THE INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE PRESS ASSOCIATION Editor: John Carruthers

This Bulletin is published monthly and circulated to members of the International Bridge Press Association, comprising the world’s leading journalists, authors and editors of news, books and articles about , with an estimated readership of some BULLETIN 200 million people who enjoy the most widely-played of all card games. www.ibpa.com Bulletin No. 643 August 10, 2018

President Barry Rigal (USA) +1 212 366 4799 [email protected] THE CHAMPIONS Chairman Per Jannersten (Sweden) [email protected] Yeh Bros. Cup Executive Vice-President Winners: David Stern (Australia) John Hurd, [email protected] John Kranyak, Organizational Vincent Demuy, Vice-President & Justin Lall Bulletin Production (See p.2) Manager Dilip Gidwani (India) +91 98214 53817 Photo: Christina Lund Madsen/Fu Qiang [email protected] Secretary Hong Kong Elisabeth van Ettinger Inter-City (Netherlands) Teams +31 655 680 120 Winners: [email protected] Wen Fei Wang, Treasurer Vincent Li, Richard Solomon (NZ) Wei Ming Wang, +64 9 232 8494 Qi Shen [email protected] (See p.7)

Awards Secretary Photo: Rainy Lai/Edward Cheung Brent Manley (USA) [email protected] Trophy Membership Secretary Winners: Katie Thorpe (Canada) Krzysztof Martens +1 519 981 9248 (coach), [email protected] , Honorary Auditor Piotr Gawrys, Richard Fleet (England) Bob Heller [email protected] (presenter), Michal Klukowski, Honorary General Counsel Geir Helgemo David Harris (England) [email protected] Photo: Jessica Larsson (See p.14) President Emeritus Address all IBPA Bulletin correspondence to: JOHN CARRUTHERS Tommy Sandsmark (Norway) 1322 Patricia Blvd., Kingsville, Ontario, N9Y 2R4, CANADA [email protected] Tel: +1 519-733-9247 email: [email protected]

1 West North East South Aronov Tislevoll Damianova Ware Yeh Bros. Cup 1NT 2]1 Double Pass Beijing 2NT Pass 3NT Pass July 1-5, 2018 Pass Pass Barry Rigal, NYC 1. Majors Fu Qiang, Beijing Partner leads the ten of hearts against three notrump. John Carruthers, Declarer plays the three from dummy and you play Kingsville, ON the … ? At one table, Michael Ware played the seven, discouraging, but followed with the four of diamonds, Preamble (JC) (reverse Smith) encouraging (the eight of diamonds The Yeh Bros. Cup has a unique format. All of the would have been discouraging) on declarer’s diamond teams play a Swiss qualifier, then the top 16 teams to the ace. He hoped the mixed signal would allow GeO play knockouts, but in two brackets: the top bracket Tislevoll to work out the best defence. At trick three, consists of qualifiers 1 through 8, while the lower Tislevoll took the proffered jack of spades with his queen bracket contains the teams finishing ninth through and, believing that declarer must have the ace-queen- sixteenth in the Swiss. The top-bracketed teams play jack of hearts, decided to try for gold with a shift to the a double KO, falling into the lower bracket with a club king. But this was the full story: loss, while the bottom-bracketed teams are [ A Q 5 3 eliminated with a single loss. There is a kicker: Chen ] K 10 9 8 5 Yeh’s team is automatically the No. 1 seed in the {J 9 upper bracket for the KOs. Also, late in the KOs, of }K 4 necessity, the lower bracket plays some three-way [ K 10 9 8 2 [ J 7 matches, with just one team going through, so it’s tough to survive from there. ]A Q 2 ]4 3 { K 7 2 { A 10 5 3 The generosity of the sponsorship means that the } Q 6 } A 9 8 3 2 players love the event very much and no one ever [6 4 objects to Mr. Yeh’s team qualifying automatically. ]J 7 6 Maybe the sixteenth-placed team will occasionally have { Q 8 6 4 some regrets – but the conditions of contest are clear } J 10 7 5 and the disadvantage to the players so minimal that this is a very good deal for all concerned. As you can see, this line of defence was not a howling success. In the other room, Nanev as South did not The event moves around the Pacific Rim, and so far burden Stefanov with the problem. He played the jack has been held in China, Japan, Australia and, of course, of hearts on his partner’s lead of the ten at trick one. Mr. Yeh’s home country, Chinese Taipei. This year, we were in Beijing. There were no further issues for the defence after that. (All deals are reported by Barry Rigal except where noted otherwise.) Qualifying Round 3 - India v Chinese Taipei Qualifying Round 2 - Bulgaria v NZ On the following deal, North/South were tormented by the curse of having the balance of high cards: Board 16. Dealer West. EW Vul. [J 7 Board 23. Dealer South. Both Vul. ]4 3 [— { A 10 5 3 ] K Q 8 7 4 3 } A 9 8 3 2 { A 5 3 2 [6 4 }Q 9 2 ]J 7 6 [ A K 10 7 4 3 [ J 9 8 { Q 8 6 4 ] J ] 10 9 2 } J 10 7 5 { Q J 9 8 { 10 6 West North East South } 6 5 } A K 10 8 3 Brown Stefanov Whibley Nanev [ Q 6 5 2 1NT 2}1 3NT Pass ]A 6 5 Pass Pass {K 7 4 1. Majors }J 7 4

2 West North East South Board 29. Dealer North. Both Vul. Chen Gupta Yeh Tewari [8 5 3 — — — Pass ]K 1[ 2] 2[ 3] { A 8 7 6 5 3[ Pass Pass 4] } 6 5 4 3 4[ Pass Pass Double [ Q 10 7 6 [ K Pass Pass Pass ] A 9 8 6 2 ] J 10 3 { Q 10 9 { K J 2 West North East South } 2 } A K 10 9 8 7 Venkatesh D.Yang Anklesaria S.Yang [ A J 9 4 2 — — — Pass ] Q 7 5 4 1[ 2] 2[ 3] {4 3 3[ 4] Pass Pass }Q J 4[ 5] Double Pass West North East South Pass Pass Chen Gupta Yeh Tewari Students of indiscipline at the table should admire — Pass 1} Pass these two auctions for the number of breaches of 1] Pass 2} Pass partnership faith committed here. Both East/West pairs Pass Pass got this deal exactly right, though, bidding on to four Two clubs made two overtricks for plus 130. spades and doubling the opponents if they dared to West North East South do any more bidding. Venkatesh D.Yang Anklesaria S.Yang Against five hearts doubled, the defenders took their — Pass 1NT Pass 2} Pass 2{ Pass club ruff and played a top spade. What would you do 3[1 Pass 4] Pass now? If you played carefully by ruffing, testing trumps, Pass Pass then trying to ruff a diamond in dummy, well done – 1. 4 spades & 5 hearts, forcing to game but you weren’t careful enough. That was what David Yang did, after cashing the heart king and finding the Sidney Yang led the queen of clubs and David Yang bad news in trumps. East took the opportunity to pitch won the first heart to play back a club. Declarer put in spades on the third and fourth diamonds, so declarer the ten, forcing the jack, ruffed, and led a spade to the could ruff the diamond loser, unblock the heart ace, king and ace. When a spade was continued, declarer but was still locked in dummy to arrange a trump ruffed it with the ten of hearts in hand to lead a heart to the nine and get the good and bad news. Now he promotion against himself. There is no diamond-spade led a diamond from dummy and, had North ducked, squeeze since the communications can be disrupted declarer would have put in the jack and led clubs to by another diamond play if you duck a diamond. You neutralize South’s trump holding, with a diamond re- have to play three rounds of diamonds without playing entry to hand if South ruffed the first club. North even one round of trumps to get out for two down. actually took his diamond ace and played back a second There might not appear to be any problem making diamond, but declarer could simply win in hand and four spades doubled, despite the 4-0 trump break, but run clubs through South for the trump coup. that is not so. After two rounds of hearts, Venkatesh Those 10 IMPs saw India win the match 14-6. ruffed in and played a top trump – and that should Threading the Needle have been fatal. He crossed to dummy in clubs to pass the jack of spades, ducked of course, then led the six New Zealand hasn’t had much to cheer about this of diamonds to the nine and ace with Gupta. That player tournament, but GeO Tislevoll found a nice line in his could win and force declarer once more but, when game here ... South won the king of diamonds, he did not have a Board 19. Dealer North. EW Vul. fourth heart left to tap declarer for the last, and critical, [ A Q 10 8 time. Had South risen with king of diamonds on the ]Q 9 6 first round of the suit (not an easy play but still the { 9 8 7 3 2 indicated one, surely?) he can lead a heart and let his }3 partner play the fourth heart when in with ace of [ K J 5 [ 9 4 3 2 diamonds. ] 10 5 4 3 ] A { K 10 { A J 5 4 On the following deal, readers can decide whose } Q 10 8 2 } J 6 5 4 method of handling the East cards they prefer. [7 6 Certainly, reaching four hearts while concealing the ] K J 8 7 2 major elements of the East hand has something to {Q 6 recommend it. } A K 9 7

3 As South, declaring in four hearts after a straightforward, bid two hearts to show hearts and a minor, Ahmed if optimistic, but unopposed, Drury sequence, Tislevoll Nayer bid three notrump. Haffer led a top club and received a club lead. He won with the ace and took a made the natural shift to a diamond to dislodge an entry spade finesse, then played the ace and another spade, from dummy in case clubs were about to be established. ruffing with the seven. When that passed off successfully, Haffer may not sound like a Scottish name, but Joe was he played the king of clubs and ruffed a club, led his familiar with the fact that the diamond nine is the Curse winning spade ten and, when East followed suit, of Scotland, so he got that card out of his hand. As it carefully ruffed it with the jack of hearts as West pitched turned out, this was a fatal error – that card will come a diamond. Then he ruffed his last club in dummy, and back and bite you in the strangest way. had reached this position. El-Selehdar won with the diamond ace, finessed in [— spades, and led out the club jack. Markey won with his ]Q queen and could not play a diamond to allow the finesse, { 9 8 7 3 so played a second spade. Declarer won with the eight, }— crossed to the spade king as Haffer pitched hearts, then [— [— played a third club, pitching a heart. Haffer won this to ] 10 5 4 3 ] A exit in clubs, and that let declarer win a club trick, and {K {A J 5 4 cross to the heart ace. This was the ending: }— }— [ [Q 9 ]K 8 2 ]— {Q 6 { Q 10 8 }— }— [— [A At this point, declarer led dummy’s heart queen. East ] J 10 6 5 2 ] A won, perforce, cashed the diamond ace and gave his {— {K J 6 partner a diamond ruff, but GeO’s trump tenace was }— }— good enough to take the last two tricks. [— Did you note the defensive resource? When declarer ]K Q 7 ruffs his winning spade to hand, West must underruff. {5 In the ending shown above (but with West retaining }8 his second diamond), when declarer leads his trump On the heart ace, North suffered the dual indignity of from dummy East wins the heart ace, underleads his being squeezed out of an immaterial spade (if he pitches diamond ace so that East/West can cash two diamonds a diamond declarer establishes that suit) and, when he ending in East, and now the defenders can promote a chose to pitch a spade, el-Selehdar could cash the ace trump by leading any plain card. to denude North of that suit and exit with a low Cairo Corner diamond. North was forced to win and return a diamond and declarer could finesse and claim nine tricks. The Egyptian team is relatively inexperienced, but have produced at least a couple of nice plays that were “I would never have opened a 15-17 notrump without noteworthy. the diamond six,” he reassured his partner. And yes, a [ Q 9 6 4 2 low diamond at trick two from South prevents the ]— endplay … but also, playing back a diamond after South { Q 10 8 7 4 3 wins his second top club prevents declarer from ever }Q 6 reaching dummy’s club winner. [ K 7 3 [ A J 10 8 Board 8. Dealer West. Neither Vul. ] J 10 6 5 2 ] A 9 8 [K {A {K J 6 2 ] J 10 9 } 10 9 7 5 } J 3 { A K Q J 10 7 4 [5 }8 6 ] K Q 7 4 3 [ J 5 4 [ A 10 9 8 7 {9 5 ] K 7 5 3 2 ] A Q 6 } A K 8 4 2 {— {9 5 3 In the match between Australia and Egypt, the Egyptians } A Q 10 4 2 } J 3 played in three diamonds North/South, down 100. [ Q 6 3 2 ]8 4 Ali el-Selehdar reached three notrump as East by {8 6 2 opening a strong notrump and, when South, Joe Haffer, } K 9 7 5

4 West North East South After the natural and forcing two-club call, Klukowski Chen Zein Yeh Salah set clubs as trump, then bypassed the heart suit, 1] 3]1 4] Pass knowing that if his partner did anything but bid five Pass Pass clubs, he would be able to bid the grand slam. When 1. Requests 3NT with a heart stop his partner denied a heart control, his five-heart call You may care to consider this declarer play problem would let his partner sign off with no extras, bid five by just looking at the East and West cards. As West, spades with second-round control (which would be you play in four hearts, knowing that North has long bad news) or do anything else appropriate. The five- running diamonds, and was looking for a heart stopper notrump call was intended as, and interpreted as, extra for notrump. You ruff the diamond lead and play a spade club length or an extra diamond control; i.e., further to the king and ace, then the heart ace, North interest. Klukowski now knew his partner had at least contributing the jack. What now? two spades and two hearts, so relatively short diamonds were therefore almost guaranteed. That I suspect a club finesse is right but declarer played a meant that, if his partner had seven clubs, he would second spade. Zein played low and Salah ruffed with be almost able to claim the grand slam and, of course, the ten and played a second top diamond, declarer as the cards lie, there were 13 top tricks. ruffing. Now declarer assumed the club finesse was losing. He led a low club from hand and South won The Final: USA Kranyak-Monaco with the king, cashed the spade queen to let North The Final of the 2018 Yeh Bros. Cup pitted Kranyak pitch a club, and returned a second club for North to (Vincent Demuy/John Kranyak, John Hurd/Justin Lall) ruff. Down one! That was the only plus score recorded against Monaco (Geir Helgemo/Tor Helness, Lorenzo by North/South on the board. Lauria/Alfredo Versace, Franck Multon/Pierre Not Much Consolation (Fu Qiang, Beijing) Zimmermann). With Kranyak leading by 28 IMPs at It is hard to be consoled when you have been eliminated the end of the first set, Zimmermann/Multon came in from the main event – but I suppose winning a for Lauria/Versace. The last board of the second set consolation is a decent way to start the healing process. pushed the lead into the mid 50’s. The Polish teams swapped partnerships for this event Board 32. Dealer West. EW Vul. and Michal Klukowski and Piotr-Pavel Zakorski, who [8 4 3 play together in the Polish leagues, produced a splendid ]K 6 auction here. { 8 7 4 2 Board 23. Dealer South. Both Vul. } A K J 5 [ Q 10 8 2 [ Q 10 6 [ A K 9 ] K 9 8 7 5 4 ] 7 5 4 2 ] 8 {K J 7 { J 6 3 { K Q 5 }— } 6 4 3 } Q 10 9 8 7 2 [A [J 9 7 [ J 7 5 2 ]A J 2 ]Q 3 ] A Q J 10 9 3 { A 9 8 6 4 { — { A 10 9 } A J 3 2 } K Q 10 9 8 6 5 4 }— [ K 6 5 4 3 West North East South ] 10 6 Demuy Helness Kranyak Helgemo { Q 10 5 3 2 Pass Pass 1} 4] }7 Pass Pass Pass West North East South West North East South Klukowski Marsal Zakorski Klumpp Multon Lall Zimmermann Hurd — — — Pass Pass 1} Pass 1] 1}1 1] 2} Pass Pass 1NT 2} 4] 4}2 Pass 4{3 Pass Pass Pass Pass 4[3 Pass 5} Pass How would you play four hearts on the three-of-clubs 5]3 Pass 5NT4 Pass lead? 7} Pass Pass Pass 1. Polish Club: (a.) 12-14 balanced HCP, or (b.) Helgemo, who had seen East open with one club, 15+ with long clubs, or (c.) any 18+ HCP nevertheless put in the jack on the low-club lead. He 2. Slammish ruffed away the queen, led to the king of hearts and 3. Controls took two diamond pitches on the top clubs. On a 4. Nothing further to say, but still interested spade lead from the dummy, Kranyak rose with the

5 king and led the king of diamonds, Helgemo winning with his ace. Two more rounds of spades allowed the defence to tap declarer twice in diamonds. When the 2018 hearts turned out to be 4-1, Demuy’s trump length Chinese was longer than Helgemo’s, leading to one off. Thus, declarer could never cash his thirteenth spade. Premier Hurd had seen Zimmermann come in over the one- League notrump rebid by Lall, showing a good club suit. On a club lead, he did not finesse, but just played the two (Second Leg) top clubs for diamond discards, then played on spades, July 7-13, 2018 and could now either ruff the fourth spade with the Jerry Li, Beijing heart king or set up the thirteenth spade. Fifty-eight down with 16 boards to play, the Zimmermann team did not give up, but for every The second leg of the 2018 Premier League swing that came in, an even larger one went out, and Tournament was held in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, from Kranyak were worthy winners by 70 IMPs. It was a July 7 to July 13. The scores of this leg, again a round remarkable transformation from the 70-IMP robin with 16 teams, were added to those of Leg 1. shellacking that Monaco had handed out the day The top six teams qualified for the Final (14th before, and left me wondering how much of the game November in Taicang). is down to the cards working out for your methods rather than just good or bad play. Three months ago, when the first leg was played in The prize winners were: Ningbo. Sunchime Fund (containing Manno/Di Franco), with 197.96 VP, was the leader; Hengzhou (with Bessis/ Yeh Bros. Cup Lorenzini) and Jinshuo (with Kalita/Nowosadzki) 1. Vincent Demuy, John Hurd, $180,000 followed Sunchime Fund on 193.53 and 191.97 VP John Kranyak, Justin Lall (USA) respectively. 2. Geir Helgemo, Tor Helness, Lorenzo $48,000 This leg was very fierce; the leader after the first leg, Lauria, Franck Multon, Alfredo Versace, Sunchime Fund, only won three of its 15 matches and Pierre Zimmermann (Monaco) 3. Thomas Bessis, Tom Hanlon, Cédric $16,000 lost out on qualifying for the Final. The ORG team (Red Lorenzini, Frédéric Volcker (France) Bull), containing John Kranyak (USA) and Vincent 4. Chen Gang, Ju Chuancheng, $8,000 Demuy (Canada), the winners of the Yeh Cup a week Shi Haojun, Shi Zengjun, Yang Lixin, before the second leg, did impressively well here, with Zhuang Zejun (China) more that 200 VP, winning the leg. Zheqiang Qiantang, which has a Singapore pair, were in second place in Open Pairs this leg; PD Times (Marc Chen, Jerry Li, Zhong Fu, Brink/ 1. Krzysztof Jassem, Piotr Zatorski $20,000 Drijver) were third. (Poland) 2. Kazuo Furuta, Hiroki Yokoi (Japan) $10,000 After two legs, the Hengzhou team (Bessis/Lorenzini) 3. Pauline Gumby, Warren Lazer $4,000 and the Zheqiang Qiantang took first and second places. (Australia) They will go to the final leg one day later than the other four teams, having qualified directly to the semifinals. Swiss Teams Consolation The ORG team, Jinshuo, PD Times, and Pioneers 1. Piotr Gawrys, Krzysztof Jassem, Michal $8,000 (Patrick Huang‘s team) were in third through sixth Klukowski, Piotr Zatorski (Poland) place, respectively. In the final stage, ORG will choose 2. Yeh Bros. 2: Sabine Auken, Morris Chang, $4,000 its opponent from PD Times and Pioneers; Jinshuo team Chunky Jong, Roy Welland (Taiwan) will play against the other team in 48-boards KO 3. Pauline Gumby, Joe Haffer, Warren Lazer, $2,000 matches with the winners going on. Phil Markey, Justin Mill, Tony Nunn (Australia) This is a board from the last match: Open Pairs Consolation Board 4. Dealer West. Both Vul. [ A J 9 7 [ K 8 4 2 1. Chao Wen Hsu, Shih Juei-yu (China) $3,000 ] A 9 4 3 ] 8 5 2 2. Georgi Karakolev, Vladimir Mihov $2,000 (Bulgaria) { A J 9 8 { 6 5 3 3. Fu Zhong, Hou Xu (China) $1,000 }7 }A Q 4

6 West North East South 1{ Pass 1[ Pass 3[ Pass 4[ Pass Pass Pass The contract is four spades by East, North/South never having entered the auction. The opening lead is the king of hearts. You duck, but win the queen-of-hearts continuation with the ace, dropping the ten from North. You play a spade to the king, another to the ten and jack, picking Brian Senior, Nottingham, England up South’s queen-ten-low, and draw the last Forty Open teams, 10 Women’s teams and 20 Youth trump. You play a heart to the eight to set up teams, all from eastern Asia, took part in this year’s the nine. South plays his last heart to dummy’s Championships. There were half a dozen other nine; you pitch a diamond; North pitches three secondary events to satisfy everyone. The Open Teams low clubs on the third spade and the third and were grouped into four sections of ten teams; the top fourth hearts. What do you do now? two in each section qualified for the knockout rounds. You’ve lost two tricks and you have these cards Open Teams Round One remaining: Our coverage starts with an Open Group B match [7 [8 between Shenha Qiaoyou of China and Chinese ]— ]— Taipei’s Haoran. { A J 9 8 { 6 5 Board 6. Dealer East. EW Vul. }7 }A Q 4 [ 10 5 4 2 If the king of clubs is onside, you can finesse the ] 10 8 6 5 2 queen to make your contract but, if the club king {A 4 }Q 10 is offside, is there any other chance for you? [K 9 7 [J 6 There is, as the full deal shows: ] — ] K Q 9 7 3 [5 3 { Q 10 9 7 3 { K 8 6 2 ] 10 6 } A 8 6 3 2 } K 5 { K Q 7 2 [ A Q 8 3 ]A J 4 } 9 6 5 3 2 {J 5 [ A J 9 7 [ K 8 4 2 } J 9 7 4 ] A 9 4 3 ] 8 5 2 West North East South { A J 9 8 { 6 5 3 Chen Ma Lin Liu }7 }A Q 4 — — 1] Double [ Q 10 6 Pass 1[ Pass Pass ] K Q J 7 Double Pass 2{ 2[ { 10 4 3{ 3[ Pass Pass } K J 10 8 Pass West North East South To make four spades in the diagrammed Shangxin Lin Luan Wu position, you have to lead the jack of diamonds — — 1] Double from the dummy, win the club shift with the ace, Redouble 1[ 2] Pass and lead another diamond. When the ten appears 2[ Pass 3{ Pass from South, you need to win with the ace and 4{ Pass 4] Pass take the ruffing finesse against North’s other 5{ Pass Pass Pass honour. Lin led a diamond against three spades, the nine forcing This was very difficult. Only four players made Ma’s ace. Ma played a spade to the queen and king and four spades: Patrick Huang, Zhong Fu, John Chen returned the ten of diamonds to his partner’s king. Lin switched to the king and another club, Chen Kranyak and Piotr Gawrys. winning with the ace and continuing with a third club,

7 ruffed with the ten and over-ruffed by the now-bare Both Easts overcalled two hearts. If we can believe jack. The king of hearts saw the ace ruffed out, and Chen the alert/non-alert on BBO, Gao showed hearts plus a got out with his last spade. There was still a heart to be minor, while Lin’s bid merely showed hearts. lost, so the contract was down three for minus 150. Nevertheless, both North/South pairs reached game The diamond game had some play, whatever we might in spades. think of the auction. Wu led the ace and another spade Both Easts cashed the top hearts then switched to to dummy’s king. Luan led a diamond to the king and a their singleton club. Both declarers won that in dummy second diamond to the jack, queen and ace. North found with the king to run the queen of spades, losing to the a very good defence by leading back a spade, forcing bare king. That was a case of good news/bad news for declarer to ruff in hand. Luan led the king of hearts to the respective Easts, who now found themselves to the ace and ruff, a club to the king and took a discard on be endplayed: in one way or another, declarer’s the queen of hearts. Next, he tried to split the clubs with diamond loser would disappear. Both Easts thought a ruff, but the four-two break meant that there was a for a good while before leading a diamond rather than club loser in dummy at the end. The contract was one give a ruff and discard and both declarers ducked the down for minus 100 and 6 IMPs to Haoran. diamond to win the trick cheaply in their hand, as they To make five diamonds after the ace-and-another-spade had to do, and cashed the ace of spades, discovering start, declarer had to either (a.) arrange three ruffs in the trump position. Now came the crucial parting of hand, or (b.) take the ruffing finesse in hearts earlier for the ways. a spade discard, or (c.) play on a complete cross-ruff. Presumably having no clue from the auction about a On line (c.), for example: spade ruff, heart ruff, club king, possible bad diamond split, Sun attempted to cross to heart ruff, club ace, club ruff, heart ruff, club ruff, heart the ace of diamonds (a better percentage play than ruff, club ruff with the king, heart ruff with the ten. attempting to cross on a club) to take the finesse The fortunate diamond layout allows declarer to draw against the ten of spades. When Zhang ruffed, the the trumps while establishing dummy’s fifth club if he contract was one down for minus 50. follows line (a.) or (b.). Having been warned that East had a minor suit along Open Teams Round 4 with his hearts, Lin crossed to the queen of clubs, knowing that Gao would have got out with a second Round 4 in Open Group A featured a matchup of club had he been able to do so, rather than open up two Chinese teams, Xiamen Xiashun and Geely Auto. the diamonds. That, of course, passed off peacefully, The latter team was the winner last year and had four of the same team-members once again. and Lin could draw trumps and cash out for ten tricks, plus 420 and 10 IMPs to Xiamen. Board 25. Dealer North. EW Vul. [ A J 7 2 Should Sun also have taken the inference that East ]9 4 would not have led a diamond when in with the king {K J 8 of spades if he had a safe alternative available to him, } A J 6 2 exiting with a second club? [ 10 6 4 3 [ K Open Teams Round 6 ] 10 8 3 2 ] A K J 7 5 For the last match of Day Two, we go into Group C { 4 { Q 10 9 6 5 3 for a match between the top two in the rankings going } 10 9 5 4 } 7 [ Q 9 8 5 into the match, two multinational teams, Avia Financial ]Q 6 and Kosing. {A 7 2 Board 26. Dealer East. Both Vul. } K Q 8 3 [K 7 2 West North East South ] 10 6 4 Chen Lin Gao Huang {9 2 — 1NT 2]1 3] } K 9 8 4 2 4] 4[ Pass Pass [ 8 6 5 [ Q J 10 9 3 Pass ]A 5 ]Q J 1. Hearts plus a minor { A K 6 { Q 10 7 3 West North East South } A 10 7 6 5 } J 3 Zhang Sun Lin Kang [A 4 — 1NT 2] Double ] K 9 8 7 3 2 Pass 3[ Pass 4[ { J 8 5 4 Pass Pass Pass }Q

8 West North East South West North East South Poon Ng Yang Sia Weimin Tam Li Lui — — Pass 1] — — Pass 1{ Double 2] 2[ Pass 1] 2} 3] 4] 3} Pass 3{ Pass Pass 4NT1 Pass 5NT2 3[ Pass 4[ Pass Pass 7} Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass West North East South 1. RKCB Cheng Jinzhou Lee Kwon 2. 2 key cards + a void — — Pass Pass Where would you want to be on the North/South hands? 1NT Pass 2] Pass Well, I think you’d want to be in six clubs, wouldn’t you? 2[ Pass 3NT Pass That is where Wenfei found herself. Sometimes, however, 4[ Pass Pass Pass while we would like to be in a small slam, the grand would be easier to play as there would be fewer options. For Avia Financial, Alan Sia led his singleton club. Yang took dummy’s ace and played a spade to the ten and Hsu led the queen of hearts. Wenfei took a long time before ace. Sia got off play with a trump, so Ng won that and ruffing, pitching a heart on the ace of diamonds, then ruffing returned a heart, but it didn’t matter what he did. Yang a diamond. She continued by ruffing a heart, a diamond, could win, draw the last trump and set up a club for a and the last heart, but the five-two diamond split caused a discard of his fourth diamond; plus 620. problem. Suppose that she ruffed another diamond back to hand and it took three rounds to draw the missing Chuan Cheng declared in four spades after a transfer trumps. Now if West held the king of spades offside, the sequence. Jinzhou led the nine of diamonds to the finesse would lose, then West would have a red trick to ten, jack and ace. Cheng led a spade up, but Jinzhou cash. The problem hand was West with 2=5=5=1 and the went in with the king and played a second diamond king of spades, and he is known to be 5-5 from the bidding so that, when Kwon won the next trump, he could and play to date. In seven there would be no option, but in lead a third round of diamonds for a ruff. There was a six, Wenfei found the line which would overcome this slow club to be lost also, so that nicely defended distribution. She called for dummy’s jack of spades, setting contract was down one for minus 100 and 12 IMPs up her twelfth trick before drawing trumps and without to Kosing. shortening herself. This would even have survived a bare Open Teams Semifinal 2 king with West, but not the actual layout. Hsu won the jack of spades with the king and gave Liu a ruff for down Two China/Hong Kong combinations met in the Open one and minus 100. Ouch! semi-finals, with Vincent Li leading CCH Power by 56- 14 after 16 boards. There were two sets to go, but Meanwhile, Lui’s aggressive four-heart control-bid in the other room led to the grand slam. The lead was again a CCH Power would want to at least make significant heart, ruffed. Tam pitched a heart on the ace of diamonds, inroads into that deficit in the second session so that ruffed a diamond, ruffed a heart, a diamond, and the last they did not have too much to do in the third. heart. He was in the same position as Wenfei but, in seven, Board 26. Dealer East. Both Vul. life was much simpler. The king of spades had to be onside [Q 3 2 and the trumps had to divide evenly as well. Tam took a ] J 9 5 2 third diamond ruff then led the queen of spades to the {— king and ace. A fourth diamond ruff set up the long card } A K J 10 9 8 and now it remained only to find trumps two-two, cross [ 7 [ K 10 9 6 5 to the jack of spades and cash the diamond; 13 tricks for ] A K 6 4 3 ] Q 10 8 7 plus 2140 and 19 huge IMPs to CCH. { K 6 4 3 2 { 10 8 Board 28. Dealer West. NS Vul. }3 2 }5 4 [9 7 4 [ A J 8 4 ]J 7 4 ]— { A K 6 4 { A Q J 9 7 5 }4 3 2 }Q 7 6 [ 10 6 5 [ A K J 8 3 2 West North East South ] – ] K 9 8 3 2 Liu Wenfei Hsu Shen { Q J 9 5 3 { 2 — — Pass 1{ } A 10 8 6 5 } 9 1] 2} 2] 2[ [Q 3] 4} Pass 4] ] A Q 10 6 5 Pass 4[ Pass 6} { 10 8 7 Pass Pass Pass } K Q J 7

9 West North East South Board 14. Dealer East. Neither Vul. Liu Wenfei Hsu Shen [ K 8 5 3 Pass Pass 1[ 2] ]2 2[ 3] Double1 Pass {Q J 6 4[ Pass Pass Pass } A Q 5 4 3 1. Game-try [ 2 [ A Q 10 West North East South ] J 4 ] 8 7 6 5 3 Weimin Tam Li Lui { K 9 7 3 2 { A 10 8 5 Pass Pass 1[ 2] } K J 9 8 6 } 10 2[ 3] 4[ Pass [ J 9 7 6 4 Pass Pass ] A K Q 10 9 {4 Shen led the king of clubs to dummy’s ace and Hsu }7 2 ruffed a club, Shen following low, ruffed a heart, ruffed West North East South a club, ruffed a heart, and ruffed another club. A third Liu Weimin Hsu Chiu heart ruff was followed by a winning club, ruffed by — — Pass 1[ North as declarer and South both pitched diamonds. Pass 2} Pass 2] Wenfei tried to cash the ace of diamonds now, no Pass 2[ Pass 4[ doubt with little hope in her heart, so Hsu ruffed with Pass Pass Pass the jack and had ten tricks for plus 420. All very straightforward, and it appeared that once Shen had West North East South not led her bare queen of trumps there was nothing Shen Tam Wenfei Lui the defence could have done. — — Pass 1[ Pass 2}1 Pass 2{2 Lui also led the king of clubs to dummy’s ace and Li Pass 2[3 Pass 2NT4 too ruffed a club at trick two. Lui dropped the queen Pass 4[ Pass Pass on this trick and Li took it seriously. He ruffed a heart Pass then led the ten of clubs and ran it, pitching the 1. Artificial game force diamond loser from hand. If he thought that was a 2. Relay free play, he was swiftly disabused of the notion as Lui 3. 4-card spade support won with the jack of clubs and returned the queen of 4. Hearts spades. Li won, ruffed a heart with dummy’s last trump and attempted to cash the eight of clubs, only to find Chiu led a heart to the ace then a spade to the king Tam ruffing in front of him. He over-ruffed, cashed and ace. Hsu played the ace and another diamond and, two more trumps and exited with a low heat. That seeing no other hope, Chiu discarded the losing club. lost to the jack and the ace of diamonds came back. Li Liu won the with the king of diamonds, and there was ruffed but had to lead away from the king of hearts still the queen of spades to come. One card, the opening once again and was a trick short; minus 50 and 10 lead, had given declarer a chance to go wrong, and he IMPs to CCH. had taken that chance; minus 50. Open Teams Semifinal 3 Shen led a low diamond at the other table, Wenfei winning with the ace and continuing with a second After a dramatic second set, I felt that the decision diamond. Lui had to ruff and he next led a spade to had been made for me regarding which of the two the king and ace and Wenfei returned a third diamond, semi-finals to watch in set three. It had to be Vincent forcing declarer to ruff once again. Lui took the club Li versus CCH Power. Could CCH go from strength finesse now and, when it held, led a spade up. Wenfei to strength and power their way through to the final won, Shen pitching a diamond, and played a fourth or would Vincent Li in turn make a comeback – their diamond. Lui could not ruff in hand, of course, as that deficit was, after all, only 10 IMPs, but they had to have would have been with the jack of spades and would been in shock after what had just happened (they had have promoted the ten into the setting trick, so he lost the second stanza 66-14 after having led by 40 threw a heart from hand and ruffed in dummy. Then IMPs). he led dummy’s heart and sat and thought. Lui had CCH Power led by 101-96 with three boards to play. seen the ten of clubs from East and had reason to suspect that she held the heart length, and anyway, (See top of next column.) Liu led a cunning nine of clubs isn’t jack-to-four or -five onside more likely than jack- through dummy’s side-suit. Not knowing that there doubleton or -third offside? So, eventually he put in would be two trump losers as well as the ace of the ten and that lost to the doubleton jack. Worse, diamonds, Chiu thought for a while but then took the much, much worse as it was to turn out, Shen returned lead at face value and went up with dummy’s ace. a club for Wenfei to ruff and the contract was two 10 down for minus 100 and 2 IMPs to Vincent Li, who This is a tricky slam to get to. Wenfei/Shen stopped in trailed by only 98-101. game, each bidding and rebidding their long suits after the strong-club opening. Wenfei won the trump lead Wasn’t that great defence to create a situation where and drew trumps, then played the ace of diamonds, a declarer could go wrong? Unlike the other table, this diamond to the king and ruffed a diamond. A club to was a whole series of plays, but what a nice board, the king and a second diamond ruff established two with both defences deserving of a game swing. extra tricks there, bringing the total to 13, for plus 510. Lest you say, ‘ah, but declarer could simply play hearts from the top and ruff the last heart in dummy,’ he At the other table, the lead was also a trump, but Jin would then have to play the ace of clubs and, if East followed a different line. He won with the jack, cashed began with 3=4=5=1 or 3=5=4=1, that would have the king of clubs and led a diamond to the ace then been ruffed. After Shen’s diamond discard on the ruffed his ten of clubs. Next came the king of diamonds second spade, 3=5=4=1 was the likely danger hand, and Jin was very lucky that Li had a singleton trump when the odds would be 5-2 in favour of East holding along with his singleton diamond. He ruffed a diamond the jack. Of course, if East had a doubleton club, the back to hand, drew trumps and had only to concede ruffing line would be successful. a heart at the end; plus 980 and 10 IMPs to CRE8IVE. That was a poor and fortunate line. Presumably Jin The final score: Vincent Li 102 – CCH Power 101. simply never saw the superior line played at the other Cre8ive won the other semi-final 123-78 against Avia table. Financial, so the final would be their all-Chinese squad against Vincent Li’s Shanghai/Hong Kong combination. After 32 boards, Vincent Li led by 116-42. There was The final comprised three 16-board sessions for the to be a third session but, down by over 70 and not in 2018 Hong Kong Inter-City championship. the sort of form that might turn that around, CRE8IVE conceded. The 2018 Hong Kong Inter-City champions Open Teams Final 1 are therefore team Vincent Li. Board 25. Dealer North. EW Vul. The winners: [ A K Q 7 5 2 ] 10 6 Open Teams {A 3 Wen Fei WANG, Vincent LI, } A 10 4 Wei Ming WANG, Qi SHEN [ 8 [ 10 9 4 3 Women’s Teams ] Q J 9 7 ] K 8 3 Yan LU, Ming SUN, Yong Ling DONG, { 10 { Q 9 8 5 Xia WU, Min ZHOU, Ling GU } Q 9 8 7 6 5 2 } J 3 [J 6 Youth Teams ] A 5 4 2 Niko MAN, Sam TSENG, Vinci WAN, { K J 7 6 4 2 Brian TANG, Ryan CHOY }K Feishang Swiss Teams West North East South Shanghai Stonehill Dong Wenfei Liu Shen —1}1 Pass 2{2 Xiashun Celebrities Tournament Pass 2[ Pass 3{ WONG Sau Ching, LAM Kin, Pass 3[ Pass 4[ Ricky CHU, Bosco HO Pass Pass Pass Inter-City Speedball Pairs 1. Artificial, 16+ HCP Derek WONG, Jackson TSANG 2. 8+ HCP, 5+ diamonds, game-forcing West North East South Avia Financial IMP Pairs Li Jin Weimin Bi Leo LAM, John TSANG Pass 1}1 Pass 2{2 Inter-City Mixed Pairs Pass 2[ Pass 2NT He PIN, Ping ZHU Pass 3[ Pass 4} Pass 4{ Pass 4NT San Miguel “Happy Hour” Continuous Pairs Pass 5} Pass 6[ Brandon POON, Jack WONG Pass Pass Pass Geely Automobile Open Pairs 1. Artificial, 16+ HCP K.F. MAK, W.K. LAI 2. 8+ HCP, 5+ diamonds, game-forcing Geely Automobile Swiss Pairs Bob HAM, Paul SO

11 IBPA Column Service Tim Bourke, Canberra Members may use these deals as they wish, without attributing the author or IBPA.

913. Dealer West. EW Vul. 914. Dealer North. EW Vul. [9 4 2 [ K 10 9 8 5 ]7 4 ]A 6 {8 4 3 { J 6 5 4 } Q J 8 5 2 }J 10 [8 [10 5 [J [6 4 ] A K Q J 9 2 ] 6 3 ] J 10 9 7 ] 8 5 2 { 10 7 5 { Q J 9 2 { K 9 2 { A 10 8 } K 9 4 } A 10 7 6 3 } K 9 8 5 2 } A 7 6 4 3 [ A K Q J 7 6 3 [ A Q 7 3 2 ] 10 8 5 ] K Q 4 3 {A K 6 {Q 7 3 }— }Q West North East South West North East South 1] Pass 1NT 4[ — Pass Pass 1[ 1 Pass Pass Pass Pass 2} Pass 4[ Pass Pass Pass After the opening bid and response, South 1. Good hand, fit for spades jumped to four spades, despite having only nine After North showed a good raise in spades by using likely tricks: maybe dummy would have something Drury, South bid the game without further ado. of value. West led the jack of hearts, which he would not West began with the three top hearts. East have done if declarer had bid the suit. It proved to signalled a doubleton; declarer ruffed with be an unfortunate lead: declarer won with dummy’s dummy’s nine of trumps. Alas for declarer, East ace of hearts, then drew trumps with the ace and overruffed with the ten and, as he could not then king. Declarer continued with the king and queen avoid a diamond loser, declarer was set one trick. of hearts, on which he discarded one of dummy’s “That was unlucky,” offered the declarer. clubs. After ruffing the four of hearts in dummy, declarer called for dummy’s remaining club. East rose Dummy would have none of it. “Luck had nothing with the ace of clubs and, when declarer followed do with it. Obviously, hearts were 6-2. So, all you with the queen, he relied on his partner to give him had to do was take the best chance for the count in the suit. After West signalled an odd contract: throw a diamond from dummy on the number of clubs, East decided to believe that the third heart. What could the defence have done queen of clubs was a singleton. So, he shifted to the after that? You’d win the next trick, draw trumps ace and another diamond. West took the second in two rounds and then ruff your losing diamond diamond with his king and exited with the nine of in dummy.” diamonds. Declarer claimed the balance, making ten Dummy continued, “Ruffing the third heart with tricks: five trumps, three hearts, a heart ruff and a the nine of spades would succeed less than half diamond. the time, whereas my line would succeed nearly If East had exited with a club at trick eight instead four times out of five when the trumps broke 2- of a diamond, declarer would have thrown a 1.” diamond from hand and ruffed in dummy. As a result, Dummy finished with, “Even if trumps had been he would have lost only two diamonds and a club, 3-0, you would still have made the contract as also making his contract. long as the hand with three trumps couldn’t ruff Note that there would have been no happy ending the third round of diamonds.” for declarer if West had led a club.

12 915. Dealer South. Both Vul. diamonds, crossed to hand with a trump and ruffed [ Q 7 5 2 a low heart with dummy’s queen of trumps. As there ] 10 2 was a trump left in the dummy, declarer could draw { A J 10 6 3 East’s remaining trumps and claim twelve tricks. }A K Declarer made four trumps, four hearts, a heart ruff [4 [9 8 6 3 and the three tops in the majors. ] Q J 9 7 ] 4 916. Dealer South. EW Vul. { 9 7 2 { K Q 8 5 [A 7 } Q J 10 7 3 } 9 6 5 2 ] Q 6 4 3 2 [ A K J 10 {K 3 2 ] A K 8 6 5 3 }Q J 6 {4 [ Q J 10 9 6 2 [ 8 4 3 }8 4 ] A 9 5 ] K J 10 8 7 West North East South { — { J 10 9 6 5 ———1] } 9 7 4 2 } — Pass 2{ Pass 2[ [K 5 Pass 3[ Pass 4] ]— 1 2 Pass 4NT Pass 5} { A Q 8 7 4 3 4 Pass 5NT Pass 6] } A K 10 8 5 3 Pass 6[ Pass Pass West North East South Pass — ——1} 1. Roman Key Card Blackwood 2[ 3] Pass 4{ 2. 0 or 3 key cards Pass 5} Pass 6} 3. Grand slam try; guarantees all key cards and Pass Pass Pass the trump queen and asks for kings 4. King of hearts, no king of diamonds In a team match, the auction and lead (the spade queen) were identical. After a straightforward auction, in which South admitted to three key cards and the king of hearts, At the first table, declarer played without apparent West led the queen of clubs. Declarer observed that thought. He took the first trick in dummy with the he might have bid seven spades, as North was unlikely ace, drew trumps and cashed the ace of diamonds. to have three low hearts. Even so, the contract would Thus, he had to lose two diamond tricks and his then have been no worse than on a 2-2 heart split, contract. provided trumps were not 5-0. Declarer then The second declarer was more circumspect. He saw reflected that such considerations were no reason that the only danger to the contract was a 5-0 to go down in a small slam. diamond break. As declarer could do nothing about After winning the first trick with the king of clubs, it if West had five diamonds, declarer turned his declarer cashed the ace of trumps. When both attention to the case when East had all of the opponents followed to the first round of trumps, outstanding diamonds: he would need to lead declarer saw that it would be a mistake to draw a diamonds twice through East. If diamonds were 5- second round of trumps when the full deal was 0, West was likelier to have four trumps. So, declarer similar to that above, with both major suits 4-1. decided to keep the ace of spades in reserve as an Declarer reckoned that if he drew a second round entry to dummy, in case the diamonds really were of trumps when both majors were 4-1, he would no 5-0. Consequently, declarer played low from the longer have the entries to establish the hearts. So, dummy at trick one and won the spade lead in hand declarer cashed the ace of hearts at trick three and with the king. After drawing trumps in four rounds, played a low heart next. Declarer was pleased when while East parted with two spades and two hearts, East showed out: in fact, he would have failed if he declarer led the four of diamonds towards dummy. had tried to cash the king of hearts! (East would have West discarded a spade and dummy’s king of ruffed and returned a trump, preventing declarer diamonds won the trick. Declarer called for the two from both ruffing two hearts and drawing East’s last of diamonds, which was covered by the nine and trump – declarer would have had the dismal task of queen. Declarer was then in a position to pick up conceding a heart trick to West for down one.) East’s diamonds while losing just one trick in the As it was, the defence was now powerless. West took suit, by leading diamonds once more from dummy. the heart exit with the jack of hearts and played a South thus claimed twelve tricks: two spades, four diamond. Declarer won the trick with the ace of diamonds and six trumps.

13 There are a number of ways to engineer the endplay after eliminating diamonds and spades; chief among them is to play the ace and another heart, winning against any opposing distribution. GNT Quarterfinal, District 17 vs. District 25 (Mohandes) This deal comes from the quarterfinal match between District 17, led by Josh Donn, and District 25, captained by Doug Doub: Board 4. Dealer West. Both Vul. Barry Rigal, NYC [A Q 8 Shireen Mohandes, London, UK ] A Q 9 6 5 Paul Linxwiler, Memphis, TN {J John Carruthers, Kingsville, ON } 9 7 6 4 Adam Wildavsky, NYC [ 7 6 3 [ 10 9 4 2 Paul Barden, Cambridge, UK ] K J 10 7 4 ] — { 7 6 5 { K Q 10 9 3 The joke in Atlanta is that people go to Florida for the } J 2 } A 10 8 3 cooler weather. Whereas the outdoor temperature [K J 5 o approached 35 C each day, in the main playing area it ]8 3 2 o was 17 C or so. We had to dress for two climates at { A 8 4 2 the same time! }K Q 5 Here are a few of the more interesting deals … West North East South Trying for the Endplay (Rigal) Walter Roger James Joshua Lee Lee Streisand Donn When District 3 took on the all-conquering District Pass 1] Double Redouble 9 squad from Florida, the District 3 gang lost handily, Pass Pass 2{ 3] but they were at least able to land one body-blow: Pass 4] Pass Pass [K Q 9 Pass ] J 10 5 2 The Donn team did well to make four hearts, earning {A 4 3 their side 12 IMPs, on this board. The auction had }J 6 5 advertised a few things: a likely bad break in the heart [ J 5 [ 10 8 suit, but to counter that, East was sure to have the ace ] 6 4 ] K Q 9 3 of clubs. Roger Lee, declaring from the North seat, { Q J 9 6 2 { K 10 8 5 planned to either make four heart tricks plus two club } K 9 7 2 } Q 8 4 tricks, or to make five heart tricks and just one club [ A 7 6 4 3 2 trick, to add to the ace of diamonds, and three top ]A 8 7 spades, to bring the tally to ten. {7 Streisand started the defence with the king of } A 10 3 diamonds, won in dummy. At trick two, the eight of In both rooms, South declared in four spades against hearts was led, covered by the ten and queen, with opponents who had been silent in the bidding. In one East shedding the three of diamonds. Declarer played room, Abe Pineles for D3 won the diamond lead and a club towards dummy, winning the king, and started eliminated diamonds while drawing trumps (which an elopement. A diamond was ruffed, the ace of spades were 2-2), ending in dummy. Then declarer led a club cashed, and a spade led to the jack in dummy. Then to the ten and queen. Jeff Meckstroth shifted to the came another diamond ruff, and back to the spade six of hearts. Pineles played low from dummy and king for another diamond ruff. Had Walter Lee ruffed ducked the nine from East (Eric Rodwell). Rodwell in with a high honor, declarer would have discarded, was endplayed. and later made both the ace and nine of hearts. In the other room, declarer ended in hand after one Contract made. If the eight of hearts had not been round of trumps, having eliminated diamonds. He then covered, then declarer could have run it, not caring if led a low heart to the ten and king, and back came a it lost to the singleton ten or jack, because then, having low heart! When declarer put up the ace and played a heard the auction and seen the carding, clubs would third heart, there was no longer any endplay. have been 3-3, allowing two club tricks to be made.

14 In the other room, the Doug Doub/Frank Merblum Board 26. Dealer East. Both Vul. partnership reached a reasonable three notrump by [A 9 2 South, which they might have made had Korbel not ] K 7 6 5 found a diamond lead. However, he did, so the table { J 10 5 result was three notrump by South, minus one. }A 8 3 [ Q J 10 5 3 [ K 7 When in Doubt . . . ask Krzysztof (Rigal) ] J 10 4 2 ] 8 3 Dealer North. NS Vul. { 9 3 2 { A K Q 7 6 4 [Q 10 }4 }K Q 7 ] A Q 10 9 4 [8 6 4 {7 2 ]A Q 9 } 10 7 6 3 {8 [ K 7 6 4 2 [ A 9 5 } J 10 9 6 5 2 ] 5 3 ] K 8 7 6 West North East South { J 10 3 { 9 8 4 — — 1{ Pass } K 9 5 } A Q 8 2]1 Pass 3NT Pass [J 8 3 Pass Pass ]J 2 1. 5 spades, 4/5 hearts, weak { A K Q 6 5 }J 4 2 As South, Smederevac decided to attack hearts by leading the ace. Her rationale was based on East’s This deal, from the first qualifying session of the von choice of three notrump. “Declarer doesn’t have 18- Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs, posed a problem for many 19 balanced because with that type of hand she would North/South pairs defending two spades, a typical have agreed spades or tried to figure out if partner auction being this: had five hearts. Therefore, three notrump must be West North East South based on long diamonds.” — Pass 1} 1{ Barrett encouraged on the ace-of-hearts lead, so 1[ 2] Double Pass Smederevac continued with the queen and a low heart 2[ Pass Pass Pass to the king. This caused declarer some discomfort. North led a diamond. What should South do after Unable to discard a club, declarer discarded the king cashing three diamonds, North pitching a discouraging of spades. So, North cashed the ace of spades and club? exited with a low club. Locked in hand, declarer could run the diamonds, but was then forced to play clubs As the cards lie, leading a fourth diamond gives West from her hand for two down, giving Smederevac and an irrelevant heart discard and lets North ruff in with Barrett a top score. the ten of spades to promote a second trump trick for the defenders. But switch the ten and two of spades, Partners in Crime (Rigal) and North ruffing in with the queen is an “anti-trump Jan Jansma was declarer on this deal from the second promotion,” turning one trump trick into zero. semifinal session of the von Zedtwtiz Life Master Pairs. How do the defenders get it right? If South has more Would you have been good enough to defeat his game? than one diamond to lead, it makes sense (according Dealer South. NS Vul. to Krzysztof Martens) to have the following agreement: [K 5 the lower the spot card you lead, the more you want ] J 10 9 partner to ruff in. { A 7 6 5 2 So, (i.) North should ruff with the ten when he can; }8 4 3 (ii.) he should ruff with the jack or queen (when South [ Q 10 8 holds honour-ten-low or the like) only when his ] Q 8 6 4 3 partner leads the low diamond, but; (iii.) not if he leads { 10 9 the high diamond, which he would do here. }Q 7 2 Auction Inference (Linxwiler) West North East South — — — Pass Jovi Smederevac of Vienna, Austria, found the right 1[ Pass 1NT Pass defence on this deal, based on an inference from the 2{ Pass 2[ Pass bidding. Smederevac was playing with Jade Barrett in 3[ Pass 4[ Pass the first semifinal round of the von Zedtwitz Life Pass Pass Master Pairs.

15 You, North, lead the jack of hearts: queen, king, ace. Declarer When Weinstein led the ten of spades, Rusinow, plays a low diamond at trick two. You . . . play low? If you and the dummy came down, I knew that Levin must do, partner wins with the king to play a trump. Declarer have all the outstanding high cards and some plays low from hand and you win with your king and . . . distribution from his long pause over two shift to a club, I hope. This was the full deal: notrump-pass-pass. I reasoned that, with the [K 5 hopeless hand he obviously held, Stevie would have ] J 10 9 led even a singleton heart if he’d had one. With 6-5, { A 7 6 5 2 Levin would more likely have bid, so I tentatively }8 4 3 placed him with 6-4 in the reds, thus just three [ A J 9 7 6 3 [ Q 10 8 black cards. So, I won the first trick with the queen ] A ] Q 8 6 4 3 of spades and led a low club. When Bobby followed { Q J 4 3 { 10 9 with the nine, I had a pretty safe play of leading to } A 9 } Q 7 2 dummy’s eight. Even if it had lost to the doubleton [4 2 jack, my contract would still have been safe – Levin ] K 7 5 2 would have had to lead a red suit and give me my {K 8 eighth trick (I’d have three spades and four clubs, } K J 10 6 5 plus the red trick he gave me). Jansma’s play of the queen of hearts at trick one might When Levin pitched a heart, Stevie flinched just a have encouraged the defenders to try to cash a heart, bit and looked at me out of the corner of his eye. I but Marshall Lewis, playing with Jan van Cleeff, wasn’t led a low heart and Levin played the jack, forcing born yesterday. my king – that was my eighth trick. At that point, I Incidentally, Jansma might have gone up with the ace could have cashed one spade and led another heart of spades to play a second diamond but, since van to Bobby’s queen and he’d have had to give me a Cleeff was perfectly capable of leading a spade from red trick. However, just in case I’d misread the table the king (and van Cleeff is an ex-partner of his), he action and Levin had had a third spade, I ran my couldn’t risk it. The 5-2 diamond break would have black tricks – the ending I envisioned was more been fatal anyway. elegant anyway, and more certain. Before I cashed The Loser Squeeze (Carruthers) the queen of clubs, this was the situation (Levin had discarded the jack of diamonds as an attempted I quite enjoyed this board from the second session smokescreen): of the final of the von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs; that is, until I saw my score … then it became a [— mild disappointment. ] 10 8 {9 8 Board 7. Dealer South. Both Vul. }Q 10 [A Q 3 ] 10 8 7 [9 [— {9 8 ]— ]A Q 4 } A Q 10 8 3 { 10 6 4 { A K 5 }J 7 }— [ J 10 9 8 5 [ 4 2 [— ] — ] A Q J 4 3 2 ]9 6 5 { 10 6 4 { A K J 5 {Q 7 3 } J 7 6 4 2 } 9 }— [K 7 6 ] K 9 6 5 Most squeezes by declarer require a defender to { Q 7 3 2 discard a winner or a guard in a suit. On the queen }K 5 of clubs, however, Bobby was squeezed out of a loser! Unlike a run-of-the-mill squeeze, where West North East South declarer keeps the suit discarded by the defender, Weinstein Roche Levin Carruthers here I’d discard the same suit as he did and make a — — — Pass winner in the suit he kept. In practice he discarded Pass 1} 1] 2NT a heart, so I did too. When I led a diamond from the Pass Pass Pass* dummy, Levin played low and the queen of * Slow pass diamonds was my ninth trick.

16 Levin was gracious: “He played it well,” he said to heart. Figuring that North was 0=6=4=3, declarer tried Stevie. the ten of diamonds next, pinning the nine in the South hand when North ducked. This was the position with So, why was this a mild disappointment? When I West on lead: checked the frequencies out of curiosity, I discovered that our score on this board was 34%! [— Then I saw all the minus 200s, 500s and even an ]9 6 occasional 800 that East/West had gone for. Levin {J 6 had won the board with his final pass – or maybe }J 7 I’d lost it by bidding two notrump rather than a [6 5 [Q ]— ]— more-conservative matchpoint one notrump, {A 7 {Q perhaps luring East into a vulnerable indiscretion. } 6 4 } K 9 8 5 Had I made only eight tricks, we’d have scored 26%. [ J 10 7 3 Of the 39 North/South pairs who played this board, ]8 25 of them made a score of 200 or better. I was {— amused when Deep Finesse informed me that par }10 on the board was plus 600 North/South. Exactly one pair out of 39 achieved that ‘par’ (and scored When a spade was played to the queen, Kovachev 89% for their enterprise). It was only a mild was forced to part with a heart, but his choice of the six proved to be costly when Schireson then cashed disappointment because we won the event. the queen of diamonds and the king of clubs before Mixed BAM Duel (Linxwiler) exiting with a club. North would win a club and cash Debbie Rosenberg reported this fun deal from the a heart, but was then forced to play a diamond to first qualifying session of the Freeman Mixed Board- declarer’s otherwise stranded ace at trick 13. Had a-Match Teams. Rosenberg was playing with Max Kovachev pitched the nine of hearts earlier, he would Schireson against Lynne Rosenbaum and Valentin have been able to safely exit with the six of hearts to Kovachev. South’s eight to avoid the endplay. Board 15. Dealer South. NS Vul. Reading the Cards (Rigal) [— On this deal from the first round of the Spingold, ] K 9 6 5 3 2 Philippe Soulet, partnering Michel Lebel, played the {J 6 3 2 cards to perfection. Soulet and Lebel are members of }Q J 7 the Bernard Payen team from France, playing against a [ A 6 5 4 [ K Q 8 Dutch squad. The swing that resulted on the deal ]A Q ]7 4 helped Payen to a 116-89 victory. { A 10 7 4 { K Q 8 Dealer North. NS Vul. } 6 4 2 } K 9 8 5 3 [ A K 8 3 [ J 10 9 7 3 2 ] K 7 6 4 ] J 10 8 {8 4 {9 5 }A J 5 }A 10 West North East South [ Q 10 7 6 2 Schireson Kovachev Rosenberg Rosenbaum ]A 8 — — — Pass { J 10 6 3 1 1NT 2] Double Pass }Q 6 2[ Pass 3] Pass West North East South 3NT Pass Pass Pass — 1NT 2]1 3[ 1. 14+ to 17 HCP. Pass 4[ Pass Pass Kovachev led the queen of clubs, ducked in dummy. Pass Rosenbaum made the inspired play of rising with the 1. Hearts and a minor ace of clubs so that she could immediately fire back West led the ace of diamonds. East encouraged, so the jack of hearts. The queen was covered by the king, West pressed on with the king and another diamond, and the two returned to the ten and ace. Schireson making Soulet suspect that the spades were divided then played a low spade to dummy’s king, discovering 4-0. Soulet pitched a club from dummy, East winning the 6-0 break when North discarded a low heart. Next with the diamond queen and shifting to the queen of came the king of diamonds and a low spade to the ace hearts, taken by Soulet with the ace. in the closed hand, North parting with another low

17 Backing his reading of the position, Soulet led the jack West North East South of diamonds, encouraging West to discard his last heart. Liu Weinstein Hu Wildavsky Soulet pitched dummy’s jack of clubs and advanced ——3{4[ the ten of spades, covered by West with the jack. Soulet 5{ Double Pass 5[ now crossed to the queen of spades and finessed again Pass 6[ Pass Pass in trumps This was the ending: Pass [A Liu led the club king. My plan was to ruff out the hearts, ]K 7 6 playing a spade to the ten if they were 4-2. After the {— king, ace and a low heart, I was happy to see RHO }A follow, so I ruffed – but I was overruffed! I should have ruffed high, because I needed trumps 2–1 anyway. [7 6 LHO held the jack-doubleton of spades, so I would ]8 have made it had I played it correctly. Minus 200 was {— a push. }Q 6 Unrealised Opportunities (Barden) When the last trump was played, East – holding three The first board of the second set in the Round-of-16 hearts and the guarded king of clubs – was squeezed. match between the Gawrys and Cayne teams offered If he pitched a club, declarer would cash the ace of some remarkable chances in the play of the cards: clubs, dropping the king. Declarer would then ruff a heart to his hand, which would be good. If East Board 16. Dealer West. EW Vul. discarded a heart, Soulet could cash the king of hearts [K J 7 and ruff a heart. Dummy, with the ace of clubs as an ]— entry, would be high. The full deal: {A 8 2 } A J 9 8 6 4 2 [ A K 8 3 [ Q 10 4 [ A 9 2 ] K 7 6 4 ] A K Q 8 7 6 5 ] 10 9 4 3 {8 4 { J 9 { K 10 5 3 }A J 5 } Q } 10 3 [ J 9 5 4 [ — [ 8 6 5 3 ] 9 2 ] Q J 10 5 3 ]J 2 { A K 7 { Q 9 5 2 { Q 7 6 4 } 9 8 3 2 } K 10 7 4 }K 7 5 [ Q 10 7 6 2 ]A 8 West North East South { J 10 6 3 Multon Cayne Zimmermann Sontag }Q 6 1] 2} 3] 4} 4] 5} Pass Pass At trick five, when declarer led the jack of diamonds, Pass West must ruff in with the nine of spades and ensure that declarer wins the last trump in the dummy to defeat Pierre Zimmermann led the three of clubs against the game. With that defence, declarer has no entry to Jimmy Cayne’s five-club contract. How should the play hand to execute the criss-cross trump squeeze. go? Higher Aspirations (Wildavsky) Needing diamond tricks, declarer wins in hand and leads the eight of diamonds. If East rises, declarer will This deal comes from the second set of our Spingold be able to finesse later against his ten of diamonds, match against the Hemant Lall team. We played against discarding a spade loser, then guess the spades for his Yinghao Liu and Lin Lin Hu. (Spots are approximate.) contract. So East ducks and dummy’s queen of Dealer East. NS Vul. diamonds wins. Now declarer’s plan switches to set [A 10 up dummy’s long spade to discard his diamond loser. ] A 9 7 6 4 He’ll have to lose the lead twice to achieve that, and { K 10 5 the first time they get in, the defence will knock out }J 4 3 the ace of diamonds. So, declarer needs to lose his second trick to West, [ K Q 8 7 5 4 3 2 not East. Say he leads a spade off dummy at trick three. ]K 8 West puts in the ten, declarer plays the jack, and East {J ducks. Now declarer crosses to the king of clubs to }A 9

18 lead spades again, but West rises with the queen and [K J the contract dies. ]— But there’s a better plan – the heart jack is in dummy {A for a reason. At trick three, you ruff dummy’s low }A J heart, then lead the king of spades out of hand, ducked [Q 4 [A 9 by East. You lose the second round of spades, and ]5 ]— the defence establishes its diamond trick. But now { 9 { 10 5 you can cross to the king of clubs, reaching this }Q }10 position: [— [J ]— ]— {Q 7 {2 }K 7 5 } J 9 6 4 North had the count by now, so he knew South must [Q [A have the queen of diamonds, otherwise declarer would ] A K 8 7 6 ] 10 9 4 have established diamond tricks. He avoided the {— {K 10 endplay by discarding the ace of diamonds on the last }— }— heart, and that was one off, for a hard-earned 4 IMPS [8 6 to Gawrys. (Gawrys could also have discarded the ace ]J of clubs to beat the contract.) {7 6 }7 Major NABC Event Winners It’s time to use dummy’s second entry for its proper Spingold Knockout Teams purpose – leading hearts. West covers and you discard your remaining spade. And West has nothing better Piotr Gawrys, Geir Helgemo, to do than lead his spade, allowing you to ruff the suit Tor Helness, Michal Klukowski, good. You cross to the seven of clubs (of course, you Franck Multon, Pierre Zimmermann kept a lower one) and discard your diamond loser on Grand National Teams the thirteenth spade. Well played and defended! Mike Becker, David Berkowitz, Not surprisingly, all of this did not happen. Declarer Gary Cohler, Jeff Meckstroth, correctly played a diamond at trick two – but the Eric Rodwell, Warren Spector two rather than the eight. East rose with the king NABC Swiss Teams and tried a heart. Declarer ruffed, drew a second round of trumps, ruffed a heart back to hand, and Drew Casen, Bruce Ferguson, cashed the ace of diamonds. When the jack appeared, Jim Krekorian, John Onstott, the finesse was roughly three to one on – with jack- Richard Ritmeijer, Magdalena Tichá ten-nine, West would have had three choices of cards Mixed Board-A-Match Teams to keep for the third round of the suit, so restricted Doug Doub, Jiang Gu, Yiji Starr, Rose Yan choice applies with extra strength. But if the Vugraph record is to be believed, declarer had blocked both Senior Swiss Teams minors, so he was unable to test the theory and went Cris Barrere, Bill Harker, one off. Bruce Noda, Mark Ralph At the other table, West chose to save, with perhaps a Collegiate Bowl Teams chance of making. University of California at Berkeley: West North East South Armin Askari, Chenwei Li, Versace Gawrys Tokay Klukowski Kevin Rosenberg, 1] 2} 3{ Pass Minyang Zhou, Xinchen Zhu 4] Double Pass 4[ Life Master Pairs 5] Pass Pass Pass John Carruthers, Michael Roche Piotr Gawrys made the contract interesting by leading the seven of spades. Declarer won in hand with the Open Pairs ten, cashed the ace of hearts and led the jack of Joaquín Pacareu, Juan Carlos Ventin diamonds to dummy’s king – a good view. Then he ran the trumps, reaching this position: Women’s Pairs Sondra Shubiner, Linda Wynston

19 Championship Defence Jean-Paul MEYER Ostend Redux 1936-2018 Marek Wójcicki, Nienadowa, Poland Jean-Paul Mayer was known In the European Team Championships Women’s series, by all bridge champions, and from the Poland-Italy match, Justyna Zmuda was sitting he was one of their peers. Last East with: [ AQ1053 ] K8 { A876 } 97 year in Lyon, during the World Championships, and even With both sides vulnerable, the bidding went ... more recently in February in West North East South Monaco, he was still the Dufrat Pomares Zmuda Campagnano coordinator of the Daily Pass 1NT Pass 2{ Bulletin. All around the world, Double 2] 2[ 4] for decades, he has been Pass Pass Pass organizing the Vu-graph for After a 15-17 notrump and transfer, Zmuda led the major championships. diamond ace. This is what she saw (hands rotated): Jean-Paul Meyer was also a very competent and [2 appreciated manager among bridge administrators. He ] Q 7 6 5 3 2 was well-respected for his role in the commission {Q investigating several cheating cases, the ones that shook } Q J 8 6 2 the bridge world, as Vice-President of the French Bridge [ A Q 10 5 3 Federation (FFB), and as President of the Ethics and ]K 8 Disciplinary Committee of the FFB. { A 8 7 6 At the head of the French Selection Comittee, or as NPC }9 7 of successful French teams, JPM demonstrated precious On the diamond ace, the nine appeared from partner leadership qualities. He made full use of these same and the two from declarer. What next? qualities as General Manager of the company « Les éditions de la presse spécialisée – Le Bridgeur ». As a writer, Except for diamond honours, partner has at most a he published technical books (Contrat sous garantie is the jack. Thus, there is no hope for a trick in clubs. The last) as well as Le bridge raconté à Juliette, a true novel. only chance was in trumps. Zmuda found the only defence to defeat four hearts. Jean-Paul was also a renowned journalist. As an editorial writer, his famous « Franchement vôtre… » which opened Zmuda cashed the spade ace (Dufrat followed with every single issue of « Le Bridgeur » was feared by all those the four, upside-down signals) and continued with players and executives who were scratched by his fierce another spade (eight from Dufrat). When declarer took pen when he judged it to be fair. Jean-Paul still was, until the second spade in hand with the jack and played his last day, a very active member of the editorial comitee the ace of trumps and another, Zmuda won with her of « Le Bridgeur » and « Bridgerama », the two magazines king and played one more spade, promoting a trick for of the company. the trump jack and setting the contract. So many occupations would already fill two lives (not to Board 4. Dealer West. Both Vul. mention his expertise at blackjack and picking the horses), [ K J 9 7 6 but Jean-Paul Meyer loved nothing more than playing ]A 4 bridge himself. And there too, he was brilliant. Several {J 3 2 times a member of the French Open Team, he won his }A K 5 major trophy in 1987: the European Pairs Chanpionship, [ 8 4 [ A Q 10 5 3 with his favourite partner Gérard le Royer. Needless to ] J 10 9 ] K 8 say we can’t count his triumphs at the French level. { K 10 9 5 4 { A 8 7 6 } 10 4 3 } 9 7 Can you believe that just one man could have, in the [2 bridge world, so many duties, so many talents, so many ] Q 7 6 5 3 2 passions? However, Jean-Paul Meyer is the proof of it, {Q without doubt a unique example in the entire world. } Q J 8 6 2 He is survived by his wife Michelle, their daughter Karine, It was the only table in the Women’s series where the and two grandsons Jules and Nicolas. All IBPA members contract was set. In the Open and Senior series, the offer their sincerest condolences to them. four-heart contract was set only a few times. Pierre Schmidt & Philippe Cronier

20 Norwegian Legend, happy, and it was clearly heart-warming for him to follow the team on the road to gold medals during Jon Sveindal 1946-2018 the bad periods he experienced. Jon Sveindal was born in 1946 in Moss, a small town When Jon died on July 13, 2018, Norwegian bridge in Eastern Norway. University studies led him to lost a giant. Jon Sveindal’s name is written in our history Bergen, where he settled for the rest of his life and and will forever be one of the true stars. I’m glad I established himself as one of Norway’s best-ever bridge knew you, Jon. Memories live forever. players. Jon’s professional life was teaching and Nils Kvangraven journalism, with daily bridge columns in Norway’s largest newspaper. Jon won four Norwegian Premier League championships, NEWS & six NM Club Teams and an NM Pairs. Internationally, Jon won a silver medal in the 1993 . Jon also VIEWS won two bronze medals at European Championships and two golds at Nordic championships. In 2015, Jon made an exceptional comeback when, American World Champs despite his illness, he competed in the Open European Championships in Tromsø, receiving the bronze medal The USA lost three previous World Champions with his Bermuda-Bowl partner Arild Rasmussen and recently: Mark Gordon, winner of the 2013 Trans- the Australians Justin Howard and Kieran Dyke. He national Teams in Bali; Margie Gwozdzinsky, winner of duplicated this success in 2017 when he – this time the 1989 Venice Cup in Perth; and John Sutherlin, with his partner of earliest years Tor Bakke – again winner of the 2000 Senior Teams in Maastricht, all died earned bronze in the NM Pairs. Severely affected by within the last couple of months. the disease, the applause he received at the Prize- ABTA Book Awards Giving ceremony was special – many of us had tears in our eyes. The American Bridge Teachers Association’s 2018 winners of their books of the year are: As a bridge journalist, Jon was always No.1. He Newcomers: A Taste of Bridge, Jeff Bayonne regularly contributed articles in magazines and for a Beginner/Novices: Planning the Play – The Next Level, number of years he could Barbara Seagram and be read in the daily bridge Intermediate/Advanced: Judgment at Bridge 2, Mike column in ‘Aftenposten’ and Lawrence ‘Bergens Tidende’. Jon was an Technology of the Year: Larry Cohen Teaches Bridge, DVD active member of Norsk Bridgepresse and he won ACBL Hall of Fame the Journalist Prize in 1985 Bridge Base Online, Ralph Katz, Bobby Levin, Mark and 2017. In 2011, Jon Molson and Eric Rodwell were inducted into the Hall Sveindal was awarded the during the Atlanta NABC. BBO is the first non-human Ranik Halles Prize (photo on to be inducted. right), which is considered the most prestigious award University of Stirling a Norwegian journalist can receive. It was awarded for outstanding journalistic activities to promote Sam Punch reports that academics at the University of bridge. Stirling are bridging the gap between generations – as well as the local community – by inviting people to join In addition to achieving success as a player and a new bridge club. The University Bridge Club has been journalist, Jon was Captain and Coach for Norwegian set up as part of a series of research projects into the representative teams on several occasions. I remember health and well-being benefits of playing the card game. when I entered the Norwegian Junior Team in the late 90’s, Jon participated in several championships as a The first study, funded by English Bridge Education and bridge journalist and became an important supporter Development, compared the responses of more than of we novices. He was experienced and skilled; he was 6,400 bridge players with over 10,000 responses from a well from which we drew advice. wave six of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. It found that those who play bridge have higher levels of Jon followed the bridge community until his last days. well-being than those who do not play. The new club When Norway became European champions in June, will also help build intergenerational relationships within Jon sent me congratulations from his bed. He was and beyond the University.

21 The International Bridge Press Association

IBPA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Sunday morning, 20th August, 2017 Lyon, France Minutes 0. Attendance: 35 (see list below). 1. Remembrance of members deceased since last AGM: Anna-Maria Torlontano, Sandra Landy, and our President Emeritus Henry Francis. Brent Manley delivered a personal remembrance including a story about Henry during his time as Tournament Director in New York. 2. Minutes of the AGM held on 10th September 2016 in Wroclaw, Poland - Approved. 3. Officers’ Reports: President, Chairman, Secretary (attached). 4. Appointees’ Reports: Editor (attached). Membership Secretary (attached) 5. Treasurer: Accounts for the year ending 31st December 2016 is presented to the meeting. The deficit is $2,946. Budget for 2018: Approved. Proposal regarding subscriptions for the year 2018 : they should go up by 2% per year, so to be US$43 for 2018 – Approved. 6. Elections: The officers are elected to the 2018 AGM: President: Barry Rigal (USA); Chairman: Per Jannersten (Sweden); Executive Vice-President: David Stern (Australia); Organisational Vice-President: Dilip Gidwani (India); Treasurer: Richard Solomon (New Zealand). The secretary, Herman De Wael (Belgium) has indicated he wishes to resign for personal reasons. Elisabeth van Ettinger (Netherlands) has agreed to take over the position. Proposed for annual election are: Hon. Auditor: Richard Fleet - Approved. Hon. General Counsel: David Harris - Approved. David Harris recounts that during the past year, the bank accounts have been moved to accounts under the personal names of Barry Rigal and Per Jannersten. He has received written statements that settle this situation. 7. Election of Executive members: Proposed for a 3-year election to 2020: John Carruthers (Canada), Marek Wojcicki (Poland), Gavin Wolpert (USA). Before the election, the President wishes to thank Marek for trying to broaden our exposure in Eastern Europe. The executive members are elected. 8. The IBPA Annual Awards: Barry Rigal presented the awards. 9. Any other competent business Jan Swaan would like to see a list with the services that IBPA provides in order to attract new members, and asks what the IBPA is planning to adapt to the technology of the future. He proposes that a small working group discusses these things. The president agrees that such a group shall be formed and he asks Jan to be a part of it. List of attendees to the AGM: Christer Andersson, Sevinç Atay, Yves Aubry, Jade Barrett, Mark van Beijsterveldt, Peter Buchen, Francesca Canali, Mirek Cichocki, Jan van Cleeff, José Damiani, Marc De Pauw,

22 Herman De Wael, Elisabeth van Ettinger, Patrice Foulon, Dilip Gidwani, David Harris, Josef Harsanyi, Correspondence Maureen Hiron, Mark Horton, Per Jannersten, The Editor reserves the right to Slawek Latala, Fernando Lema, Al Levy, Marshall abridge and/or edit correspondence. Lewis, Jerry Li, Brent Manley, Micke Melander, Barry Email: [email protected] Rigal, Piet Spruit, David Stern, Jan Swaan, Ron Tacchi, Marina Witvliet, Marek Wójcicki, Michael Yuen (35). Dear John, Reports to the AGM I see that am the only one on the Executive Committee Lyon, August 20, 2017 without an e-mail address on the front page of the IBPA President’s Report 2017: Barry Rigal IBPA Bulletin, so if you feel the urge to wipe that slate Chairman’s Report: Per Jannersten clean, it is: [email protected] Secretary’s Report: Since the Secretary’s duties are To lose Herman De Wael from the Executive mostly just administrative, there is not much to report Committee was a big loss for the IBPA, as I believe to the AGM. Over the past year, I have amended the that he eventually would have made a good President. job descriptions, adding the amounts we pay to the Having said that, I really hope that you will remind the winners of the Awards. Sadly however, personal Executive of the debt we owe to Herman and get circumstances have forced me to offer my resignation Herman included again. from the post. I have been very happy to be allowed Yours most friendly, to serve IBPA over the past seven years. Tommy Sandsmark, Herman De Wael Still Emeritus, Editor’s Report: Still going weak Despite the turmoil in the larger bridge world in the past 12 months, for the monthly Bulletin of the IBPA, it was business as usual. My helpers, Katie Thorpe, PO Sundelin and Phillip Alder did their normal great job to make the Bulletin as good as it is. Katie and Phillip proofread each issue and PO checks the analysis. That does not prevent PO from correcting my grammar (which he takes great delight in doing) or Phillip or Katie from detecting an error in analysis. Katie also www.ibpa.com uploads the Bulletin to the IBPA website and manages the mailing list. I thank all three for their diligence and This Bulletin: expertise. You can access an electronic copy of this Bulletin Here are a few statistics: since the last World at www.ibpa.com/643eb.pdf Championships, we published 12 issues, with 242 Subscriptions: pages, 93 articles by 58 authors, from 18 countries. A special thanks must go to Tim Bourke of Canberra, You can apply to join the IBPA or renew your the author of the monthly Column Service and an subscription on the website by clicking on the occasional contributor of other material. Additionally, appropriate button on the top of the homepage. Tim provides a fantastic service to bridge journalists Members’ Addresses: by converting BBO lin files to the more usable MS Word doc files. Our other most-frequent contributors You can find fellow members’ contact details at: were Mark Horton (England), Barry Rigal (USA), Ron www.jannersten.org. If you have forgotten your Klinger (Australia), Brent Manley (USA), Fernando access code: [email protected] Lema (Argentina) and Maurizio di Sacco (Italy). We The 2016 Handbook: would welcome with open arms more contributions To access the electronic version of the Handbook, from the lesser-represented continents (Asia, Africa go to the IBPA website: www.ibpa.com and South America). I remind members that we shall do our best to translate contributions from their native Personal Details Changes: language to English. Whenever your contact details change, please John Carruthers, Friday, August 18, 2017 amend them as appropriate in the database found Membership Secretary’s Report 2017: We have at: www.jannersten.org 167 members who have paid but are still chasing those or inform the Membership Secretary, that haven’t. Katie Thorpe: [email protected]

23 World Bridge Calendar DATES EVENT LOCATION INFORMATION 2018 Aug 8-18 17th World Youth Team Championships Suzhou, China www.worldbridge.org Aug 9-14 16th HCL International New Delhi, India www.hcl-bridge.com Aug 13-19 42nd International Festival Varna, Bulgaria www.bridge.bg Aug 15-19 Summer Festival Teams London, England www.ebu.co.uk Aug 17-26 68th International Festival La Baule, France www.ffbridge.fr Aug 18-Sep 2 18th Asian Games Jakarta/Palembang, Indonesia www.ocasia.org Aug 25-Sep 2 42nd International Festival La Grande-Motte, France www.festivalsdusoleil.com Aug 29-Sep 2 Territory Gold Bridge Festival Darwin, NT, Australia www.ntba.com.au Sep 7-16 Guernsey Congress Les Cotils, Guernsey, Channel Is. www.ebu.co.uk Sep 7-19 57th International Festival Pula, Croatia www.pulabridgefestival.com Sep 22-Oct 6 11th World Bridge Series Orlando, FL www.worldbridge.org Sep 28-Oct 1 Canberra in Bloom Bridge Festival Canberra, ACT, Australia www.abfevents.com.au Sep 29-Oct 4 22nd World Computer Championship Orlando, FL www.worldbridge.org Sep 29-Oct 6 New Zealand National Congress Hamilton, NZ www.nzbridge.co.nz Oct 3-4 XI Open Balkan Yeam Championship Stara Zagora, Bulgaria www.bridge.bg Oct 3-7 22nd Açores Festival Azores Is., Portugal www.fpbridge.pt Oct 8-14 Andalucia Overseas Congress Cadiz, Spain www.ebu.co.uk Oct 19-21 Vilnius Cup Vilnius, Lithuania www.vilniuscup.lt Oct 25-27 EBL Small Federations Games Budapest, Hungary www.eurobridge.org Oct 25-28 9th World University Championships Suzhou, China www.worldbridge.org Nov 6-11 21st Madeira Bridge Festival Madeira, Portugal www.bridge-madeira.com Nov 8-10 17th European Champions Cup Budapest, Hungary www.eurobridge.org Nov 8-10 5th Marbella International Marbella, Costa del Sol, Spain www.marbellabridge.com Nov 8-18 24th International Red Sea Festival Eilat, Israel www.bridgeredsea.com Nov 10-11 2nd YCBC Ladies Swiss Teams London, England www.ycbc.co.uk Nov 22-Dec 2 ACBL Fall NABC Honolulu, HI www.acbl.org Nov 27-Dec 1 3rd SEABF Championships Makati City, Philippines www.pabf.org Nov 30-Dec 2 9th Hotel D. Pedro Festival Vilamoura, Portugal www.fpbridge.pt Dec 7-9 Città di Milano International Teams Milan, Italy www.federbridge.it Dec 15-17 Cape Festival Cape Town, South Africa www.sabf.co.za Dec 27-30 Year-End Congress London, England www.ebu.co.uk 2019 Jan 9-20 Summer Festival of Bridge Canberra, ACT www.abf.com.au Jan 26-Feb 1 60th Bermuda Regional Southampton, Bermuda www.bermudaregional.com Jan 30-Feb 5 Greece Overseas Congress Athens, Greece www.ebu.co.uk Jan 31-Feb 3 Reykjavik Bridge Festival Reykjavik, Iceland www.bridge.is Feb 15-23 57th Gold Coast Congress Broadbeach, Australia www.qldbridge.com.au Feb 22-28 1st European National Mixed Teams Lisbon, Portugal www.eurobridge.org Mar 8-10 Slava Cup Moscow, Russia www.slavacup.com Mar 21-31 ACBL Spring NABC Memphis, TN www.acbl.org Mar 30-Apr 3 Amazing Bridge Festival Bangkok, Thailand www.thailandbridgeleague.com Apr 16-21 124th Easter Regional Toronto, ON www.unit166.ca Apr 26-May 5 Jersey Festival Jersey, Channel Is. www.ebu.co.uk May 3-7 Schapiro Spring Fours Stratford-upon-Avon, England www.ebu.co.uk May 4-12 Canadian Bridge Week Burnaby, BC www.cbf.ca May 10-20 USBF Open and Women’s Trials Schaumburg, IL www.usbf.org May 17-25 CACBF Championships San Jose, Costa Rica www.cacbf.com May 24-Jun 1 69th South American Bridge Festival Mar del Plata, Argentina www.worldbridge.org May 29-Jun 6 USBF Senior Trials Schaumburg, IL www.usbf.org Jun 11-18 52nd APBF Championships Singapore [email protected] Jun 15-29 9th Open European Championships Opatija, Croatia (TBD) www.eurobridge.org Jun 28-Jul 7 62nd Slawa Congress Slawa, Poland www.pzbs.pl Jul 12-19 SABF Congress Durban, South Africa www.sabf.co.za Jul 18-28 ACBL Summer NABC Las Vegas, NV www.acbl.org Jul 26-Aug 4 25th Swedish Bridge Festival Orebro, Sweden www.svenskbridge.se Jul 27-Aug 1 Chairman’s Cup Orebro, Sweden www.svenskbridge.se Aug 2-11 Summer Festival Eastbourne, England www.ebu.co.uk Aug 22-Sep 1 47th Grand Prix of Warsaw Warsaw, Poland www.pzbs.pl Sep 6-14 58th International Festival Pula, Croatia www.pulabridgefestival.com Sep 13-22 Guernsey Congress Guernsey, Channel Is. www.ebu.co.uk Nov 28-Dec 8 ACBL Fall NABC San Francisco, CA www.acbl.org Nov 30-Dec 5 5th National Day Bridge Festival Dubai, UAE www.bridgewebs.com/4jacks

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