E-bulletin editors: Jan van Cleeff, Lex de Groot and Rosaline Barendregt
Pictures: Elisabeth van Ettinger
Content Sunday E-bulletin:
What a Match!
Birthday Present
The Party Goes On
Party Spoiled
First Blood in the Final
Bulgarian Triumph
Enough is Enough
The last round qualifying round before the Sunday finals brought us Orange Red versus Israel. And what a match it was!
Team Orange took the lead on this one:
Round 6, Board 28 - West / NS |
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In the closed room Israel’s Ilan and Ophir Herbst soon found their heart fit and stopped at the five level after some asking bids. Somewhere along the line East doubled a club bid by North. Despite the double West led a low spade. Declarer fooled around some but ended up with eleven tricks.
In the open room Berry Westra and Vincent Ramondt explored slam as well. Here East doubled a 4
cuebid by North whereafter NS came to rest in 6
.
West took his partner’s double of 4 seriously. Perhaps a little too seriously, for instead of cashing his 
A he understandably led a club. This gave declarer a chance to discard his two low spades on dummy’s diamonds. Later, Ramondt double-finessed in trumps, scoring twelve tricks. So Team Orange gained thirteen imps, but gave almost all of them back on this board:
Round 6, Board 24 - West / - |
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 Berry Westra |
Israel’s Ilan Herbst declared 4 from the South chair. He won the diamond lead with the ace and played a spade to the jack. West won and tabled the K, won with the ace. Herbst then played a trump to his queen and a trump to the ace, noting the 1-4 distribution. A low club from dummy was led and when East followed low, South´s ten won the trick. Herbst continued with the nine of clubs. In with the Q, Ton Bakkeren switched to a spade. Herbst won the ten and ended up with eleven tricks.
In the other room the contract and early play were almost identical. Here declarer, Berry Westra, also took the K, cashed the ace and king of trumps, played the K and ruffed a spade. Westra finessed the ten of trumps and drew the last trump, pitching a club from dummy (a diamond instead would have done the job). Now, convinced that west held the Q, he played 10, overtaking with the jack. East won and returned a club. Down one. Israel won the match 17-13 and became one of the top four qualifiers.
Lavazza vs. Russia
Semi-finals for first four, Session I
Semi Final , Board 6 - East / EW |
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| West | North | East | South |
Zmudzinski |
Madala |
Balicki |
Sementa |
| - | - | Pass | 10 |
1 |
Dbl (1 | 3 |
3NT |
| All Pass |
1) hearts
Sementa had a spade stopper and a running suit - and who cares about diamonds? Zmudzi happily cashed the suit and that was that. Down two.
Closed Room| West | North | East | South |
Duboin |
Gromov |
Bocchi |
Dubinin |
| - | - | Pass | 2 |
| 2 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
| All Pass |
 Andy Gromov |
Giorgio Duboin cashed two top diamonds and erred by switching to spades. It took three rounds of trumps only when EW (!) conceded eleven tricks to declarer on a red-suit squeeze. That was a nice present for Gromov, who celebrates his birthday today.
The penultimate board of the set:
Semi Final , Board 13 - North / All |
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| West | North | East | South |
Zmudzinski |
Madala |
Balicki |
Sementa |
| - | Pass | Pass | 1 |
| Dbl | Pass | 1 |
1 |
| Dbl | 2 |
3* |
3* |
| Dbl | Pass | 4 |
Pass |
| Pass | 4 |
Pass | Pass |
| Dbl | All Pass |
*invitational
Declarer easily made an overtrick: NS plus 990. By the way, it’s hard to blame West for doubling the final contract: he had twenty HCP and a partner who made an invitational bid.
Closed Room| West | North | East | South |
Duboin |
Gromov |
Bocchi |
Dubinin |
| - | Pass | Pass | 1 |
| Dbl | 3 |
Pass | 4 |
| Dbl | 4 |
5 |
Pass |
| Pass | 5 |
Pass | Pass |
| Dbl | All Pass |
Gromov’s excellent 5 bid was a present to himself, but it still cost 4 imps. Halfway through the match Gromov was leading 33-29. The party is not over yet.
The second half of Lavazza versus Russia yielded the freakiest board of the tournament thus far.
Semi Final , Board 19 - South / EW |
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| West | North | East | South |
Zmudzinski |
Madala |
Balicki |
Sementa |
| - | - | - | 3 |
| ...5 |
5 |
5 |
6 |
| ...Dbl | Pass | ...Pass | Pass |
| Pass |
Antonio Sementa opened 3. A little off-beat, but still. Hereafter the Poles did almost everything right, though it took them quite some time. Antonio grabbed the opportunity to browse the Gazetta di Sportivo, focussing more on the Serie A then on bridge.
Cezary Balicki kicked off with A and another heart, ruffed by his partner. Excellent, not that it matters much, since defense always gets two heart tricks.
| West | North | East | South |
Duboin |
Gromov |
Bocchi |
Dubinin |
| - | - | - | 2 (1 |
| 4 (2 |
Pass | 6 |
Pass |
| Pass | 6 |
Dbl | All Pass |
 Antonio Sementa |
1) multi
2) clubs and spades
Okay, 6 can go down after a diamond to the ace and a spade ruff (a defense that was found in one of consolation matches), but not if you lead, let’s say, the K.
His Multi 2 opening made South declarer, and West led the K. Declarer ruffed, ruffed a club, played a heart to the jack, king and ace, won the diamond return in dummy, ruffed another club and later thoughtfully played a low heart from dummy for an exciting push.
In one of the semi-final matches, Team Lavazza beat Russia by the slender margin of seven imps. Board 25 produced the fatal score for the Russo-Polish combination:
Semi Final , Board 25 - North / EW |
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 Alexander Dubinin |
In the closed room Madala-Sementa competed vigorously to 5 over Balicki’s 4 bid and Zmudzinski took the push to 5 and became declarer. After a diamond to the ace and the ace of hearts, Sementa returned a low diamond, ruffed. Declarer managed to scramble for eleven tricks despite the fould club break when his fifth heart became a winner. Having ruffed a heart with the K of necessity, declarer also needed a successful finesse against the Q. Plus 650 was the well-earned result.
The action in the open room was somewhat less vigorous when South decided to double 4 rather than to bid on to 5. Had the declarer been held to his contract, the outcome of the match would have been quite different. Here, a transfer response caused the East player to be the declarer. When Alexander Dubinin (South), after cashing the A on opening lead, shifted to his singleton club and North put up the king, it was over in a hurry. Declarer gave up a heart trick and claimed the rest. That included a doubled overtrick, resulting in an 8 imp loss.
Board #1 of the first 14-board session in the final between Lavazza and Bulgaria already produced a significant swing.
Final , Board 1 - North / - |
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 Victor Aronov |
Bocchi-Duboin correctly collected their four tricks against Victor Aronov’s 4.
In the open room, Gossen Nunev unluckily led the A against the same spade game. Not only was the contract now made, but when the K scored a trick, Antonio Sementa made eleven tricks. First blood to Lavazza: 11 imps.
Although the Bulgarians were not having the easiest of times in the final against Lavazza, this deal was indeed a Bulgarian triumph.
Final , Board 14 - East / - |
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| West | North | East | South |
Gunev |
Madala |
Popova |
Sementa |
| - | - | Pass | Pass |
| Pass | 2 |
Pass | 2 |
| Pass | 3 |
Pass | 3 |
| Pass | 3NT | Pass | 4 |
| Pass | 4 |
Pass | 4NT |
| All Pass |
 Julian Stefanov |
While Madala was considering his call over Sementa’s 4NT, the commentators were busily anticipating how the play might go in 6 or even 7. Madala’s final pass came as a big surprise to all and sundry. After the lead of the Q, Madala had no trouble taking twelve tricks when West correctly allowed North’s Q to hold, but a subsequent finesse against the K succeeded. Only a heart trick was lost.
The auction at the other table took an altogether different course.
| West | North | East | South |
Duboin |
Stefanov |
Bocchi |
Popova |
| - | - | Pass | Pass |
| Pass | 1 |
Pass | 1 |
| Pass | 1 |
Pass | 1 |
| Pass | 1NT | Pass | 2 |
| Pass | 3 |
Pass | 3 |
| Pass | 3NT | Pass | 4 |
| Pass | 6 |
All Pass |
We do not profess to know the exact meaning of this sequence (the first seven bids were alerted) but despite looking inoccuous, it proved to have a nasty bite when a club slam was reached in only two bids after 3NT. Declarer had no trouble taking twelve tricks, including a heart ruff in dummy, when here too the Q was allowed to hold. Again, only one heart trick was surrendered, and the gain was to Bulgaria was 10 imps.
 Dessy Popova |
At the beginning of the last session Bulgaria, in their final versus Lavazza, was trailing by more then forty imps. A rather hopeless situation one might say, with only fourteen boards to go. However, on the very first board of the second half Bulgaria got a huge chance to close the gap a little. It looked like they missed it.
Final , Board 15 - South / NS |
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Six diamonds is merely a on finesse, which is on. Dessi Popova, the first female player in the history of the White House to reach the big final, and her partner Gossen Nunev bid to 5. This meant that the board would at least equalled or even bettered by the Italians. But was it?
| North | South | ||
| Madala | Sementa | ||
| - | 1 |
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| 1 |
1 |
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| 2 |
3 |
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| 3 |
4 |
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| 4 |
4 |
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| 5 |
5 |
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| 5NT | 6 |
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| 7 |
Pass |
‘Enough is enough’, Victor Aronov as West must have thought when he doubled the final contract, duly collecting plus 200 and 13 imps. Gromov added "The slam is not that bad, I would say it has 75% chance; with any other lead than club ace the contract is made".