Marc Smith visits the middle rounds of Heat 7 in the New Alt Competition

After four matches in this seventh heat of the regular monthly Alt competition, it was Sweden leading Turkey, with the most successful team thus far in Alt events lying in third place. Going into the last match of the first round robin, these were the standings in Group A:

FREDIN	52.54 VPs
SALVO	42.31
MOSS	37.74
LEBOWITZ	37.58
JEDI KNIGHTS	36.18
BLACK	33.65

Elsewhere, ULI (Austria/Italy) leads Group B ahead of MORAN (Ireland), whilst SELIGMAN (USA/Poland) heads HARRIS (England/Bulgaria) in Group C.

As usual, we begin with some problems. We shall discover later how your choices would have worked. We start with a lead problem. With only your side vulnerable, you are West holding:

What do you lead?

From the same hand, what do you lead against this auction?

Next, with neither side vulnerable, you hold as North:

What do you open?

While you consider those, we start with the action from Round 5, in which the top three teams were all playing opponents in the bottom half of the table. West players at a number of tables had to solve one of the opening lead problems presented above. Polish world champion Jacek Kalita earned his side a game swing with what can only be described as a truly inspired choice against JEDI KNIGHTS.

John Hurd simply raised Kevin Bathurst’s 2NT to game. A club lead would have enabled the defenders to take the first eleven tricks and collect an unusual +350, but Pat Shields was not clairvoyant. Holding a side-suit ace, he made the obvious opening of the ♠A. He then continued with the ♠Q, hoping that declarer could not cash eight winners in the red suits. Unsurprisingly, the same defence was found at all six tables at which this was the auction.

Bathurst won with the ♠K and, having little option, cashed two high hearts and a top diamond before crossing to dummy with the ♥J and running the ♦J. When the finesse won, declarer had nine tricks: N/S +400.

David Muller chose to start with Puppet Stayman on the North hand, raising to the major-suit game when Graham Orsmond showed a five-card heart suit. This opening lead problem is far less straightforward. If this was presented as a poll for an expert panel, I suspect there would be votes for both red suits plus, perhaps, some lone maverick arguing the case for the ♣A.

A trump lead legitimately holds declarer to eight tricks. A diamond, though, allows the contract through: even assuming that East does not contribute the ♦Q to trick one, declarer has little choice but to cash his high diamonds after two rounds of trumps, playing the hand with the doubleton diamond for only two trumps. That works on this layout and declarer emerges with ten tricks.

At our table, Jacek Kalita found a winning option that I suspect few would even have considered, the ♣5. Michal Nowosadzki won with the ♣J and quickly switched to a spade through declarer’s king. Kalita took his two tricks in that suit and cashed the ♣A for one down. N/S -50 and 10 IMPs to MOSS.

Later in the match came a curious deal. It is certainly unusual to come across a hand that you can not unreasonably open with either a pre-empt or with a strong, artificial 2♣, but the last of this week’s problem hands is just that.

Muller opened with his system strong bid, 2♣, in third seat, and Nowosadzki settled for just a two-level overcall in his long suit. There was no alert, so I cannot tell you whether Orsmond’s pass showed some values, although that would be a fairly standard method. Kalita raised to the three-level, Muller finally unveiled his major at the four-level, and Nowosadzki’s 4♠ bid took away South’s obvious slam try, leaving Orsmond with a choice of only 5♥ or 6♥. A singleton spade, three trumps and help in both minors facing a 2♣ opening: Orsmond decided it was enough and bid the slam. When the club finesse lost, declarer was one down: N/S -50.

At the other table, the American North was operating at the other end of the spectrum:

After two passes, John Hurd decided that his hand was a pre-empt. Needless to say, this led to a completely different auction. Dan MacIntosh entered with the obvious 4♠ overcall and Kevn Bathurst competed to the five-level on the South cards. The key decision then fell to MacIntosh and, when he backed in with a double at his second turn, the British pair was in trouble. With his balanced hand, Pat Shields knew that 5♠-X would be no cakewalk and, indeed, the defence can collect +500 from that contract. Shields elected to pass, perhaps more in hope than anticipation that his trump holding might be worth something. It wasn’t and declarer had a fairly comfortable ride to eleven tricks: N/S +750 and 13 IMPs to MOSS.

For the record, at the 17 tables at which N/S were not playing a Strong Club system, ten North players opened 1♥, four 4♥ and three 2♣. No doubt, we will see what the BBO Prime expert panel make of it sometime in the coming months.

MOSS won their match 61-14. With both FREDIN and SALVO winning too, though, the perennial champions remained in third place. However, they were now only a fraction of a VP behind the Turks.

The second round robin began with a head-to-head meeting of the leading two teams.

Eric Suicmez opened 1♠ for the Turks, and rebid his suit over Ozgur Goksel’s 2♥ response. What, though, should he then bid when his partner advances with 3♦? If North held three hearts, would he not have raised at his second turn rather than rebidding his spades? It seems that bidding 3♥ now would therefore show doubleton support. To me, that seems to be a better option, as partner can still wait with 3♠ if he does not have six hearts, allowing you to get to 3NT anyway when North holds a club stopper. Bidding 3NT as Suicmez did, though, is very likely end the auction.

Declarer had a straight 50-50 shot once West had led a club against 3NT. Goskel duly led a diamond to the king. When West won and continued clubs, declarer was out of chances. Goskel cashed his six heart tricks and the defenders claimed the rest: N/S -100.

Johan Sylvan first represented Sweden at the 1982 European Junior Championships. Since then, he has twice finished second in the European Championships as part of his country’s Open team. He was also a member of the Swedish team that lost to Poland in the final of the 2015 Bermuda Bowl in Chennai.

He opened the auction here with an intermediate 2♠ opening, showing a minimum opening bid with at least a six-card suit. Anders Morath transferred to hearts, and then raised to the suit game, against which Tuna Aluf led a club. Sylvan won in his hand and immediately played a diamond to the nine and jack. Declarer then won the trump return, unblocked the clubs, returned to dummy with a spade ruff, and ruffed dummy’s last club with his remaining trump. When a diamond to dummy’s ten fetched the ace from West, declarer had eleven tricks: N/S +650 and 13 IMPs to FREDIN.

Not that every declarer who reached 4♥ was successful. In the match between MOSS and LEBOWITZ, South declared 4♥ at both tables. Jacek Kalita brought home the contract by following a similar line to Sylvan. At the other table, Adam Grossack also won the club lead and played a diamond to the ten and jack. Here, though, West continued clubs, so Grossack crossed to hand with a spade ruff in order to ruff his remaining club. When he then drew trumps without playing a second round of diamonds from dummy, he was in trouble. Having forced himself once already, he could not now cope with the 4-1 trumps split. Forced to lead diamonds from his hand now, East won with the ♦Q and forced declarer’s last trump with the ♠A. When Sylvia Moss won trick twelve with the ♦A, she had a club winner to cash for one down: N/S -100 and 13 IMPs to MOSS.

FREDIN won the battle of the leaders 29-14 to retain their place at the top of the table. However, MOSS scored a 55-14 victory over LEBOWITZ to climb above the Turks into second place. The Americans now trailed the Swedes by just 4.5 VPs.

In Round 7, the match between LEBOWITZ and FREDIN was truly what soccer commentators would call (and you’ll have to imagine a Northern accent) ‘a game of two halves’. (Although they would probably say ‘halfs’.) After 10 deals, all was going according to form, with the leaders ahead 27-3. Over the remaining six boards, though, LEBOWITZ outscored their opponents 49-0! This was the final deal of the match, and rather summed up the opportunities missed by the Scandinavians.

There was some confusion in the unfamiliar Swedish partnership, which was apparently unprepared for such an eventuality as John Kranyak’s featherweight 1♥ overcall. It would appear from his raise to game that South expected a minimum opening bid opposite rather than a chunky 16-count. However, even with the heart finesse marked, the 5-1 spade break means that declarer legitimately has only eleven tricks. So, a ‘well-judged’ N/S +490 for the Swedes, perhaps?

LEBOWITZ’s Italian/Danish partnership was understandably more ambitious.

Dennis Bilde opened a 2+1♣, but showed his 4♦/5♣ shape when he reversed at his second turn. Augustin Madala used fourth-suit forcing to find out that his partner also held a heart stopper and then raised to the slam.

The opening spade lead went to king and ace and Fredin returned the ♣8. Bilde won and immediately tested Alon Apteker by leading the ♥J. When the South African did not cover with the ♥K, the last chance for the defence had been allowed to slip past. Declarer continued with a diamond to dummy and three high spades, throwing a heart and two clubs from his hand With the ♥A still in place as a key entry to dummy, the defenders were then caught in a non-simultaneous double squeeze: only East could guard hearts, only West guarded the threat from dummy’s long spade, so neither defender could keep clubs in the endgame. First, when declarer cashed his last diamond winner, Apteker was forced to reduce to the singleton ♣J in order to retain his heart guard. When declarer then crossed to that vital ♥A, Fredin was squeezed in the black suits. Nicely played: N/S +990 and 11 IMPs to LEBOWITZ.

With LEBOWITZ defeating the leaders by 25 IMPs, MOSS’s 32-17 win over BLACK was enough to carry them to the top of the table. With three matches remaining in this heat, these were the standings in Group A:

MOSS	88.79 VPs
FREDIN	83.39
SALVO	79.67
BLACK	64.73
LEBOWITZ	60.69
JEDI KNIGHTS	42.73

Elsewhere, MORAN (Ireland) has overtaken ULI (Austria/Italy) at the top of Group B, whilst SELIGMAN (USA/Poland) holds a huge lead ahead of second-placed RUSSIA in Group C.

Next week, we will return to see the best of the action from the final rounds of this heat.