Daily Bulletin Editor: Mark Horton / Co-Ordinator : Jean-Paul Meyer / Journalists: David Bird, John Carruthers, Jos Jacob,b, Fernando Lema, Brent Manley, Micke Melander, Barry Rigal, Ram Soffer, Ron Tacchi / Lay-out Editor : Francescacesc Canali Photographer : Arianna Testa TUESDAY, JUNE 20 2017 CLOSE ECOUNTERS OF THE BRIDGE KIND ISSUE No 11 CLICK TO NAVIGATE Era vs Shokolata p. 2 The Miser p. 6 Many A Slip? p. 7 A view of the Bridge p. 7 Appearances can be Deceptive p. 8 Vinci vs Era p. 11 Pszczola vs Vinci p. 14 BAM Teams II Winners Pick a Suit! p. 16 Alexei Sterkin, Simon De Wijs, Georgi Matushko, Yuri Khiuppenen, Bauke Muller, Jouri Khokhlov Battle of Champions p. 18 After a day which featured a host of matches which were in the balance until the A Unique Defense p. 21 very end we know who will contest the finals of the Women's and Senior Teams at La Pagina Italiana p. 22 the European Open Championships. Butler p. 23 Denmark Red, by virtue of a stirring comeback in their quarter-final followed by a comfortable win in the semis will meet the holders, Baker who defeated Dutch Results p. 26 Women in a hard fought semi-final. Brackets p. 27 In the Senior Teams Wolfson and Kaminski survived by narrow margins and all eyes will be on the legendary Benito Garozzo in today's final. The Open Teams has reached the semifinal stage and a number of favoured teams TODAY'S SCHEDULE have fallen by the wayside, including Vinci and Lavazza. Era and China Open went into sudden death overtime before China Open advanced after a sensational deal O/W/S Pairs Qualifying (1/2) 10.30 - 12.50 Session 1 where they missed an almost lay down game that declarer somehow failed to make 12.50 - 14.00 Lunch break 14.00 - 16:20 Session 2 in the other room. 16.40 - 19:00 Session 3 O/W/S Teams Knockout Women & Seniors Teams Prize Giving 10.30 - 12.30 O - SF, W/S - F 12.45 - 14.45 O - SF, W/S - F Today Tuesday 20th June 14.45 - 15.45 Lunch break 15.45 - 17.45 O - SF, W/S - F 18.00 - 20.00 O - SF, W/S - F at 20:30 Tortona (AL) - 0131.813636 8TH EUROPEAN OPEN BRIDGE CHAMPIONSHIPS Montecatini, Italy ERA vs SHOKOLATA Ram Soffer Open Teams Qualification - Round 8 With three matches to go, all the teams on BBO were clear favourites to make the cut and continue to the knockouts. In this match, the biggest board appeared at the very start, and it set the tone for the rest of the match. Board 11. Dealer South. Vul None. [ 7 ] Q 8 6 2 { J 7 5 2 } J 8 5 4 [ 10 9 4 2 [ Q 8 3 Andrei Gromov ] 9 5 3 ] J TEAM ERA { 8 4 { 10 9 6 3 excessively pessimistic, giving up on the grand slam } A 7 6 3 } K Q 10 9 2 and just signing off at 6]. [ A K J 6 5 This auction looks highly problematic. First of all, 2] ] A K 10 7 4 is usually defined as 0-3 HCP – North had 4 HCP. Of { A K Q course opinions vary on the appropriate range here. } — Secondly, South didn’t need very much for a grand slam and there was unexploited room for cuebidding over 4]. West North East South Roll ruffed the }K lead, ruffed out the [Q and Zatorski Roll Pachtmann Levin easily made 13 tricks, +1010. — — — 2} Pass 2] Pass 2[ West North East South Pass 2NT Pass 3] Lengy Gromov Bareket Dubinin Pass 4] Pass 6] — — — 1} All Pass Pass 1{ 1NT Dble 2} Pass Pass 4} The Israeli North-South pair used a 2] response Dble 4] Pass 5} to indicate an extremely weak hand opposite the Pass 6] Pass 7] strong 2} opening. This led to the weak hand All Pass being declarer, but more importantly it made Levin At the other table the 1} opening was strong and 1{ showed 0-7 HCP. East interfered with 1NT for the minors. Dubinin used the club bid by his opponent to cuebid at the four-level (showing a very strong hand with club shortness) instead of simply bidding his suits. The 4} cuebid was very useful, as up to that point the auction had not been game-forcing. Dubinin cuebid again at the five-level, showing an even stronger hand, definitely with a club void, and he was encouraged by his partner’s free bid of 4], followed by acceptance of the slam try 6]. For this bidding, North should have good heart support plus some help outside clubs. This was enough for South Yossi Roll to bid the grand slam. Making 13 tricks was easy, and TEAM SHOKOLATA Era jumped to a 11-0 lead. 2 GO TO PAGE: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 100 11 122 13 1144 15 1166 17 118 19 220 21 222 BUTTLLEER RREESSUULTTS BBRRAACCKKEETTSS 8TH EUROPEAN OPEN BRIDGE CHAMPIONSHIPS Montecatini, Italy There followed two laydown games for East-West, strength. Pachtmann gave it a try, bidding 3[ which bid and played similarly at both tables with no swings. asked his partner to bid 3NT with a heart stopper. The fourth board of the set was more interesting, Amir Levin read this bidding well, and rather than a and once more fortune favoured the brave. spade which would have helped declarer considerably he started with ]J. In case North has a doubleton Board 14. Dealer East. Vul None. heart honor and the spade ace, declarer should duck [ Q 7 5 3 in dummy, but Pachtmann considered this scenario ] K 6 5 4 unlikely and covered with ]Q. He was right, as the { 8 suit had suddenly become blocked! } K 7 6 2 Perhaps Roll should have switched to spades after [ 9 6 4 [ K J winning his ]K, hoping to induce a misguess. After ] Q 9 8 ] 7 3 2 the heart continuation, everything became clear for { A K 10 7 4 3 { Q J 9 5 declarer. South won ]A 10 but was unable to cash a } 4 } A Q 8 3 fourth trick. Thus the only chance for declarer was to [ A 10 8 2 finesse clubs and play for [A in South and [Q with ] A J 10 North. This is what Pachtmann did, +400 and the { 6 2 lead was doubled to 22-0. } J 10 9 5 This lead grew further when some poor bidding from Roll-Levin resulted in a 2] contract played in a West North East South 4-2 fit, producing three vulnerable undertricks while Zatorski Roll Pachtmann Levin Gromov-Dubinin were content to play in their eight- — — 1} Pass card diamond fit and score +90. 1[ Pass 1NT Pass Shokolata scored their first IMPs on board 16, 3{ Pass 3[ Pass but not very convincingly. Zatorski-Pachtmann bid 3NT All Pass a vulnerable game which required trumps to be 3-2 (some 4-1 distributions could be handled as well), but West North East South they were 4-1 offside and Bareket-Lengy gained 6 Lengy Gromov Bareket Dubinin IMPs for bidding one trick less. — — 1} Pass 1[ Pass 1NT Pass 2} Pass 2{ Pass Pass Dbl 3{ 3[ All Pass Both East-West pairs were using a natural system with Transfer Walsh over the 1} opening (so that 1[ shows diamonds and denies 4-card majors), and then two-way Checkback over the 1NT rebid (2{ artificial game force, 2} forces partner to bid 2{ - either to play or to start an invitational sequence). The difference was in West’s second bid. Lengy used the signoff route with a maximum hand for this sequence. This prompted the Russian pair to interfere. Given that West had announced weakness, North had a clear reopening double. Bareket supported his partner, but Dubinin had enough to bid 3[. The defence was mildly embarrassing, as Lengy led his club singleton but Bareket couldn’t read it and never continued clubs after winning the }Q. Thus at least one defensive trick was lost, and then a diamond ruff-and-sluff spared declarer the heart guess, +140. At the other table, Zatorski rebid 3{ - a mild game Ilan Bareket invitation based on a long suit rather than high card TEAM SHOKOLATA GO TO PAGE: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 100 11 122 13 1144 15 3 1166 17 118 19 220 21 222 BUTTLLEER RREESSUULTTS BBRRAACCKKEETTSS 8TH EUROPEAN OPEN BRIDGE CHAMPIONSHIPS Montecatini, Italy There followed an interesting partscore deal: Board 17. Dealer North. Vul None. [ A J 4 ] A K 9 8 { A Q J 8 } 7 2 [ Q 3 2 [ K 10 7 5 ] 7 6 4 ] Q 10 5 2 { 9 4 3 2 { K 10 } A J 10 } K Q 8 [ 9 8 6 ] J 3 { 7 6 5 } 9 6 5 4 3 West North East South Zatorski Roll Pachtmann Levin Alexaner Dubinin — 1{ Dble Pass TEAM ERA 1] 1NT 2] All Pass Instead, Levin passively continued clubs, handing We have already seen that Pachtmann is never declarer a vital tempo. Zatorski won again in hand afraid to bid up. In this case North promised 18-19 and played a spade to the ten, which held. He was HCP while his partner promised nothing, but he still not yet home, as there was no obvious way to come supported with four cards. back to hand to lead a diamond up.