Bulletin 2 DAILY BULLETIN Tuesday, 20 March 2001 Editor: Jean Paul Meyer – Co-editors: Mark Horton, Franco Broccoli, Jos Jacobs, Micke Melander, Alberto Benetti, Gianluca Frola – Layout Editor: Stelios Hatzidakis – Photo Services: Ron Tacchi – Printing: Franco Crosta The Long and Winding Road Yesterday the con- testants embarked on the serious business of trying to win a Euro- pean title as the Cham- pionships got away to a smooth start with pow- erful fields competing in both the Open and Se- nior events. After two sessions in the Open Champi- onship it is the young pair from the Nether- lands, Simon De Wijs and Bas Drijver who head the field, ahead of England's David Burn and Nick Sandqvist. Third place is occupied by a pair from Denmark, Stig Todays Programme Werdelin and Allan Cohen. They escaped our gaze, but we have ten pairs in the top twenty-five and are 10:00 Open Qualifying 3rd Session confident all our runners will survive the first hurdle. 16:00 Open Qualifying 4th Session In the Senior event the lead is held by England's Mau- Senior Qualifying 2nd Session reen Dennison and Morris Leighton. They are fol- 21:30 Bridge for All Tournament lowed by Sweden's Bengt Bergsten and Yngve Nils- son and Ivan Bonev and Christo Drumev of Bulgaria. 11th EUROPEAN OPEN PAIRS BRIDGE CHAMPIONSHIPS Sorrento, Italy A Message to Players of the Blue Club By Benito Garozzo Another legendary member of the Blue Team is now winning Championships on the other side of the Atlantic. Back in 1971 he contributed this amusing story to Bridge Magazine. uring my stay in would like to congratulate DLondon in January I the readers of my books have been asked by sev- who spotted these omis- eral students of the Blue sions. Club to explain the dif- In general I would like to ferences between the say that before a Blue Club two books about the player may expect to system, which were pub- achieve good results, he lished in Britain. must be prepared to go I would like to ex- through some disasters. I plain that the book I am reminded particularly wrote in conjunction about the time when play- with Yallouze, who intro- ing with Mike Ledeen in duced into the book the Fall Nationals at Pitts- certain gadgets which he burgh, we used for the first used in play with his for- time our version of the mer partner, Claude Blue Club Two Diamond Delmouly. For example, opening. Playing in front of there are the Texas Benito Garozzo and Antonio Sementa a large assembly of specta- overcalls against the tors against opponents opening bid of one no-trump by opponents, the two-suited over- who were somewhat bemused we proudly produced this bidding calls invented by Pierre Ghestem, etc. which will blend very nice- triumph: ly with Blue Club bidding methods, but are not used by me. Another criticism that was made is that both books appear to 2{ Q.What is this? be incomplete in that certain explanations are missing. For example A. Partner has 17-24 points, 4-4-4-1 distribution. in the book written in conjunction with Pietro Forquet in the chap- R. Oh, very interesting? ter on slam bidding. 2] Q.What is this? North South A. Relay bid asking for more information. 1} 2[ Q.What is this? A. Partner's hand is in the 17-20 points region and the sin- 1{ 3{ gleton is in a major suit. etc. R.Why, this is great fun! The book states that this Three Diamond bid shows a club- 2NT Q.What is this? diamond two-suiter with 3½-4½ losers. A. Further relay, asking exact range and which singleton. I must admit that when this book came to be written there were R. Oh, really? over 50 pages of additional material written by me that were not 3] Q.What is this? included in the book.The reason is that it was thought to be too A. Partner has a singleton spade and 19-20 points. complicated and involved for the average reader, and this partic- R.This is excellent! ular sequence is one that was explained in these 50 pages. I 3[ Q.What is this? A. Further relay, asking how many controls. R. Oh brother, this is incredible. 4} Q.What is this? A. Partner has five controls. 4[ Q.What is this? A. Relay asking how many queens I have got. R.This is sensational! 5{ Q.What is this? A. Partner has two queens. R.This is absolutely fantastic! 6{ Q.What is this? A. Final contract. R.Tremendous! We played in Six Diamonds, holding {Kxxx in dummy oppo- site {Qxxx in declarer's hand and the opponent on declarer's right held {AJ109x in trumps but did not double us. In spite of this the convention proved to be very successful subsequently. 2 19th - 24th March 2001 11th EUROPEAN OPEN PAIRS BRIDGE CHAMPIONSHIPS Agreeing for Youth EBL President Gianarrigo Rona and his counterpart of the Polish Bridge Union (PBU) Radoslaw Kielbasinski spare no effort to support the young players.Yesterday, they signed the agreement that makes Poland the host country of the 4th World Junior Pairs Championship and 4th World Junior Camp.The WBF has delegated the organization of these events to the EBL. The 4th World Junior Pairs Championship will be held, on 6-8 July 2001, in Stargard, a Polish town near the German border,some 170km North-East of Berlin. It comprises four sessions, played over a weekend, and it is open to Junior players (born in 1976 or later) from all over the world.Transnational combinations are allowed. The 4th World Junior Camp will follow immediately afterwards, 9-16 July, in Insko, a picturesque holiday resort on the shores of a lake, some 40km east of Stargard.The Camp is a unique event in that it addresses players of all levels. Bridge here is not a qual- ification, but an umbrella under which young people unite in international friendship. Detailed information on the 2001 World Junior events can be found on the Internet at: http://www.bridge.gr/tourn/Stargard.01/Pairs.htm and http://www.bridge.gr/tourn/Stargard.01/Camp.htm. Bridge is not the only Answer Patrick Jourdain reports on some hot news from the game show that has taken the world by storm. Mike Pomfrey, the former England international bridge-player won £500,000 (U.S. $750,000) on the British television show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" Pomfrey, a bridge teacher, was in the bridge team that reached the quarterfinals of the Gold Cup last year in Britain. Partnering Dave Huggett he represented England in Camrose matches of 1976, 1981 and 1982, and was non-playing captain four times. The £250,000 question was: "What is the symbol on the national flag of India: (a) bird; (b) wheel; (c) star; (d) mountain?" Pomfrey thought he knew the answer, but first used up his 50-50 option to reduce the answers to two, then used up his "phone a friend" option, ringing his ex-wife, Georgie. She gave immediate confirmation of the answer Pomfrey had suspected, which he played successfully. The £500,000 question was: "The capybara is the largest member of which animal species: (a) rodents; (b) marsupials; (c) car- nivores; (d) primates?" Pomfrey knew the answer at once. The £1,000,000 question was: "Tomas Masaryk was the first President of which country: (a) Czechoslovakia; (b) Poland; (c) Hungary; (d) Yugoslavia?" Pomfrey was not prepared to lose £468,000 on his feeling it was Poland, so took the £500,000. Answers:The 50-50 option about the symbol on the flag of India reduced the possibilities to wheel or star. Both Pomfrey and his ex-wife correctly decided "wheel". The capybara is a giant rodent. Masaryk was the first President of Czechoslovakia, so Pomfrey was right not to gamble on Poland. In subsequent interviews, Pomfrey revealed that he had earned only £2000 in the previous year and had made more than 100 phone calls in an attempt to get onto the show. 3 11th EUROPEAN OPEN PAIRS BRIDGE CHAMPIONSHIPS Sorrento, Italy More bits & pieces from the first qualifying session n interesting guess was on for the East players on board 7. When West opens 1] and East responds 2}, South has the AWhat would you bid after: 1{-Double-3{? chance to venture an overcall. If he shows his distribution, de- clarer will probably take the club finesse and chalk up a useful Board 7. Dealer South.All Vul. overtrick. [ 10 7 What do you think of 4[ on a club lead on board 10? ]8 Board 10. Dealer East.All Vul. { Q 9 6 4 2 } J 9 6 5 2 [7 5 ] Q 10 9 7 [ Q 9 8 6 5N [ A K 4 3 ] K J 9 6 ] Q 10 5 4 2 { 10 7 2 W E { {J 7 5 } A K J 6 } K Q 7 4S } 10 [ 4 3N [ A K 10 9 8 2 ] A 8 6 3 2 ] K J 5 [J 2 W E ] A 7 3 { 5 4 { A Q J S { A K 10 8 3 } 10 7 4 3 } 9 } A 8 3 [ Q J 6 ]4 If you opt for the normal enough 4{, you might end up in 4[ { K 9 8 6 3 if partner does not bid his suits up the line but prefers the five- card suit. If he does so, he will be punished severely, because 4] } Q 8 5 2 makes with an easy overtrick but 4[ goes down.