jan20

English 2020 ינואר 197 גיליון 55 The European Champions Cup took place in Bucharest in November. Four teams qualified for the knockout finals. The favorite team, Zimmermann (representing Monaco), won the preliminary stage convincingly, and had the privilege of picking their semifinal opponent. However, there are no guarantees in high- level bridge. The English champions just played better that day, and luck was on their side when it mattered, a few boards before the end. Dealer North. Vul All A8652 A KJT53 A3 Q94 7 K76 QT9543 Q8 964 KT965 J4 KJT3 J8 A72 Q872 At one table, Klukowski-Gawrys (representing Monaco's champions, the Zimmermann team) made a commendable decision to stop in 4♠ with two vital queens missing plus a club loser. The English pair (Gold-Bell) was more optimistic: West North East South 1♠ Pass 3♣ Pass 3 ♦ Pass 4♠ Pass 4NT Pass 5 ♥ Pass 6♠ All Pass A club lead could work well for Zimmermann- Multon, as the only way to make the contract after such a lead would be to guess the trump position correctly. However, Franck Multon chose an unfortunate diamond lead, saving declarer a guess in that suit and losing a vital tempo. Declarer David Gold took West's diamond queen with his king, cashed ♥ A and ♠AK, ruffed a heart and continued diamonds. It does not matter if West ruffs or not, he will be endplayed anyway in trumps. After winning his ♠Q, West was forced to underlead ♣K or give a ruff and discard in hearts. Making 6♠ consolidated the English Champions' lead and they eventually won 51:30. Their luck continued throughout the final match against the defending champions BCT Onstein 1. They seemed to be cruising in a low scoring match, and then everything changed in the last four boards, when the Dutchmen scored 42 unanswered IMPs to win yet another title. In the following deal, both South players declared 6NT. The Champions Cup // Ram Soffer