPs to MAURITIUS.

MAURITIUS won the match 29-16, leaving them in fifth place at this early stage with nearly 35 VPs out of a possible 40. There is a still a long way to go even before the knockout stage starts, but it can do no harm to put down an early marker.

Let’s skip onto Day 2 now. These two teams go into Round 7 with TEAM FUNBRIDGE (USA/Sweden/Denmark/France/Norway) lying second with five wins from their six matches and MELI MELO (France) in fifth place, with four wins to their name. Yet, this is truly the battle of the youngsters, with the majority of the players in action still eligible for Junior events, and some even able to play in the Under-21 or Under-16 categories.

With so many Junior players in action, this was not likely to be a match for the faint-hearted. And, so it proved. The bidding seems to continue until someone doubles and, with everyone bidding one level more than one might expect, the red cards got quite a workout…

Stephane Garcia’s thin opening bid seemed to propel his opponents into a contract they could not make, although it is hard to criticize either Finn Kolesnik’s double or Christian Lahrmann’s jump to 3NT. The play was quick, declarer winning the opening club lead with the ace and cashing his diamonds before conceding the rest: E/W +200.

Nicolai Heiberg-Evenstad (left) is the 15-year-old wonderkid from the Norwegian stable that has previously produced the likes of Geir Helgemo, Boye Brogeland and Christian Bakke. We first met Nicolai playing with his father in the World Bridge Tour Masters event in Poland. This week, he has been unleashed to play in a truly multi-national team of five juniors, and they are clearly having fun.

Heiberg did not open the West hand. Those of us old enough to remember the great Irving Rose will recall his common refrain at the rubber bridge table, “Passing, for now”. Having not opened the bidding, the young Norwegian certainly got his money’s worth later in the auction.

When Luc Bellicaud responded 1♥, I had to double check that he didn’t hold four spades, and perhaps it was a transfer and the alert was missing. But, no, apparently it was just a natural bid. Then came an equally eccentric double from Heiberg, for takeout despite not holding four cards in the unbid major, which most would consider about a 100% requirement in this auction. Andreas Abragi responded in his four-card black suit, as requested, and now Bellicaud emerged to say he had a good hand, via a cue-bid, presumably looking for a club stopper for 3NT.

This left Heiberg with the third of this week’s problems. Yes, I know you all scratched your heads wondering what else there was to do but to pass and defend whichever game the opponents landed in, but these youngsters have more imagination than you/us. Heiberg wasn’t content with a boring flat board at +200, so he stepped in with a fourth club, and Romaric Guth quickly made the contract 8♣.

When you make close doubles you have a defend accurately. (Yes, I know you didn’t realize this was a ‘close’ double). Put yourself in the North seat. You partner leads a trump and you win with the ♣A. You know from the bidding that declarer holds a doubleton heart, and you want to stop him setting up the suit with ruffs, so how quickly do you get a second round of trumps on the table? Sorry, but you’ve missed your chance – the defenders have to set up their spade trick before declarer can establish dummy’s hearts.

North has to switch to a spade at trick two. On the club return, declarer lost just one club and two hearts: E/W +710 and 11 IMPs to TEAM FUNBRIDGE. Fun bridge, indeed!

Our next deal was a very tricky bidding challenge for the N/S pairs.

Luc Bellicaud (right) and Romaric Guth (below left) made their international debuts together as members of the French Under-16 Team at the 2014 World Youth Championships in Istanbul, where they collected silver medals. In the same category, Guth won another silver at the 2015 European Championships, and bronze at the 2016 World Championships. Bellicaud won gold at the 2017 World Championships in the Youngsters Teams. Back together again, they earned another silver medal at the 2019 European Championships, this time in the Under-21 Teams. Last year, at the World Championships in Salsomaggiore, they played in the Under-26 Teams.

On this deal, Guth elected to treat his hand as a game-force, which eventually left Bellicaud with the fourth of this week’s problems. He opted to take a shot at 3NT. The good news was that clubs broke, so 3NT had only four fast losers. The bad news was that it had only eight tricks. The defenders cashed their clubs and then waited for declarer to run out of steam. N/S -50.

With both defenders holding 3-3-3-4 shapes, 3NT is the only game that does not make (except clubs). 5♦ loses just a club and a trump. In 4♠, if the defenders start with two rounds of clubs, declarer can cross to hand in hearts and ruff a second club, then cash the top diamonds to dispose of his remaining club loser. Back to hand with a second high heart, three rounds of trumps then leaves declarer with 11 tricks. If the defence lead a red suit, declarer can play three rounds of diamonds, ruffing, then duck a spade. The defenders can get just one trick in each black suit. What about 4♥? Yes, that makes too, even if the defenders start with two rounds of clubs, forcing you. You ruff, play three rounds of spades, ruffing, then the ♥K and another heart, drawing trumps ending in dummy. You now have two good spades and two top diamonds: 11 tricks again.

Could the American-Danish alliance at the other table reach one of the making games?

Christian Lahrmann certainly got full value out of his misfitting 13-count. When Finn Kolesnik responded 1NT, it looked likely that N/S would go plus in a partscore for a moderate gain. 2♦ does say “Please put down dummy, partner” in most languages but, apparently, not in Junior. Having already taken one more bid than the hand justified, Lahrmann then had the chance to pass 2NT, but he still felt he had one more feature to show. Could Kolesnik justify his partner’s bidding by raising to 4♥ or, perhaps, showing delayed spade support? No, he retreated to 3NT and Lahrmann finally gave up. (See, they don’t always keep bidding until someone doubles.)

East led a heart, declarer winning with the ♥A in dummy and playing a diamond to his ten. A valiant effort, but Pierre Schmidt was having none of it. He won with the ♦Q and had a low club on the table at the speed of light. N/S -50 and a push board.

This combination caused trouble around the room. At 43 of the 92 tables in the Open Teams, N/S got a plus score by playing in a partscore. 38 N/S pairs bid to 3NT, and nine of those were allowed to make nine or more tricks. At only 11 of the 92 tables was a legitimately making game reached, 10 of those in 4♠, one in 4♥. No one got to 5♦. 

After a couple of relatively normal boards, the action returned to ‘bridge on steroids’, with both South players faced with the last of this week’s problems.

Luc Bellicaud wasted little time, raising to 4♥ and, as had become familiar, West’s double ended the brief auction. A red suit lead is best and the defence duly began with two rounds of trumps followed by a diamond switch by Heiberg. Declarer won in dummy and led a low spade, but Heiberg rose with the ♠K and continued diamonds. That ensured five tricks for the defence: E/W +300.

The auction in the replay illustrated the difficulty of knowing when you have done enough…

Christian Lahrmann (right) has been on the international bridge scene for more than a decade, and yet he still has a few years of eligibility as a Junior. He made his first international appearance at the 2012 European Youth Pairs Championship at the age of 13. He made his debut in the Danish Youngsters team two years later. He earned his first title by winning the 2015 World Under-16 Pairs. He had an excellent 2022 World Youth Championships in Salsomaggiore, earning a bronze medal in the Under-21 Pairs and winning the Under-21 Teams.

On this deal, Lahrmann’s gentle raise to 3♥ was much more effective, leaving Stephane Garcia with a tricky decision on the West cards. His hand isn’t quite good enough to commit to game, but his value-showing 3♣ bid has been taken away, and a responsive double seems unlikely to help. Pass if, of course, out of the question, so Garcia offered 3NT in much less time than it took you to read that analysis of the situation. When that came back to Lahrmann, he astutely determined that the Frenchman had bid too much and produced a red card. Garcia instantly retreated to 4♣ and Finn Kolesnik produced an equally quick double. Unfortunately, with the opponents on toast, Lahrmann fell from grace and undid all of his previous excellent work, by retreating to 4♥. As expected, Garcia gave that the traditional treatment in short order.

The defence here was equally effective: E/W +300 and another exciting flat board.

MELI MELO won the match 28-11 and moved up to third place with five wins from their opening seven matches. Good luck to both of these teams going forward. They are a breath of fresh air, and we hope to see them again later in the week.

We’ll be back in Strasbourg soon with the best of the action as teams battle to make the knockout stage as the Swiss qualifying comes to an end.