15Th European Youth Bridge Championships; Cardiff
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Saturday Issue 1 20 July 1996 C R O E S O I G Y M R U Welcome to Wales The championships got under way with a splendid opening ceremony staged at the Reardon Smith Lecture Hall. After being entertained by the Whitchurch Male Choir, the audience heard The President of the British Bridge League, Patrick Jourdain, made a speech of welcome. He was followed by the Rt. Hon. The Lord Mayor of the City and County of Cardiff, Councillor John Phillips, who extended greetings on behalf of the Local Authority.The final address was made by the Chairman of the EBL Youth Committee, Panos Gerontopoulos who then, together with the Lord Mayor, formally declared the Championships open. The ceremony was followed by a Civic Reception at the Marble Hall of the City Hall. Welcome from the President of the British Bridge League, Patrick Jourdain My Lord Mayor, Ladies and gentlemen, The motivation for these championships comes from conversations with my friends abroad.Where do you live, Patrick?, they ask.In Cardiff, I reply.The next question, usually, is this:Now just where is that in England? But we are not in England at all, and I resolved that sometime, somehow, in my lifetime, there would be an inter- national championship in Cardiff.This is it .The greatest gathering of Junior bridge-players the world has known, for this is the first time in history that 26 nations have entered a Junior championship. I am going to make special mention of two people here today, one to represent the older generation, one the younger.The older is a man with more world titles to his name than other living person, 13, I believe.Visiting us from America, to be coach to the Italian Junior team, I ask you to rise, Benito Garozzo. To represent the Juniors I give you a story of what NOT to do during your stay in Cardiff.At the Junior Camp in Switzerland the Frisbee of one Junior landed on the third floor balcony of a locked building. He climbed the OUTSIDE of the building, collected the Frisbee, but, on his way down, fell the last two floors. Not greatly harmed he is back, but not, I hope, to repeat the stunt. Please rise, our Frisbee friend from France, Laurent Bouscarel. I am sure you will have a great time here. CROESO I CAERDYDD,Welcome to CARDIFF. Patrick Jourdain Editor: Mark Horton Co-Editor: Brian Senior Layout Editor: Thanassis Matziaris 15th European Youth Bridge Championships Cardiff 96. Tomorrows Program 1st Round Results Round Saturday 20th July, 10:30 VPs IMPs GB France 13 - 17 39 - 48 Table Home Team Visiting Team Belgium Romania 12 - 18 35 - 51 1 Austria Great Britain Israel Denmark 10 - 20 35 - 61 2 Netherlands Finland Lithuania Russia 2 - 25 8 - 76 3 Romania Iceland Czech Rep. Portugal 11 - 19 29 - 46 4 Denmark Ireland Italy Turkey 16 - 14 56 - 48 5 Sweden Turkey Iceland Hungary 24 - 6 69 - 25 6 Belgium Yugoslavia Spain Austria 16 - 14 46 - 40 7 Switzerland Germany Poland Finland 25 - 5 75 - 26 8 France Poland Netherlands Sweden 9 - 21 28 - 57 9 Norway Portugal Yugoslavia Switzerland 15 - 15 (Provis.) 10 Israel Russia Germany Ireland 7 - 23 27 - 65 11 Hungary Italy Norway Greece 25 - 5 81 - 29 12 Czech Republic Spain 13 Greece Lithuania Round Saturday 20th July, 15:00 Table Home Team Visiting Team 1 Great Britain Denmark 2 Turkey Germany 3 Hungary Israel 4 Netherlands Norway Rank Country VP Total 5 Austria Sweden 1 RUSSIA 25 6 Portugal Russia 2 NORWAY 25 7 Romania Spain 3 POLAND 24.5 8 Lithuania Iceland 4 ICELAND 24 9 Switzerland Czech Republic 5 IRELAND 23 10 Yugoslavia Poland 6 SWEDEN 21 11 Ireland Finland 7 DENMARK 20 12 France Greece 8 PORTUGAL 18.5 13 Italy Belgium 9 ROMANIA 18 10 FRANCE 17 Round Saturday 20th July, 20:15 11 SPAIN 16 Table Home Team Visiting Team 12 ITALY 15 1 Great Britain Netherlands 13 SWITZERLAND 15 2 Sweden Spain 14 YUGOSLAVIA 15 3 Ireland Yugoslavia 15 AUSTRIA 14 4 Turkey Switzerland 16 GB 13 5 Denmark Austria 17 TURKEY 13 6 Czech Republic Poland 18 BELGIUM 12 7 Hungary Greece 19 CZECH REP. 10.5 8 Belgium Israel 20 ISRAEL 10 9 Romania France 21 NETHERLANDS 9 10 Russia Iceland 22 GERMANY 7 11 Norway Germany 23 HUNGARY 6 12 Lithuania Italy 24 GREECE 5 13 Finland Portugal 25 FINLAND 4.5 26 LITHUANIA 2 2 Daily Bulletin 1 Saturday, 20 July 1996 ALL LEADS ROAM FROM RHODES Barry Rigal he US trials have changed over the last few [ J 7 6 4 2 T years; in the past the format was based on ] 10 5 2 generating one team from the winners (or { A Q 6 5 the highest ranked eligible team) from the major } K [ Q 10 [ 9 8 3 events, the Vanderbilt, Spingold, Reisinger and N Grand National Teams, via a straight knock-out. ] A K 8 6 3 ] J 4 { 8 7 W E { 10 4 2 The basic concept this year was that all but the } J 10 8 2 S } A Q 9 6 4 top seven teams played in a Swiss event from [ A K 5 which the top eight teams would emerge. The ] Q 9 7 seeding of the top seven was based on perfor- { K J 9 3 mance in important national events. The number } 7 5 3 one seed would be exempt for one more round 3NT would generally go six down, but the fortu- while teams two through seven would pick their nate heart lie lets you out for a respectable -150. opponents from the Swiss qualifiers, leaving the However, a low heart lead now only requires the two old maids (i.e. the most dangerous Swiss quali- [Q to be doubleton and you can wrap up 430 fiers) to play one another. instead, as happened at the table.That was a loss of seven instead of a gain of the same number for The trials were won in particularly impressive Beatty against Weinstein in the final set of his loss form by Larry Robbins relatively unheralded team to the number two seed by 32 IMPs. What would from Chicago, who beat Nickells world champi- you lead as West after the following auction? onship team in the semis, and Zias all stars in the [ 8 5 4 final, the margins in both matches being about 80 IMPs. ] 7 4 { J 10 9 7 4 Here are a series of lead problems that I wit- } Q 8 2 nessed, and the good news is that if you score 0% on the problems you will do no worse than the West North East South contestants in the event: 1[ Pass 1NT West North East South Pass 2] Pass 2NT Pass 3NT All Pass 1{* 1] 1[ Pass Make up your mind, and then decide if it would 2[ Pass 3] Pass make any difference if your partner had doubled 3NT All Pass the final contract.This was the full hand: * Precision (probably balanced 13-15) [ K J 9 7 2 You are on lead with: ] K Q 2 { Q 6 3 [ Q 10 } K 7 ] A K 8 6 3 [ 8 5 4 [ A Q 6 { 8 7 ] 7 4 N ] 10 9 3 } J 10 8 2 { J 10 9 7 4 W E } A K 2 } Q 8 2 S } 10 6 4 3 I think you could make out a reasonable case for [ 10 3 assuming partner has no heart card from his fail- ] A J 8 6 5 ure to double 3], but it could still be right to lead { 8 5 the suit anyway. Not today; this was the full hand: } A J 9 5 3 15th European Youth Bridge Championships Cardiff 96. Kyle Larsen, whose team trailed by only 2 IMPs contract or would not have drawn a second going into the final stanza, led a spade, reading the trump.Anyway, Nickell played a spade and declarer double as having lead directing overtones. At the had time to establish the thirteenth diamond for other table a pedestrian diamond lead had led to his ninth trick.A low club would have given Cohler only one down after some confused signalling, but an interesting guess, which on restricted choice Lawrences decision to double turned out even principles he might have got wrong - since an worse, although you can understand why he elect- opening lead from }Qxx looks unattractive. ed to ensure his partner would settle for a safe lead albeit at a cost of a tempo. On a spade lead, Another hand from that match, and just to prove declarer was a tempo ahead in establishing his that we are not only going to give you a chance to suits and even a club switch and a misguess would err in the play, here is a bidding problem: not have hurt him. -750 and a gain of 13 IMPs to What would you bid with: Wolfson saw them home 52-3 in the final stanza. [ K 3 [ Q 10 9 7 ] 10 4 3 2 ] J 7 3 { J 4 2 { K 10 2 } K 9 4 2 } 10 5 2 Both vulnerable, partner opens 2} (6+ clubs and a You are on lead with this nondescript hand after an limited hand) and the next hand bids Four Spades. unopposed auction by your opponents: Wolff tried Five Clubs, Five Spades on his left, and 1{-1]-2]-2NT-3]-Pass. Five No-trumps from partner, Six Spades on his right.