Marc Smith visits the final stages of Alt Board-a-Match Invitational II

Fourteen teams lined up at the start of Alt B-a-M Invitational II. After a three-day round robin, eight survived to contest the knockout stage. The quarter-finals saw the departure of the round robin winners, SELIGMAN, and another of the pre-tournament favourites, GUPTA. HUANG (USA, China) made it through on the very last deal to face RIPPEY (USA, Canada, Poland), whilst DONNER (USA, Sweden) take on QUARANTEAM (USA, Denmark, Israel). Both DONNER and RIPPEY start their matches with a 0.1-VP carry-forward advantage earned by virtue of finishing higher than their opponent in the round robin.

As usual, we begin with some problems for you to consider. We will find out later how your choices would have fared. Firstly, with just your side vulnerable, you are South holding:

What action do you take?

Next, again with just your side vulnerable, you are North with this collection:

What action, if any, do you take?

Whilst you consider those, we join the action on the very first deal of the semi-finals. This board was not a problem at three of the four tables, where North passed and East opened with a weak two in spades by some route or another. In all three cases, West essentially Blackwooded the partnership to slam. At the fourth table, though, it was North who opened with a weak two bid:

The Israelis get to game before Jill Meyers even has her first chance to bid. Joe Grue knows his hand is much better than it might be to bid 4♠ in this auction, but can he underwrite the five-level? Surely not, when partner may have stretched to come into the auction under pressure. Back to Meyers again: can she be sure that the five-level will be safe? Would partner not pull the double to 4♠ here with something like 10xxxx/xx/x/xxxxx?

Perhaps West is the closest to bidding more, but give credit to North’s opening weak two (what I have called routine for 20 years and is now becoming much more common in the expert community). The Israelis made life much more difficult at this table than it was for the other East/West pairs. E/W +480 and the point on the board goes to QUARANTEAM.

The opening set was not the most interesting of the week and both matches were still close at halftime. DONNER won 4.5-3.5 to lead QUARANTEAM 4.6-3.5, whilst HUANG won by the same score to lead RIPPEY 4.5-3.6.

Sacrifices at the five-level are always hard to judge. When you are at adverse vulnerability, they are doubly so. South at all four tables was faced with some variation of this week’s first problem hand.

For the Polish, Piotr Wiankowski tried to get his hearts into the auction via a takeout double of North’s pre-emptive 3♠. This gave Xin Li the chance to bid 4♠ and, perhaps therefore, involve his partner in the decision-making process. Ming Sheng’s double of West’s 4NT takeout bid (presumably showing a second suit, clubs here) was self-alerted as undiscussed. What is the inference, though? Does the double suggest some defensive values and thus deter partner from saving, or does it show a hand that is interested in partner bidding on? It is certainly possible to play it either way round but, if undiscussed, should double not be taken as a warning to partner? Of course, North’s double would have effectively committed South to bidding 5♠ had East passed (since even 6NT cannot be beaten if declarer gets both minors right). Li chose to bid five-over-five and Piotr Nawrocki was happy to defend. Declarer got the hearts right, but that was still four losers: E/W +500.

Now representing Switzerland, Michal Klukowski won one European and two World titles as a junior playing for his native Poland, not to mention winning the 2015 Bermuda Bowl whilst still a junior. We are pleased to say that Michal is also a regular member of the BBO Prime Bidding Panel.

At this table, Baron Chi-Cheung agreed diamonds immediately with a splinter bid. Facing a pre-emptive raise, though, Klukowski correctly respected the vulnerability and allowed West to play his non-vulnerable game unmolested. E/W +400 and the point on the deal to RIPPEY.

QUARANTEAM turned their match against DONNER around, winning the second half 5-2 and thus advancing to the final with a 9-7.1 victory. The other match was even closer. Having lost the first half 4.5-3.5, RIPPEY won the second stanza by the same margin. They therefore eliminated HUANG by virtue of their carry-forward advantage, 8.1-8.

The 24-board final would be QUARANTEAM (USA, Denmark, Israel) against RIPPEY (USA, Canada, Poland), with the latter again holding the advantage of a 0.1-VP carry-forward. This early deal produced some good scoring at both tables:

Ami Zamir was a regular member of the Israeli junior teams between 2012 and 2019. He has twice finished in the top ten in the Under-26 Pairs at the World Youth Championships (in 2017 and 2019). He won a silver medal in the Schools Teams and a bronze in the Youngsters Teams at the European Youth Championships in 2012 and 2013.

The Israelis quickly identified their 4-3 spade fit and North’s second double showed extra values. What, though, is South supposed to do with this information? It was not alerted, but I would guess Asaf Yekutieli’s 4♥ bid is some sort of ‘choice-of-games’ cue-bid, suggesting only four spades and a longer minor (as South surely does not have the values for it to be a slam try). Ami Zamir was not prepared to venture to the five-level, so he settled for game in the Moysian fit.

Piotr Wiankowski found a good lead, the ♦7. This set up a ruff for the defence, which would leave declarer needing to guess the clubs to bring home his game. Zamir won in hand and played a spade to the queen and king, and West returned the ♣7. Again, declarer won and played a trump towards dummy. Wiankowski rose with the ♠ K and delivered his partner’s diamond ruff, but now Nawrocki continued with the ♣6. Deciding that the queen was offside, Zamir rose with the ♣K and was soon claiming his contract. Would declarer have guessed right if West had led the ♣10 on the second round? Perhaps, but we will never know: N/S +620 was surely an excellent result for the Israelis.

Canada’s Paul Thurston reached the semi-finals of the Transnational Teams at the 1997 World Championships – just a couple of years after the Israelis at the other table were born. Here, he was faced with the second of this week’s bidding problems. Letting the opponents play in 3♥ would have produced a plus score, but nothing compared with the +620 scored by the Israeli N/S at the other table. Thurston also might have doubled, which would perhaps have gotten his side to 5♦ – again, even with no spade ruff available to the defence, and if declarer guesses the clubs, would still produce only +600 and a losing board.

Taking the bull by the horns, Thurston bravely took a shot at 3NT, and East’s double must have created some anxious moments until dummy appeared with a smattering of honour cards. Thurston won the heart lead, cashed the ♣A, and then set about the diamonds, Christian Lahrmann’s discard of the ♣7 and ♣10 on the second and third round of diamonds ensured that the Canadian would have no further problems and he was soon claiming eleven tricks. N/S +1150 and the point on the board to RIPPEY.

QUARANTEAM edged the first half 6.5-5.5 to lead 6.5-5.6 at the midway point of the final. There was plenty of drama still to come, though. With eight of the twelve boards played, RIPPEY led 3-2 in the set and thus 10.6-10.5 in the match. Then came:

Piotr Wiankowski opened a Polish Club (natural, weak balanced, or any 16+), and by the time he got a second chance to bid, the Israelis were in game. He passed, presumably showing one of the weak options, and Piotr Nawrocki could do little other than double and hope his partner’s opening was not the natural club variety. I understand the advantages of incorporating a Strong Club and various weak openings together, in an attempt to prevent pre-emption every time you have the good hand, but more and more pairs these days seem to be using a 1♣ opening to include all weak balanced hands, including those with even five diamonds. With the ♥K onside for East/West, 5♦ was an easy make on this deal, but it becomes very hard to bid if no one is going to actually bid the suit. The Poles collected all five of the defensive tricks to which they were entitled, but that was still only E/W +300 and another excellent result for the young Israeli pair.

Finn Kolesnik was able to open a natural 1♦ and, again, South intervened with a pre-emptive 3♠ overcall. It looks fairly clear for West to agree diamonds and show a spade control with a 4♠ bid which would, presumably, have led to a final contract of 5♦. However, for some reason I cannot fathom, Christian Lahrmann chose to start with a negative double. North raised to the spade game and, when that came back to him, Lahrmann bid game in diamonds.

All would probably have been well in an IMP game but, at B-a-M scoring, Kolesnik did not think he could afford to play 5♦ for +600 when his side had a 4-4 heart fit. Would the opponents at the other table not be making the same eleven tricks in hearts? Hence his 5♥ bid.

Now the focus was on Lahrmann – having put his partnership in this predicament, could he now extract them from it? Passing 5♥ was the winning decision, as that is the absolute par contgract at B-a-M, with eleven tricks making played from the East seat. When he corrected to 6♦, though, the partnership had gone overboard. Klukowski led the ♠A and the ace of trumps was still to come: E/W -100 and the point on the board goes to RIPPEY.

It was now advantage RIPPEY by 11.1-10 with three deals left. However, the Great Dealer was not even nearly over with the excitement in this match. QUARENTEAM came right back and won both of the next two deals, so it was they who went into the final deal with their noses ahead 12-11.1. RIPPEY needed to win the final board. For QUARANTEAM, a push was good enough to win the title. Sometimes, forgetting your system can end up producing a ‘happy accident’…

In third seat at favourable vulnerability, I would expect a reasonably large proportion of experts to take some sort of action on this East hand. Of course, no red-blooded junior would dare to be seen in public again if he passed, so Finn Kolesnik tried the effect of a 1♥ opening. Indeed, he was perhaps a little unlucky to find Michal Klukowski with not far off the ideal shape for a takeout double. Christian Lahrmann advanced with 1NT, and then belatedly remembered that he was playing transfers, so he alerted it as showing clubs but told the opponents that he had forgotten. Kamil Nowak showed his limited values with a free bid of 2♠ and Kolesnik brazenly competed the partscore, despite the somewhat limited nature of his opening bid.

Despite the vulnerability, Klukowski knew that his opponents were quite likely to be at the three-level with no fit, so he decided that the time had come to start doubling. When Lahrmann ‘ran’ (staggered, perhaps is a more apt adjective) to 3♥, Nowak probably thought Christmas had arrived early, and produced another red card. Kolesnik had nowhere to go, so there matters rested.

That dummy held as many as three hearts was probably a disappointment to the defenders, but it had little else to worry them. Indeed, an 800 penalty was available, which would surely win the board. Klukowski started with three top clubs (Nowak pitching both of his diamonds) and continued with a fourth club, dummy shedding a diamond and North ruffing. Finding himself endplayed and perhaps wishing that he had retained a diamond, Nowak defended strongly, keeping hopes of four down alive by exiting with a trump into the king-jack tenace. Declarer won in dummy with the ♥7 and led a diamond, rising with the ace when North pitched a spade. When Kolesnik then led his spade, though, a defensive chink appeared as Klukowski, understandably (but incorrectly), split his honours. This gave declarer a chance to leave South, who had no trump to play, on lead, but Kolesnik rose with dummy’s king anyway.

We had reached the crossroads: here was the toughest defensive play to find – to collect the maximum, North must continue with a second round of hearts, holding declarer to just four trump tricks and the ♦A. When Nowak exited with a spade, the defence could no longer prevent declarer scoring a crucial sixth trick. Kolesnik ruffed low in his hand and exited with a diamond. Klukowski tried the effect of playing low, forcing his partner to ruff, but it was too late. Declarer was now bound to score a fifth trump trick: E/W -500.

The Poles had missed a tough chance to ensure victory for their team, so now it was down to the young Israelis, who had been outstanding in getting their team this far. Could they bid and make their vulnerable game to win the board, the match and the event?

With East passing in third seat here, the Israelis had the auction to themselves. South opened and then showed his extra values via a reverse. North’s 2♥ was then artificial, denying game-forcing values despite his partner’s extras. When Yekutieli signed off in 2♠, though, Zamir made one more game try, but Yekutieli decided he had already done enough. Despite the 4-1 trump break, declarer can always make ten tricks with both the ♠K and the ♦A onside. Yekutieli made three clubs, two diamonds, four trumps in dummy and a heart ruff: N/S +170 and the decisive point goes to RIPPEY.

RIPPEY wins the second stanza, reversing the 6.5-5.5 score-line of the first half. They win the final and the title by a score of 12.1-12. Let no one say that B-a-M events are any less exciting than IMP matches. We had last-board deciders in the quarter-final and the final, with RIPPEY securing victory by the carry-forward advantage after a tied match in both the semi-final and final. Congratulations to Mike Rippey, Keith Balcombe, Paul Thurston, Michal Klukowski, Kamil Nowak, Piotr Wiankowski and Piotr Nawrocki.

We will be back next week with the best of the action from the early rounds of heat four of the monthly Alt New-Co.