Issue No. 3 Editors: Barry Rigal & Peter Gill – Layout Editor: Akis Kanaris Wednesday, 5 July 2006 Beautiful Piestany Directly in front of you after you cross the bridge, a sign points right to a Salt Cave (helpful for bronchitis) at the back of the Napoleon building in front of you. On your left (North) are the Thermal Ponds with water lilies and English explanatory signs. Further North are the public spa baths, if you want to give it a try. The grandest spa, the Thermia Palace on your right is closed, being under reconstruction.The southern bridge is part of the highway called Krajinska which is the main E/W road through town. To reach the city centre from the Hotel Sorea Slnava, either take a taxi or walk out of the front gate, turn right (north) past the squash courts and tennis/volleyball/futsal/beach volleyball centre, past the Ice Arena (ice hockey etc) called Zimny Stadion. Stay on the road as it bends to the right, and keep heading north.After an- other ten minutes, you reach Krajinska (the highway). Best is to walk north with the river on your right, until just before you reach The Kremnica Castle the second bridge. Winterova begins opposite the café with the The brochure in your Welcome Bag gave the story of the po- familiar name of Lavazza, near the boat mooring. This is almost 30 tentially great country we are visiting and the town we are in, but minutes. walk from the venue. as some of you missed the brochure, here is the information you If you want to go to the huge 24/7 supermarket, which sells may need. everything from food to motor bikes, you can veer left at the Ice Slovakia made the Grand Final of the 2000 World Ice Hockey Arena, turning right to again head north along one of the streets, Championships. Not bad for a country that emerged in 1993 from after about ten minutes turning left into Krajinska (the highway). 74 years of junior partnership in Czechoslovakia, and centuries of Keep walking west, past the Shell station, and after about ten min- Hungarian rule before that. utes on Krajinska you cross the railway bridge and see the Tesco Slovakia has attractions such as Bratislava, with its castle and sign on your right. It is about 30 minutes' walk from the venue. baroque architecture, but without the crowds of tourists that This is a long way from the city center. swarm all over Prague.There are the High Tatra mountains on the If you get hot or tired, the phone number for taxis is 7622207 Polish border, which are a skiing wonderland in winter and an or +421 3376 22207 or the other taxi company is 77 44477 or alpine playground in summer for outdoor enthusiasts. There are +421 3377 44477.The phone number of the Hotel Sorea Slnava over 150 castles, many towns such as Levoca and Bardejov with is +421 3377 26071. beautiful medieval and Renaissance town squares, plenty of sport- Under 18 year olds are reminded that they are not to leave the ing activities as some of you will discover on Thursday, and mass- camp venue unless under the supervision of an adult. es of forest clad mountains in five national parks. Piestany is a spa resort town of about 40,000 people on the banks of the Vah River. In 40 or 50 years' time, when you have just won yet another million euro bridge event, you might go to your travel agent who will say: "Use your riches to go to Piestany to cure your rheumatism and arthritis, using the warm springs and sulphuric mud".This has been going on here since the 16th cen- tury, the restorative properties of the spring waters having been discovered here in the 12th century. The town centre is almost 30 minutes' walk north of the venue. In the main street called Winterova (no cars), the ice cream at Konditorei Cukraren is good (8 Sk per scoop) and there is a good pizza place in an alleyway off Winterova.At the East end of Win- terova, there are two bridges over the river. If you walk past the swans and cross the northern bridge, you come to an island in the middle of the river, with beautiful gardens and spa resorts every- where. The Thermia Palace 7th WORLD JUNIOR BRIDGE CAMP Piestany, Slovakia Double Dummy Diamonds? (Pass-On for the Masses) I know my limitations; I have not yet played a hand of bridge Pass-on is not played with a dummy.You've actually seen the at the camp yet, but Pass-On is a different matter.On the first hand on your right so in a sense you are playing normal bridge night of the camp after the individual, we had a pass-on tour- in that respect: the hands are in their new homes after the nament ably organized by Steve De Roos. I joined the Gold- pass on. en Oldy team in time to see my squad win on the last board (when one opponent threw away an ace to keep a loser). So [ A K 9 2 I got to play a match with Klaus Reps, always a dubious treat, ] A 10 4 and this was our first deal. { K 9 8 4 3 Because you pass your cards 90% clockwise at the end of }7 the biddings, you know your LHO's hand but not the other two hands. The seat names refer to where we sat not the [ 8 5 3 N ]Q J cards we were about to receive. W { Q J 2 Dealer North. N/S Vul. } 10 8 6 5 4 [ K Q 9 3 2 West North East South ] A J 7 6 5 4 Sloan Jelinek {– 3} 3{ Pass 3] }9 7 Pass 3[ Pass 6{ [ A 10 8 6N [ J 9 All Pass ]K ]10 W E Your partner leads a low heart (yes, it is difficult to follow { A J 10 4 { Q 8 6 I know, but bear with me!) Declarer wins the ]K and leads a } J 6 3 2S } A K Q 10 8 5 4 low diamond. Plan the defence. [7 4 West was aware that North knew East's precise diamond ] Q 9 8 3 2 holding, so he did not think he could afford to do anything but { K 9 7 5 3 2 split his honours. This turned out to be non-optimal as you }– will see from the full deal. West North East South [ A K 9 2 Reps Rigal ] A 10 4 1{ 2{ 3} { K 9 8 4 3 3] 5} Pass 6} }7 All Pass [ 8 5 3N [ 7 4 Look at the accuracy of this auction - the first three calls ] Q J ] 9 7 5 3 2 W E would actually reflect what might happen if West were deal- { Q J 2 { A er. } 10 8 6 5 4S } K Q 9 3 2 East's Michaels cue-bid got his partner to hearts, but it was [ Q J 10 2 tough for either opponent to commit beyond the four-level. ] K 8 6 On a heart lead to the ]A and a top spade shift, Reps led a low club to me to draw trumps. Now in abstract the {Q, try- { 10 7 6 5 ing to pin the singleton {9, {7 or even the {5 in some cases }A J might be the right play… but I knew South had all these Of course Diane Sloan ducked the {J when it appeared on cards! Maybe the {6 would have been a better try - perhaps her right, and the fall of the {A allowed N/S to repeat the di- it would have been ducked by South (who only knows the di- amond finesse.With the ]QJ appearing doubleton there were amond holding on his left). But as it was, the {Q was allowed no further problems - and of course when Jelinek jumped to to live, and now I had a home for my spade loser; 6{ made. slam he knew the heart honours were falling and hoped that Note that if we had gone down one in slam this would have the double finesse in diamonds would be on from the auction, been a tragedy, given what happened in the other room.The which had marked the high cards in his partner's hand. auction was: 2{ weak by North, 2] by East, Diane Sloan, 4} by South, and 5] by Petr Jelinek, concluding the auction.This fetched 480 - maybe they were worried about missing their cold slam on their combined 15HCP! At the end of the first match I went to bed, leaving Diane and Petr to negotiate another tricky deal: let’s consider it as a defensive problem; I'll give it to you with a dummy though 2 3 - 10 July 2006 7th WORLD JUNIOR BRIDGE CAMP Individual Hands by Peter Gill Finding jewels at an individual tournament is tough work for the reporter. These were the pick of the crop that I encoun- tered. Board 9. Dealer North. E/W Vul. [ A J 10 ]A 9 { Q 8 3 2 } 8 6 5 4 [ Q 8 2N [ K 9 5 4 ] Q J 6 5 4 2 ] 8 W E { K 9 { J 10 7 6 4 } Q JS } K 10 2 [ 7 6 3 ] K 10 7 3 {A 5 Eleni Vatsalaki, Greece } A 9 7 3 actual hand declarer ducked this to the king.