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English 55 Horror Corner (8) – European Championship Ram Soffer Up to now this column has mainly featured hands from the distant past. This time I decided to focus on the very recent past, namely the European Team championship which took place in Ostend (Belgium) in June 2018. With thirty-three rounds being played, each of them including eight BBO tables, there were plenty of horror stories and disasters to choose from. I selected the following two deals: Board 29. Dealer North, Vul All ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 963 AQT32 K2 J87 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ K2 KJ98764 T43 4 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ AT854 - AQJ986 32 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ QJ7 5 75 AKQT965 Round 12 was not the most dramatic. The previous twelve deals (out of 16) had not induced many big swings, but this one was like a bomb waiting to explode. North was not strong enough to open 1 ♥ , so he was highly likely to become a defender in a heart contract played by West. At many tables East opened one diamond, South overcalled two clubs and then three or four hearts by West concluded the auction. However, by not accepting his partner’s heart contract, East could do extremely well in a diamond contract. In addition, ambitious players at the North seat had a fair chance to make a no-trump game… We shall follow the Poland-Germany match: Open Room West North East South Welland Jagniewski Auken Gawel Pass 1 ♦ * 2♣ 2 ♦ ** Pass Pass 3♣ 3 ♦ 3NT 4 ♦ Pass Pass 4NT All Pass * natural and unbalanced ** transfer to hearts Sabine Auken, one of the great all-time women players, is nowadays playing for the German Open team. From her point of view, this was a hand to forget. First of all, she decided to Pass her partner’s transfer bid of two diamonds. Indeed, 2 ♦ was quite a safe contract, but usually those transfer bids are unlimited in strength. Moreover, she had quite a good hand (with a 6-5 shape one is not supposed to count high-card points) . Refusing to bid 2 ♥ did not necessarily mean Pass ing. She could bid three diamonds, or even better two spades, describing her shape. In his next bid, partner had voluntarily shown diamond support. Still, this did not convince Sabine to try out five diamonds, even as a competitive measure against North’s 4NT, which was clearly based on club length plus a guarded diamond king.