| 1st World Mind Sports Games | Page 4 | Bulletin 10 - Tuesday 14 October 2008 |
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QUARTER FINALS A swing a minute by Mark Horton The first three sessions of the Quarter finals delivered a whole host of deals with swing potential. Here are a few that caught my eye:
Open Room
West’s decision to bid Three Clubs (as opposed to Two Diamonds) saw East led the ace of clubs, making life very easy for declarer, who won the club continuation and cashed the top spades for an effortless +480. Closed Room
This time South was the declarer and West led the queen of clubs, covered by the king and ace. East cashed the ten of clubs and switched to the seven of diamonds, West taking the ace and playing a heart. Declarer won in hand, played a spade to the king and a spade to the jack (East did not peter or play the ten on the second round) so West won and returned a heart for East to ruff, two down, -100 giving Germany 11 IMPs.
Open Room
South led the king of clubs and declarer won with the ace, pitching a heart from dummy, and played a spade to the queen, North winning with the king and switching to the jack of hearts. Declarer won with the ace and played three rounds of diamonds, ruffing with the nine of spades. South overuffed, but declarer claimed ten tricks, +620. Closed Room
South led the five of hearts and declarer ducked the first round, won the second, pitched a heart on the ace of clubs and played a spade to the queen and king. North played a club, forcing the dummy, and declarer played three rounds of diamonds, ruffed and overuffed by South, who exited with the king of clubs. Declarer ruffed and had to guess how the outstanding spades were divided. He went for 1-1 by cashing the ace and was two down, -200 meaning 13 IMPs for Norway.
Open Room
When you suspect your side has a lot of strength in the side suits it is frequently right to lead a trump. When South preferred the six of clubs declarer was able to organize two club ruffs and emerge with ten tricks, +790. Closed Room
No trump lead here either, South preferring the four of spades. Declarer won with dummy’s ace and played a club. North won and switched to a heart, covered by the two, queen and king. Declarer had an easy route to ten tricks now by following the line adopted at the other table, but when he played a diamond North pounced with the ace and played another trump to ensure one down, -200 handing 14 IMPs to Netherlands. The USA Seniors are doing well (as expected) although some of their slam bidding has been a little on the dodgy side.
Open Room
Two Spades promised 5-4 in the majors or a single suited hand with hearts. West led the ten of diamonds and declarer won in hand with the king and cashed the ace of hearts. West’s nine allowed a glimmer of hope and declarer crossed to dummy with the nine of hearts and played the king of clubs. East could (should?) have been a hero by ducking, but he covered and declarer ruffed. Now came an avalanche of trumps. In play West gave up his diamond guard so declarer could claim twelve tricks, but here is how the ending might have looked:
When declarer plays his last trump West has to retire hurt. Either minor gives declarer three more tricks, while on a spade discard declarer crosses to the ace of diamonds and throws West in with a diamond to lead into the club tenace. Closed Room
Two Clubs was forcing to game unless the responder simply rebid his suit, but even so, to miss a game on these cards is incredible. It cost 13 IMPs.
Open Room
With the spade king offside this optimistic contract was one down, -50. Closed Room
This pessimistic contract scored +480 for 11 IMPs to Hungary.
Open Room
Declarer was not impressed with East’s bidding, especially when he recorded all thirteen tricks, +720. Closed Room
West’s rebid of Two Clubs looks artificial, but there is no alert on the BBO screen, and the Convention card is silent. Still, whatever it all meant the Dutchmen handled the auction well to reach a sound contract that secured them 12 IMPs.
Open Room
East led the nine of hearts and declarer won with dummy’s ace, drew trumps, eliminated the clubs ending in hand and exited with a heart. East allowed West to win and he exited with a low diamond (they tell me the jack is the best shot – but it never seems to work when I try it). Declarer took East’s queen with the ace and the diamond finesse gave him +920. Closed Room
This time East led the seven of hearts. You would not expect a swing unless declarer goes wrong in diamonds but something strange happened, as after winning with the ace of hearts declarer simply played five rounds of spades!! Perhaps he thought he was in 6NT, but whatever, he could make no more than eleven tricks, and lost 14 IMPs. |
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