Bulletin

Bad news and good news (in English) author kaapo, 23.2.2010 at 21.33.
Summary: Lots of interesting boards in the match Jyväskylä - Bridgemagasiner

Many interesting boards were seen in the NFL group A match between the Finnish team Jyväskylä and the Norwegian Bridgemagasiner. Here are just two examples from the match:

       koistinen
3      ♠ K                  South West  North East
South  ♥ AK865              1♠    pass  2♦   dbl
EW     ♦ 982                3♥    pass  4♣   pass
       ♣ AKT7               4♦    pass  4NT  pass
BMBKno       primen         5♠    pass  5NT  6♥
♠ 54        ♠ Q9862
♥ JT97      ♥ 
♦ T4        ♦ KQJ653
♣ 96532     ♣ QJ
       arderi
       ♠ AJT73
       ♥ Q432
       ♦ A7
       ♣ 84

NS were Kauko Koistinen - Arttu Karhulahti. They play the Swedish system Magic Diamond, that utilizes strong 1♦, intermediate 1♣ and weak 1M, 1NT and 2m openings. Here, arderi opened a pretty normal 1♠, but in the system it was the absolute maximum hand for the bid that shows 8-11 HCPs and 4+♠, possibly with a longer minor. Koistinen's 2♦ was a transfer, showing 5+♥ with more or less any strength. Arderi showed maximum with good support by jumping to 3♥. After two cue bids, koistinen asked for aces - and then even made a move towards the grand. His partner was already known to hold two aces and ♥Q so he could only hold one more HCP. However, he's allowed to have more distribution, say a fifth heart, which would make the grand worth a try. Now they sensibly settled for 6.

Ten of diamonds was led to jack and ace. A spade to dummy's king followed and then the trump ace, which revealed the bad news about the 4-0 trump split. A good slam started to look very bad. Arderi continued with another ace, club ace, which brought some hope, as East followed with the jack. On the ♣K came the good news, as East had to part with the queen, making the ten and the slam good. Now arderi took ♣10 pitching a diamond, ruffed a diamond, took spade ace, pitching the last diamond, and played a heart which was ruffed with the 9 and K. Arderi was able to ruff the last club low, take ♥Q and then give one trump and take the last one. Other table stopped at 4♥ so this was 11 IMPs to Jyväskylä.

On board 8 both teams tried 6♦:

8      ♠ A
West   ♥ A6
None   ♦ KQ752
       ♣ AT874
♠ K98743     ♠ J52
♥ T873       ♥ 942
♦ 9          ♦ JT64
♣ 95         ♣ K63
       ♠ QT6
       ♥ KQJ5
       ♦ A83
       ♣ QJ2

With sure losers in both minors, 6♦ fails. This time 6♣ would be better, scoring 4♣, 4♥, 3♦ and ♠A for just made. 6♥ is the most interesting contract double dummy and in fact can be made!

Later in the match Jyväskylä won another slam swing together with other good boards and went on to win the match by 33 IMPs which converts to 23 - 7 in victory points.