European Open Sanremo

Here, in Sanremo on the Italian Riviera, there is bridge to play. The European Open is in full swing – though it will be finishing on Saturday if you are reading this in the newspaper. The field is wide and varied, reflecting the make-up of 'new' Europe of the East. The Poles have been a force in world bridge for many year but they have now been joined by Latvians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Byelorussians and many more.

The events are transnational, allowing match-ups for partners and team-mates from different countries. That said, the British, actually an English and an Anglo-Scottish team, were joint bronze medal winners in the Mixed Teams, eventually won by Rossen Gunev, Dessy Popova, Rune Hauge, Gunn Vist, Erik Saelensminde & Anna Malinowski from Norway and Bulgaria (Gunev and Popova) .

Our team, featuring ex-Suffolk players (for those with long memories) Mike Ash and Stuart McPhee, started badly but by the fifth and last match of the group stage had hauled ourselves back into reckoning. Unfortunately we were up against a dynamic team from the Netherlands. This early board was significant:

Game All
Dealer South
  • A1092
  • AQ4
  • 98
  • KJ42
  • K8765
  • K62
  • K6
  • AQ9
N
W
E
S
  • QJ4
  • 987
  • A3
  • 108653
  • 3
  • J1053
  • QJ107542
  • 7

South passed and West opened a strong no-trump. North passed, East passed and, rather surprisingly, South did too. North unerringly found his partner's suit when he started a passive defence with the diamond nine. Declarer won the king and played spades, North taking an honour with the ace to clear diamonds. In dummy for the last time, West tried a club finesse, queen, king.

Mike Ash now found an exit with the heart queen, won by West who cashed winners and tried another club. But North had found a route into the South hand and the defenders took the rest of the tricks – down one and +100 to us.

That's not a bad result; if declarer gets everything right, he can make eight tricks. However, in the other room, the defence was pretty much card-for-card the same. Another hard-earned flat board? No, not quite:

West
North
East
South
Gobert
NL
Chambers
NL
—
—
—
3
3NT
X
End

Here those defensive tricks were worth considerably more. In fact, declarer didn't have the perspicacity to cash all his winners and was down four, -1100 and our chances of reaching the 'A' qualification group were effectively over.

You can follow news and results at http://www.eurobridge.org/competitions/09Sanremo/sanremo.htm with results and bulletins. There is online play via BBO.

Published Saturday 27.Jun.2009