Alt Invitational VI Daily Bulletin 5
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ALT VI • BULLETIN 5 • Saturday June 13 2020 • editor: Christina Lund Madsen [email protected] Early Blasst swept the Streets For those of us who were dreaming about an after dinner drink watching the end of an exciting final of the Alt VI, the last two segments were a bit of an anti-climax compared to the first, where Blass completely annihilated Street. Despite an admirable fighting spirit over the next 2 x 12 boards, Street could only decorate the result. Our End of Season-event, the Major Alt, begins in little more than a week. The field is stunning; the best comparison is the top-32 at the summer Spingold. We reveal some PRE-BULLETIN of the teams inTHE this bulletin ALT and on facebook duringMonday, May 11, next 2020 week. editor: Christina Lund Madsen On Bridgeresults.org you will soon find the [email protected] roster. Don't miss the online INVITATIONAL logistics: Rosalind Hengeveld bridge event of theMAY summer! 11-15, 2020 big data: Joyce Tito online bridge events organized by bid72, bridge24 & netbridge.online Final MajorTHE Alt June ALT 22-26 INVITATIONAL 1 2 3 Tot All players should enter BBO 10 MAY 11-15, 2020 minutes before their match starts at Blass 62 5 10 77 the latest.online Tournament bridge events organized director by bid72, Denis bridge24 & netbridge.online Street 1 30 25 56 Dobrin is waiting for you and will instruct you where to sit. sign up for the newsletter - 1 - Major Alt Intro by Christina Lund Madsen When the Alt organisers decided to host a Team Rombaut Major Alt to end the Corona-spring online Lionel Sebbane bridge season, there was a discussion Paul Seguineau about the number of teams. Baptiste Combescure François Combescure Would it really be possible to find 32 teams Michel Bessis living up to the standards pursued by the Bernard Cabanes Alt with ethical world class players who Léo Rombaut wanted to participate in an online event? Jérôme Rombaut The interest has been overwhelming, This all-French team does not only consist and the field resembles day two of the of several European and World champions, Spingold. Our insatiable thirst for top but also of two father-son combinations bridge brings us all together in the Major (they could have had three, but after so Alt. many years playing with Thomas, Michel Bessis needed to rest his ears). We reveal the teams little by little during next week till we have the complete Baptiste Combescure, 23 years old, is the rosters, which as well as the results can be son of François Combescure. He plays found on bridgeresults.org. with his father, European and vice-world champion. Baptiste used to be the son of For the curious we present a few of the François, but as with so many other fa- teams here. Follow our Facebook page Alt mous father-son constellations, François is Invitational for more revelations during slowly becoming the father of Baptiste. next week. Cute as Baptiste and François are, Leo and Nickell Jerome Rombaut are melting our hearts. Eric Rodwell Only 16 years old, Leo will play against all Jeff Meckstroth the stars in the world with his father in Steve Weinstein the Major Alt. Bobby Levin Geoff Hampson A team with bridge across generations. Eric Greco Nick Nickell Netherland Open Ralph Katz Maarten Schollaardt Merijn Groenenboom The mighty Nickell team makes their Danny Molenaar debut in the Alt with the American Dream Tim Verbeek Team. Joris van Lankveld - 2 - Leo and Jerome Rombaut Berend van den Bos The last two teams we reveal in this round Bart Nab are our finalists in the Alt VI. Josef Blass Bob Drijver (Jacek Pszczola, Josef Blass, Jacek Kalita, Guy Mendes de Leon Michal Nowosadzki, Johan Upmark, Thibo Sprinkhuizen Fredrik Nyström) and Paul Street (Nicolas L’Ecuyer, Paul Street, Ron Pachtman, Piotr It is tempting to make a joke such as "How Zatorski, Fred Pollack, Kamel Fergani), by many Dutch guys does it take to screw in a now the backbone of the Alt Tournaments, light bulb?" but this is a very serious tour- will of course compete with their teams in nament. unchanged line-ups. Despite having some of the old ones like The format for the Major Alt is swiss fol- Verhees-van Prooijen and Muller-de Wijs lowed by quarter-, semi- and finals. rented out to other teams, the Dutch are fortunate to have so many established and We welcome all players and cannot wait to rising stars in their pipeline. see what magic you will create. Despite the event being transnational, we have several other national teams like Israel, Argentina, Hungary, Ireland and Denmark. - 3 - “You have to play it well to go down” By Martin Cantor To my mind this was the most interesting Now take a look at the other room. deal of the first segment. WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Board 10. E / All Pszczola L'Ecuyer Blass Street ♠ AJT842 — — Pass 1♦ ♥ T64 Pass 1♠ Pass 3♣ ♦ Q53 Pass 3♦ Pass 3♥ ♣ 8 Pass 3♠ Pass 4♦ ♠ K7653 N ♠ Q9 Pass 6♦ All Pass ♥ 8752 W E ♥ KJ9 ♦ T7 S ♦ J92 ♣ 72 ♣ QJT63 ♠ — This is a good auction, although it leads ♥ AQ3 to a much more ambitious contract, and a challenging one. Unless you get a lot of ♦ AK864 help, such as a spade honour led from KQx, ♣ AK954 you are going to have to set up your clubs. WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH If diamonds are 3-2 and clubs 4-3 you will Fergani Nowasadski Pollack Kalita be OK, though a trump lead makes the timing more delicate. — — Pass 1♦ Pass 1♠ Pass 3♣ However, you get a heart lead to the king Pass 3♠ Pass 3NT and your ace, so now you plan the play for All Pass if one minor does not behave. Your plan still focuses on clubs. You play the ace, and ruff a small one. So far so good, and that is With diamonds 3-2 you have nine top exactly how Paul Street played it. At this tricks. If the heart king is onside you have point I would have cashed the spade ace to ten tricks, or only nine if diamonds are discard a heart, but that can wait, and Paul 4-1. If West leads a heart it doesn’t matter simply came back to hand with the ♥Q, where the king is. pursuing the plan to ruff the clubs good. West did indeed lead a heart, declarer This was the position when he led the next tested diamonds and claimed ten tricks small club: +630. Not much interest there. - 4 - After three second places Nicolas L'Ecuyer and Paul Street are still in pursuit of their first Alt victory. Photo: Jonathan Steinberg Then you can either ruff your heart and ♠ AJT842 discard the losing club on the spade, or you ♥ T can draw West’s second trump and ruff ♦ Q5 the clubs good, discarding the heart on the ♣ - spade. ♠ K7653 N ♠ Q9 ♥ 85 W E ♥ J Decision time. What do you know about ♦ T7 S ♦ J92 the EW hands? Nothing from the bidding, ♣ - ♣ QJT except that East didn’t have a pre-emptive ♠ — opening, nor West a pre-emptive overcall, ♥ 3 such as KQ sixth in spades. ♦ AK864 ♣ K95 From the lead it looks like hearts are 4-3, with West perhaps a little more likely to have four. From the play you know clubs Pepsi ruffed with the ♦7 and declarer are 2-5. You apply the theory of vacant was at the crossroads. If West started spaces which tells you that West has 7 or with three diamonds the winning line 8 cards outside of clubs and hearts, while is to over-ruff, discard your heart on the East has 4 or 5. And that tells you that the spade ace, ruff back to hand and lead ano- odds strongly favour West having three ther club. West can ruff that higher than diamonds. dummy, but that is the only trick for the You play accordingly, over-ruffing, and go defence. BUT if East is the one with three down. Unlucky. Or, as Mark Horton mes- diamonds the winning line is to discard saged me, “you have to play it well to go dummy’s heart instead of over-ruffing. down”. - 5 - Minor Variations By Mark Horton The au pair put some very good cham- South put up a sneaky queen, declarer pagne in the fridge and was keen that it taking five tricks in the suit before trying should be opened in good time, which in his luck with a club finesse, two down, Shrewsbury is considered to be 18.00. That -100. meant I couldn't afford to wait too long before finding one or two deals to write Closed Room about. Luckily the latest ALT final got off to an WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH explosive start: Pszczola L'Ecuyer Blass Street — 2♦* Pass 2♠* Board 1. Dealer North. None Vul. 3♦ Pass 3NT Pass ♠ A J 9 8 4 3 4♣ Pass 5♣ All Pass ♥ 9 8 4 ♦ 9 8 6 ♣ 6 West picked a great moment to take a ♠ 7 6 ♠ K 2 second bid. ♥ A ♥ Q 7 3 2 ♦ A K 5 4 3 ♦ J 7 2 North led a heart and declarer won, ran ♣ Q 9 7 3 2 ♣ A J 10 4 the ♣9, played a club to the ace and then ♠ Q 10 5 played on diamonds for an easy 11 tricks ♥ K J 10 6 5 and the same number of IMPs.