The 2017 World Bridge Championships

by Phillip Alder

This year's world championships took place in Lyon, France, from August 12 to 26. The premier events were the , and d'Orsi Trophy. Also included were the FunBridge Transnational Teams (results below) and the World Youth Championships. I will cover the last separately, but will mention now that the United States team of Anam Tebha-Kevin Rosenberg, Adam Grossack-Zachary Grossack, Christian Jolly-Adam Kaplan won both the Junior Teams and the -a-Match Teams. Congratulations!

Just before we get to the main events, work out your answers to these questions from a deal that has been rotated to make South the declarer.

1a. You are the dealer, holding:

‰ A 8 5 Š K Q 10 7 6 4 ‹ K Œ A 4 3

The bidding starts like this:

West North East South You Partner 1Œ (a) 1‹ Dble (b) 4‰ ?? (a) Sixteen-plus points (b) Game-forcing, eight-plus points, usually no five-card suit

What would you do, if anything?

1b. Let's assume you pass. The full auction goes thus:

West North East South You Partner 1Œ 1‹ Dble 4‰ Pass Pass Dble All Pass

What would you lead?

1 1c. Suppose you choose the diamond king. This is what you see:

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

The first trick goes diamond king, deuce, six, ace. South now leads the spade queen. What would be your plan?

I am not going to give the result of the Bermuda Bowl immediately, but if you have not heard what happened and would like to know, go to worldbridge.org. Here are the other medal winners:

Venice Cup 1. China (Yan Huang, Yan Liu, Yan Lu, Qi Shen, Nan Wang, Wen Fei Wang, Jianxin Wang npc, Xiaojing Wang coach) 2. England (Sally Brock, Fiona Brown, Catherine Draper, Sandra Penfold, Nevena Senior, Nicola Smith, Derek Patterson npc, David Burn coach) 3. Sweden (Pia Andersson, Kathrine Bertheau, Ida Gronkvist, Emma Ovelius, Cecilia Rimstedt, Sandra Rimstedt, Kenneth Borin npc, Carina Wademark coach)

D’Orsi Trophy 1. USA2 (Michael Becker, David Berkowitz, Allan Graves, Neil Silverman, Alan Sontag, Jeff Wolfson, Steve Garner npc) 2. Italy (Andrea Buratti, Amedeo Comella, Giuseppe Failla, Aldo Mina, Ruggero Pulga, Stefano Sab- batini, Pierfrancesco Parolaro npc) 3. Sweden (Mats Axdorph, Christer Bjaring, Sven-Ake Bjerregard, Bengt-Erik Efraimsson, Anders Morath, Johnny Ostberg, Tommy Gullberg npc, Carina Wademark coach)

FunBridge World Transnational Open Teams 1. Mazurkiewicz (Piotr Gawrys, Krzysztof Jassem, Michal Klukowski, Marcin Mazurkiewicz) 2. Jinshuo (Tong Jiang, Chuancheng Ju, Jacek Kalita, Michal Nowosadzki, Zheng Jun Shi, Xiaofeng Zhang, Dade Wang npc ) 3. Percy (Peter Crouch, David Gold, , Marion Michielsen, Andrew Robson, Anita Sin- clair)

2 That was a great win in the d'Orsi Trophy senior event. Jeff Wolfson has poor eyesight, requiring dum- my's and the played cards to be stated. Neil Silverman won the Rosenblum Teams world title in 1986, but has only recently come out of retirement. And Becker-Graves was a new partnership. I will describe some deals later.

The United States had two entries in each of the three main events:

Bermuda Bowl USA1: Nick Nickell-Ralph Katz, Bobby Levin-Steve Weinstein, Jeff Meckstroth-Eric Rodwell, with Jill Levin npc and Eric Kokish coach USA2: Martin Fleisher-Chip Martel, Joe Grue-Brad Moss, Jacek "Pepsi" Pszczola-Michael Rosenberg, with Jan Martel npc

Venice Cup USA1: Joanne Weingold-Shannon Cappelletti, Jill Meyers-Migry Zur Campanile, Beth Palmer-Sylvia Shi, with Molly O'Neill npc and Dennis Clerkin coach USA2: Bronia Jenkins-Sheri Winestock, Bernace De Young- Irina Kislitsyna and Connie Goldberg- Sylvia Moss, with Gary Cohler npc and Fred Gitelman coach d'Orsi Trophy USA1: Mike Levine-Eddie Wold, Dennis Clerkin-Jerry Clerkin, Marc Jacobus-Mike Passell, with Bob Morris npc USA2: as above!

Each event featured a round robin that qualified eight teams for knockout matches. In the Venice Cup, neither American team made it, USA1 finishing ninth, 11.14 victory points behind eighth, and USA2 ending fifteenth. In the d'Orsi Trophy, USA2 won the round robin and USA1 came sixth. USA1 lost to Italy in the quarterfinals by 194 international match points to 188. You know what happened to USA2! In the Bermuda Bowl, USA1 qualified in third and USA2 fifth. USA1 also lost in the quarter- finals. With one 16-board session to go, USA1 led Bulgaria by 200 imps to 181. But Bulgaria tied the match on Board 91 and gained 13 unanswered points in the last five deals to win by 239 imps to 226.

The USA2 Bermuda Bowl team edged Sweden by 193 imps to 170 in the quarters, and defeated Bul- garia by 216 imps to 182 in the semis. The 128-board final was against France: Thomas Bessis- Frédéric Volcker, François Combescure-Jérôme Rombaut, Jean-Christophe Quantin-Cédric Lorenzini, with Lionel Sebbane npc. The match was close throughout, each team holding the lead a few times. With the final day's two sessions to be played, France led by 19 imps (205-186). Let's start with the instructive Board 97, even though the swing was small.

3 North Dlr: North ‰ J Vul: None Š A 9 5 2 ‹ K J 7 2 Œ Q 8 4 3 West East ‰ A ‰ 10 9 7 5 2 Š 7 4 3 Š Q 8 ‹ Q 8 6 4 ‹ A 10 5 Œ A J 10 9 6 Œ 7 5 2 South ‰ K Q 8 6 4 3 Š K J 10 6 ‹ 9 3 Œ K Open Room: West North East South Grue Bessis Moss Volcker Pass Pass 1‰ 2Œ Dble 3Œ 3Š Pass 4Š All Pass

Closed Room: West North East South Combescure Pszczola Rombaut Rosenberg Pass Pass 1‰ 2Œ Dble Pass 2Š Pass 3Œ Pass 3‰ Pass 3NT Pass 4Š Pass Pass Pass

In the Closed Room after the more-revealing auction, Combescure found an effective lead. Even though that saved declarer a guess in the suit, it helped to cut down South's ruffs. Eventually, Rosen- berg misguessed diamonds and went down two. He took two spades, three hearts, one club and one in each hand. Grue started with the less-effective spade ace. Then he shifted to a low diamond, which Volcker guessed correctly by playing dummy's jack. East took the trick and returned the diamond ten. Now declarer had a chance. He played a club to his king and West's ace, ruffed the diamond- queen return and led his spade king. Grue realized that declarer was trying to get some indication of the trump position, and if he ruffed this winner, it would have given the game away. Grue discarded a club. He then threw another club under the spade queen. Suitably fooled, South cashed his heart king and ran the heart jack to East's queen to go down one, losing a trick in each suit. That gave France 2 imps and more came on the next deal:

4 North Dlr: East ‰ Q J 10 9 7 4 3 2 Vul: N-S Š A ‹ A 4 Œ 10 2 West East ‰ K ‰ A 8 5 Š 9 8 3 2 Š K Q 10 7 6 4 ‹ J 8 7 6 ‹ K Œ K Q 6 5 Œ A 4 3 South ‰ 6 Š J 5 ‹ Q 10 9 5 3 2 Œ J 9 8 7 Open Room: West North East South Grue Bessis Moss Volcker 1Œ (a) 1‹ Dble (b) 4‰ Pass Pass Dble Pass Pass Pass (a) 16-plus points (b) Game-forcing, eight-plus points, usually no five-card suit

Closed Room: West North East South Combescure Pszczola Rombaut Rosenberg 1Š Pass 2NT (a) 4‰ 5Š All Pass (a) A game-invitational raise or exactly three-card support and a balanced 12-15 points

This deal exhibits a disadvantage of a strong-club system (which Grue-Moss use when nonvulnerable and in fourth position even when vulnerable) – Moss could not show his suit below the five-level, which he understandably thought was too high. Also, his opponents were vulnerable. Against four spades doubled, Moss led the diamond king: deuce, six, ace. Then, when North won and played the spade queen, East blew one trick by winning with his ace and crashing partner's king. Now East had to play a club to get his diamond ruff, but he led the heart queen, after which North claimed ten tricks: seven spades, one heart and two diamonds. It seems that Moss erred if his partner would have shown a five-card heart or club suit, not made a negative double. Then West was marked with 1=4=4=4 distribution and had to have a diamond higher than the six to make a suit-preference for hearts. (If the is clearly a singleton, third hand tries to indicate where his side-suit lies by making a suit-preference signal.) In the Closed Room, Rombaut took an each-way bet. Perhaps five hearts would have made, or it might have been a good save. Rosenberg led his singleton spade, and Pepsi played his queen as a suit-preference signal for diamonds. North won the second trick with his heart ace and led the spade jack, which South ruffed with his heart jack. Then a diamond to the ace defeated the contract. However, plus 790 and minus 50 gave France 12 imps on the board and the lead by 219-186.

To be continued

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