David's Deals the Entertainer Sea of Slams
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A NEW BRIDGE MAGAZINE Sea of Slams The Entertainer David’s Deals EDITION 8 August 2018 A NEW BRIDGE MAGAZINE – AUGUST 2018 Open to All defeating the USA 102-89 over 42 deals. The EBL is pleased to confirm that the 9th Euro- With the World Youth pean Open Bridge Championships will be held Team Championships between 15 and 29 June 2019. The venue will be starting in August it’s confirmed as soon as possible. A NEW a good omen for the team, which is spon- Who wants to be a Millionaire sored by Tetragon: The next edition of the Cavendish, the world’s https://www.tetrag- richest bridge tournament, will be played in oninv.com/ Monaco 3-8 February 2019. For information go to www.cavendish.bridgemonaco.com or write to To Francesca a Daughter BRIDGE Jean-Charles Allevena at: Cavendish@bridgem- The world’s number one Layout Editor, Franc- onaco.com MAGAZINE esca Canali, gave birth to Anna Margot on 12 Editor: July. Mark Horton On the Podium Advertising: England’s Juniors captured two bronze medals Mark Horton at the European Youth Pairs Championships in Photographers: Croatia. Ron Tacchi Tommy Brass & Ian Robson finished third in Francesca Canali the U26 Pairs, and with Stephen Kennedy and Proofreaders: Michael Alishaw finishing fifth England were Danny Roth the only country with two pairs in the top 16. Monika Kummel Meanwhile, Henry Rose and Oscar Selby were Herman De Wael third in the U16 Pairs. Typesetter: In the U26 Women’s Pairs Liz Gahan & Yvonne Ron Tacchi Wiseman finished fourth, with Alex Birchall & A NEW BRIDGE Magazine is published monthly. Laura Covill next in line. Views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Editor. Editorial contributions will be published at the Editor’s In the President’s Cup –the consolation event discretion and may be shortened if space is limited. No parts of this publication may be reproduced without the prior alongside the Pairs Championships – Jonathan express permission of the publishers. All rights reserved. ♥2018 Advertisements: Although staff of A New Bridge Magazine take Clark & Daniel Winter finished second. all reasonable precautions to protect the interests of readers by ensuring as far as practicable that advertisements in the pages of A New Bridge Magazine are bona fide, the magazine cannot accept any undertaking in respect of claims made against Eyes on the Prize advertisers. Legal remedies are available if redress is sought, and readers who have complaints should address them to the England’s U16 team has reached the final of advertiser. Readers should note that prices advertised may not be accurate due to currency exchange rate fluctuations or tax changes the WBF Youth Teams Online Championships, Page 2 A NEW BRIDGE MAGAZINE – AUGUST 2018 Fantunes Update The Federal Appeal Tribunal of the Italian Bridge Federation has approved the appeal submitted by Fantoni & Nunes asking for a review of the deci- sion to suspend them for 3 years. Their appeal followed their acquittal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. The FIGB lifted the 3-year suspension on the grounds that following the CAS ruling the defendants must be judged innocent. The pair has stated that they will not play together in the future. State of the Union The Constitution of the United States of America says that the Presi- dent, shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. By tradition, the President must be in office for a year before delivering his first State of the Union address, but he can still deliver a speech to a joint session of Congress. A New Bridge Magazine is only eight months into its first year of publication but it is important to keep you posted as to our progress. Our readership continues to increase, although after the surge of the first few months things have slowed down, which is only to be expected. It includes players at every level, from World Champions to beginners. That presents us with a logistical problem – we can please some of our readers all of the time and all of our readers some of the time - but can we please everyone all of the time? We have plans as to how to improve and move forward (see this month’s Letter from France) but when there only two of you involved in the produc- tion of something of this size things tend to take a while to come to fruition. Your input is important. If you have a comment, query or observation, don’t hesitate to get in touch. The best way is at forum@newbridgemag. com but you can also use [email protected] A big thank you to everyone supporting the magazine financially, be it by one-off payments or monthly contributions. You ensure that our writers get paid and that the Layout Editor can enjoy the odd ‘apero’. If everyone donated £5 tomorrow we would have enough capital to see us safely through to 2023! Page 3 A NEW BRIDGE MAGAZINE – AUGUST 2018 In This Issue 4 FUNBRIDGE — Test Your Technique Test Your Technique with Christophe Grosset see Page 57 5 Sea of Slams — The Editor reports on the 54th European Team Championships 41 FUNBRIDGE — Misplay These Hands With Me Matchpoints. Dealer West. All Vul. 43 Obituary–Jean-Paul Meyer — Mark Horton 45 Deals That Caught My Eye — David Bird looks at the semi-finals of the Spring Foursomes ♠ 9 8 6 4 ♥ Q J 10 7 5 50 Obituary–Eric Murray — John Carruthers ♦ 7 51 Acol Club Corner — Tony Poole ♣ J 9 3 55 Defend With Julian Pottage 56 Book Review — Martin Cantor ♠ Q J 5 3 57 FUNBRIDGE — Test Your Technique solution ♥ A 8 4 58 The Entertainer — Alex Adamson & Harry Smith with another tale from the Over The ♦ K J 6 4 Rainbow Bridge Club ♣ A Q 62 From Our French Correspondent — Ron Tacchi The bidding: 64 Defend With Julian Pottage — The Answers West North East South 65 Bridge With Larry Cohen Pass Pass 1♦ 1NT 67 From The Archives — Brian Senior Pass 2♦* Pass 2♥ 71 Kit’s Corner — Kit Woolsey All Pass 2 Transfer to Hearts 76 Brother Xavier’s Analysis — David Bird ♦ 80 The Auction Room — Mark Horton Lead: ace of spades. 86 Master Point Press Bidding Battle — Moderated by Brian Senior After a pretty straightforward auction phase, 103 Master Point Press Bidding Battle Competition — Set 8 you seem to be in the normal contract that you expect everybody to reach. Overtricks will 106 Hands for This Month’s Auction Room matter! At trick 2, West plays the king of spades and East discards the }7. West now plays the [10 ruffed with the ♥2 by East who now switches to the }4. What is your plan of play? Page 4 A NEW BRIDGE MAGAZINE – AUGUST 2018 Sea of Slams The Editor reports on the 54th European Team Championships. For the third time in recent years Europe’s finest players assembled in Belgium v Monaco Ostend to contest a major European Championship. Quite an achieve- Board 4. Dealer West. All Vul. ment for a Federation with a relatively small number of members and a testament to the efforts of the Royal Belgian Bridge Federation, its ♠ A J 10 8 7 President, Marc De Pauw and the local organiser Bart Magerman. The ♥ J 9 3 rationale behind the repeated visits to the city is simple: having 1700 ♦ J 9 7 3 players and officials for the best part of two weeks delivers over €1.6 mil- ♣ 6 lion to local hotels and restaurants. ♠ Q 9 6 2 N ♠ K Searching for a different way to report on the Championships I recalled ♥ 8 7 6 5 ♥ A Q W E that Jeremy Flint was of the opinion that scoring heavily on the slam ♦ A Q 8 4 ♦ K 6 5 deals was vitally important and he wrote a number of articles reviewing ♣ J S ♣ A K Q 10 5 4 2 the performance of the British Open team for Bridge Magazine. ♠ 5 4 3 Slam bidding clearly has a significant role to play. Missing a good slam ♥ K 10 4 2 (or perhaps an easy grand) will usually be expensive, and by the same ♦ 10 2 token bidding a poor slam will be costly, although every once in a while ♣ 9 8 7 3 a bad contract gets home. Open Room How important were the slams in Ostend? Judge for yourselves. West North East South De Roos Multon De Donder Zimmermann Round 1 Pass Pass 2♦* Pass It did not take long for the first slam to appear– this was from the open- 2♥* Pass 3♣ Pass ing session: 3♦ Pass 3♥ Pass 3NT All Pass Two Diamonds was a three-way Multi, East’s 3♣ over the ‘pass or cor- rect’ 2♥ showing a strong single suited hand. North led a spade so that was +690. Page 5 A NEW BRIDGE MAGAZINE – AUGUST 2018 Closed Room ♠ A J 10 8 7 Latvia v Hungary ♥ J 9 3 West North East South ♦ J 9 7 3 Open Room Helgemo Bahbout Helness Vandervorst ♣ 6 ♠ Q 9 6 2 ♠ K West North East South Pass Pass 2♣* Pass N 2♦* Pass 3♣ Pass ♥ 8 7 6 5 W E ♥ A Q Rubenis Hegedus Neimanis Szegedi 3♦ Pass 3NT Pass ♦ A Q 8 4 S ♦ K 6 5 – – Pass Pass 5NT* Pass 6 All Pass ♣ J ♣ A K Q 10 5 4 2 Pass 2 * Pass 2NT* ♣ ♠ 5 4 3 ♣ 2♣ Strong ♥ K 10 4 2 Pass 3♠ Pass 4♠ 2♦ Negative or balanced ♦ 10 2 Pass 6♠ All Pass ♣ 9 8 7 3 5NT Pick a slam If I have interpreted the convention card correctly 2NT promised three With the ♥AQ protected, there was nothing to the play.