Dubious Logic

Bermuda Bowl: Italy rout USA 1

The world championships are rising to a crescendo. The semi-finals are currently in progress. In the Bermuda Bowl, Poland take on USA 2 while Italy face Norway. Both matches are close but we haven't reached the half-way mark yet. In the women's competition, the Venice Cup, France seem to be in control of their match against USA 2 and Germany against Austria is nip and tuck. I regret to say the English women lost to USA 2 in the quarters.

Reaching this stage hasn't been easy of course. Teams play in zonal tournaments – the one that affects England is the European Championships – and qualify from that. Once they reached Paris there was an all-play-all of eighteen teams that when complete left eight teams to go into the quarter-finals. Bridge has a neat way of rewarding those teams that do well in the early stages: the team that finishes first chooses its opponent from those in places five through eight and after them, the second placed team have their pick. It was 'one of those things' that left two of the favourites, USA 1 and Italy placed four and five respectively. I don't think any team would have chosen the Italians even had they scraped in but the pairing meant one of the most fancied teams would be out.

After sixty four deals, two thirds of the match, a single IMP separated the teams. Thereafter the Italians won the next set of sixteen by 57-0 and the final stanza, 67-9 to complete one of the most surprising routs in bridge history. Whether the 'team of destiny' label settles upon them we will see (the final finishes this Saturday so you might choose to see how prophetic these words are). One of the extraordinary aspect of the Italy – USA 1 match was the predominance of swing in the play (as opposed to the bidding) and especially on the opening lead:

The auction was the same in both rooms. Lorenzo Lauria for Italy avoided the spade lead – he started a diamond, East could find no more than eight tricks. Soloway for the United States led the spade seven and that was nine tricks for the Europeans. How do you get these things right? Why did South choose a diamond rather than the heart knave when he decided against a spade? With no raise from North the defender's spades figured to be 6-2 and the double followed by the confident leap to three no-trump made it likely that the remainder were 4-1. On this lie, without an entry, there was no real chance of getting the suit going. Is that enough not to lead your best suit? I don't know but if I see him, I might just ask him.

Catch up with the results (and the last of the final if you're up early enough) from http://www.bridge.gr

Published Saturday 3.Nov.2001