Official Site: USBF
April 14th 2015
The 2015 Women’s USBC will select the USA teams for the 2015 Venice Cup, to be held in Chennai, India, Sept. 26-October 10, 2015.
The semifinals were played on Tuesday 14 April, 64 boards Knockout, Goldberg played vs Moss and Baker vs Narasimhan.
BBO broadcasted the first set of the Goldberg vs Moss match and the last three sets of the Baker vs Narasimhan match.
Finally Narasimhan will play against Goldberg the USA1 final.
Under Pressure
«The Five-Level Belongs to the Opponents» was a BOLS Bridge Tip written by the late American expert Ed Manfield. But sometimes the 5-level, can be very profitable. This was what happened in two different semifinal boards:
Moss-Goldberg Semifinal , 1st Set Board 12
4 are cold in E/W. After two Pass Sprung opened with 1, Moss doubled, Goldberg got Glasson under pressure, with his 4, North accepted the challenge and said 5. And now East had a tough decision…finally Sprung said 5, she chose well 5 were cold.
At the other table Palmer opened 2 = both majors, 4+/5+, with 0 to 10 HCP…that shut N/S mouth forever…E/W system worked really fine in this board, they were able to play at the 4 level and score +420…a 11 IMPs swing for Moss team.
Baker vs NarasimhanSemifinal, 3rd Set Board 16
Sanborn opened with 1, and her partner answered 3NT, showing a indeterminate splinter, accepting spades as trumps. Meyers doubled, Sanborn decided to pass…Migry declared the diamond game and now Irina was under pressure…double or play. She chose 5 always down. 5 was only one down, 4 were cold.
At the other table with the same sequence North chose to pass over 4 and was a -12 IMps decision.