In the bridge version of November Madness, we have reached the ’Final Four’ in the Soloway Trophy at the 2023 Fall NABC in Atlanta, Georgia. None of the four teams originally seeded to reach this stage of the competition have survived, although only one team from outside the original top eight seeds has made it, and they are the clearly under-seeded reigning Spingold champions. The line-up for the semi-finals is:

#8        GOODMAN   v          #5        ZIMMERMANN

#7        STREET         v          #19      FLEISHER

The format is 60-board matches, divided into four 15-board segments. Only one problem this week: With both sides vulnerable, you are South holding:

Do you agree with your double on the previous round? If so, what action, if any, do you now take?

We start in the first set of the match between ZIMMERMANN and GOODMAN, and perhaps the most spectacular board of the week.

Michal Klukowski (left), one of the European stars featured in my latest book, World Class – 21^st Century, which is published this month, chose the pragmatic 4♠ overcall after Giacomo Percario’s third-seat 1♦ opening. Having not opened the bidding, Giovanni Donati had a monster in support of diamonds, so he competed to the five-level as a two-way shot.

However, Klukowski was not yet done. Although the textbooks warn against bidding five-over-five, some hands are exceptional and it’s hard to argue that this West collection does not fall into that category. Perhaps Donati still thought the hand belonged to his side but, having pushed the opponents to the five-level, there seems to be little upside to doubling a contract that seems unlikely to go more than one down.

Donati led a top diamond, and there was not much to the play. After driving out the ♠A, Klukowski had to set up his hearts and, with no entry to dummy, he had no choice but to get them right. That was E/W +850 and what looked surely like a good board for the Swiss. Proving that you never can tell, though…

Michal Nowosadzki opened 1♦ on the North hand here, so Pierre Zimmermann began with an inverted raise. Mike Passell (right) also deemed the West hand a 4♠ overcall and North had nothing to say on his minimum opening hand. Should Zimmermann simply fold up his tent and defend at this point? Having left the decision to his partner, should Nowosadzki just pass when Zimmermann came again with a double? His retreat to 5♦, left Zimmermann with the problem posed above.

Why Zimmermann thought his fairly balanced 11-count was worth a raise to slam is rather mysterious, but raise he did. Did he perhaps think that North’s pass of 4♠ was forcing, and thus pass and pull to 5♦ was a slam try? Even if that was the case, does this hand have extra values, having already made an inverted raise?

With a void club, Mike Passell made a Lightner double, asking his partner to lead one of the rounded suits. Suspecting that the double heralded a club ruff, Zimmermann chose to retreat to no-trumps, not realizing that, even with the impending ruff, -1100 in this freely bid slam was not a total disaster. 6NT, though, certainly was!

Passell began by cashing his five heart winners before switching to a spade. Zimmermann could win and cash his five diamond tricks, but the defence then had the last two tricks. That was six down! E/W -1700 and 13 IMPs to GOODMAN.

ZIMMERMANN led 34-32 at the end of the first set. The other semi-final was also close after the opening stanza, FLEISHER ahead 39-31, and we switch to that match for the second segment. This deal illustrates that the Bridge Gods can be vindictive, extracting a sizeable penalty for a slight indiscretion.

Nicolas L’Ecuyer (left) made his first international appearance as a member of Canada’s Junior team at the 1993 World Youth Championships. He made his debut on the Canadian Open team at the 2003 Bermuda Bowl and he has been a regular member of that team over the past two decades.

On this deal, L’Ecuyer opened with a weak (12-14) 1NT. I don’t know whether the North Americans simply did not have the methods to find the 5-3 spade fit or whether Paul Street just decided not to look for it.

On a club lead, 3NT depends on the straight 50% chance offered by the spade finesse. With the ♠K onside, 3NT was always going to be an easy make. Indeed, Thomas Bessis led a spade, so declarer could have ducked a diamond at trick two to make a safe eleven tricks if diamonds broke, but he simply claimed ten tricks after trick one. Not a perfect performance, but N/S +430 nonetheless.

The Americans conducted what looks like a routine auction to their major-suit game, and Piotr Zatorski led the ♥3 to the jack and king. Declarer has a potential loser in each suit, but he can establish a third heart trick by force on which he can discard the diamond loser from his hand. However, crossing to dummy in diamonds to take the trump finesse may allow the defenders to play a second diamond, setting up their trick in that suit before the discard is established.

Prepared to lose a trump trick, Chip Martel started spades from his hand. Unfortunately, he began by leading low to the queen. Ron Pachtman won with the ♠K, delivered a heart ruff, regained the lead with the ♣A, and played a third heart. A second heart ruff then put the contract one down. N/S -50 and 10 IMPs to STREET.

Declarer was certainly unlucky to find the defensive cards exactly as they were. However, can it cost to play the ♠A and a second spade to the queen? That would still have lost had West started with five hearts, the ♣A and precisely a doubleton ♠K, but it wins if West holds three spades and, of course, on the actual layout. 10 IMPs does feel like a particularly excessive penalty for failing to cater for a small extra chance, particularly when neither the bidding nor the play had been perfect at the other table.

Nevertheless, FLEISCHER won the second set 42-27, so they led by 24 IMPs at the midway break. In the other semi-final, ZIMMERMANN won the second stanza 38-10, giving them a 30-IMP advantage. GOODMAN won a very quiet third set 22-10 to leave them with a 19-IMP deficit going into the final stanza. However, this early deal was a serious body-blow to their chances of a comeback.

The auction at this tables was essentially natural. Jacek Kalita (right) forced to game with 2♦ and then rebid 2NT at his next turn. Klukowski raised to game and Kalita made one more try with a quantitative 4NT.

The opening lead choice was perhaps trickier from the East seat. Even so, Donati’s decision to lead from J-x-x-x in dummy’s suit looks rather strange. Kalita called for the ♥8 from dummy, which won the trick. He then crossed to the ♥A, confirming that he had five heart tricks. His next move was the ♦10 from his hand. Had Donati gone in with the ♦K and switched to a spade, declarer would be forced to choose between staking everything on the spade finesse or playing for diamonds to break 4-3 or for some sort of squeeze to work (so not much of a guess really). When the ♦10 won, declarer had nine tricks and therefore just needed three tricks from the spade suit. Kalita ran the ♠Q, which lost, but he was still able to claim his slam. N/S +1440 and 17 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN.

That board made the difference 35 IMPs with 12 boards remaining, and GOODMAN never got any closer. ZIMMERMANN won the final stanza 46-16 and claimed their place in the final with victory by 128-80.

In the other semi-final, FLEISHER won the third stanza 18-17 and thus took a 25-IMP (100-75) lead into the final set. That final 15 boards were all one-way traffic. On three deals in this set, the same 3NT contract was played at both tables. On each occasion, one declarer got home but the other did not, and all three swings went in the same direction. On this deal, the opening lead was perhaps critical…

Ron Pachtman (left) made his international debut as a member of the Israel Open team at the 2004 World Team Olympiad. He has won two Open Teams titles at European events, in 2007 at the European Transnational Championship and at the 2016 European Winter Games. Earlier this month, he was a member of the Italian national champion team that won the European Champions Cup in Dubrovnik.

After an unhelpful auction, do you lead a heart or start with a top club from that West hand?

Alfredo Versace chose the ♣A and then switched to the ♥J at trick two, but the damage had been done. Declarer has seven top tricks in the majors, so just needs two from the minors. Pachtman won in dummy and played a diamond to his queen. When that won, a club towards dummy established the ♣Q as declarer’s ninth trick. Pachtman ended with ten tricks: N/S +430.

With clubs bid on his left, the club lead was less attractive after this auction, so Andreas Manno (right) opened the ♥J against Cedric Lorenzini’s 3NT. Winning with the ♥Q, the French star played a diamond to the queen and a second diamond back to the ten, king and ace. Massimiliano di Franco switched to a club, Manno winning with the ♣A and continuing with the ♣J.

When Lorenzini did not cover with the ♣Q (surely the only way the contract can be made?), the defenders had five tricks. N/S -50 and 10 IMPs to STREET.

Having gone into the last 15 boards trailing by 25 IMPs, STREET won the stanza 47-8. That put an end to the reigning Spingold champions’ bid for a second major NABC team title this year by a score of 122-106.

The final of the 2023 Soloway trophy will be contested by #7 STREET (Paul Street, Delray Beach FL; Nicolas L’Ecuyer, Montreal QC; Ron Pachtman, Kfar Saba Israel; Piotr Zatorski, Gdansk Poland; Andrea Manno and Massimiliano di Franco, Palermo Italy) and #5 ZIMMERMANN (Pierre Zimmermann, Michal Nowosadzki, Seb Drijver, Sjoert Brink, Jacek Kalita and Michal Klukowski, Geneva Switzerland).

We will be back soon with the best of the action from that final.