The Open World Championship Trial

by Phillip Alder

This year's world championships, called the World Bridge Games (formerly the ), will be held in Wroclaw, Poland, in September. There will be four trials for the open, women's, senior and mixed, with some players perhaps competing in three. The open event was held in Denver from May 6 to 15. A total of nineteen teams entered. Six- teen played a round robin of seven- matches, from which twelve qualified for the knockout stage of 120-board matches played over two days. These twelve were joined by the teams captained by John Diamond and Paul Fireman for the so-called Round of 16. Those seven winners moved into the quarterfinals along with the Mark Gordon team. Surely for the first time ever, the Nick Nickell squad did not receive a bye into the knockout stage. However, the round robin went according to form, with Nickell being nearly 10 victory points ahead of Vinita Gupta . In the Round of 16, Nickell won by 414 international match points to 38, the opponents conceding with 30 of the 120 boards to be played. In the quarterfinals, though, Nickell (Ralph Katz, Bobby Levin, Steve Weinstein, Jeff Meckstroth and Eric Rodwell) faced Martin Fleisher (Chip Martel, Ishmael del'Monte, Chris Willenken, Joe Grue and Brad Moss). In this match, there were eight deals in which three notrump failed at one table and that con- tact or another game made at the other table. The most interesting was Board 36. Try it for yourself first:

North (Dummy) Dlr: South ‰ 9 6 3 Vul: N-S Š K J 6 3 ‹ Q 10 4 Œ A 7 5 East (You) ‰ 2 Š A Q 10 4 ‹ 8 6 5 Œ J 6 4 3 2 West North East South Partner Dummy You Declarer 1NT (a) Pass 3NT All Pass (a) 14-16 points

Your partner leads a fourth-highest spade five: three, deuce, seven. Declarer leads the diamond jack from his hand, which wins the trick, and continues with the diamond seven, which partner takes with his ace. You play the eight and six as suit-preference signals for hearts. Getting the message, partner shifts to the heart nine: jack, queen, seven. What would you do now?

1 This was the full deal:

North Dlr: South ‰ 9 6 3 Vul: N-S Š K J 6 3 ‹ Q 10 4 Œ A 7 5 West East ‰ K J 8 5 4 ‰ 2 Š 9 5 2 Š A Q 10 4 ‹ A 3 2 ‹ 8 6 5 Œ 9 8 Œ J 6 4 3 2 South ‰ A Q 10 7 Š 8 7 ‹ K J 9 7 Œ K Q 10 West North East South Fleisher Rodwell Martel Meckstroth Weinstein Willenken Levin del'Monte 1NT (a) Pass 3NT All Pass (a) 14-16 points

The bidding was the same at both tables. The early play was similar, the only difference being that del'Monte led a diamond to dummy's queen at trick two and returned a diamond to his king. Martel and Levin hoped that partner had a timely , presumably in spades, so that he could lead another heart and give the defense five tricks via that entry, three hearts and the diamond ace. In contrast, declarer, who knew that spades were 5-1 when East did not lead one at trick five, was hoping to use his wonderful heart spots to set up a trick in that suit to join two spades, three diamonds and three clubs. However, South needed to be careful with his entries. At trick five, Levin led a club, which did not seem to hurt, but watch what happened. Del'Monte took the trick with his king and ran the heart eight. East won with his queen and played another club in the position on the next page.

2 North ‰ 9 6 Š K 6 ‹ 10 Œ A 7 West East ‰ K J 8 4 ‰ – Š 2 Š A 4 ‹ 3 ‹ 8 Œ 9 Œ J 6 3 2 South ‰ A Q 10 Š – ‹ J 9 Œ Q 10

Del'Monte won with dummy's ace and drove out the heart ace. With a diamond entry to the board and a club entry to his hand, declarer claimed his contract. At the other table, Martel found the killing defense, leading his last diamond at trick five to remove a vital dummy entry. Meckstroth took his two tricks in that suit before running the heart eight to give this layout:

North ‰ 9 Š K 6 ‹ – Œ A 7 5 West East ‰ K J 4 ‰ – Š 2 Š A 4 ‹ – ‹ – Œ 9 8 Œ J 6 3 2 South ‰ A Q 10 Š – ‹ – Œ K Q 10

South needed five of the last six tricks, but could not get them when East exited with a club. Declarer took his three tricks in that suit (West carefully discarded another spade) but could not avoid going down. That was excellent defense by Martel, aided by Fleisher's accurate on the first round of diamonds and heart shift. The Fleisher team gained 12 imps on the board. Did you notice South's winning line? If he had run the heart eight at trick two, he would have been one step ahead in the race.

In the other four matches broadcast on Bridge Base Online, every declarer went down in three notrump. The winning defense was found by Gavin Wolpert (East) and Paul Fireman (West); and by Kevin Bathurst (East) and Justin Lall (West), with the slight variation that Lall held up his diamond ace until the third round. At the other tables, South could have made his contract, but did not find a win- ning line.

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