1 de Febrero 2015
Reykjavik Bridge Festival 2015
This year the 2015 Reykjavik Bridge Festival was played from January 29th to February 1st at the Icelandair Hotels Reykjavik Natura.
The festival opened on January 28th with «The Star Wars» teams tournament, with a field of 20 teams. The event was won by the ASTRO team (ÓLAFSSON Kristinn, Baldursson Jón, EYDE Mads, BILDE Dennis). The second tournament was a Pairs event, from 29th to 31th January, with a field of 148 pairs from around the world, that was won by a pair from Germany Michael Gromoeller – Martin Rehder.
After the pairs event, the festival continued with an Open Teams Tournament, played from January 29th to February 1st. The field was composed of 90 teams. At the end of the second and last day, the winner was the Janet de Botton team (DE BOTTON Janet, MALINOWSKI Artur, HOFTANISKA Thor Erik, CHARLESEN Thomas), second Denmark and third Gronaldo.
In an article we posted two days ago, Eric Kokish (Redemption Song) wrote: Adversity lurks at every turn. Even an optimist like you knows that there are deals that go badly from the start and get progressively worse….in this case we should change the word deal with the word match to describe what happened…to Gronaldo team playing against De Botton in Round 7:
After both teams scored the same in the first board, De Botton in the next board won his first 12 IMps when they played and made 3NT, in the other table the Gronaldo team played 5 clubs, and went one down.
Board 3:
After South pass, Malinowski opened the hand with a 4
bid and he hit the jack pot.
Lead: 
3
Declarer ruffed the lead in his hand, played a trump to the K, winning the trick, returned playing a trump to his 10, North covered with his A. Kasimir played the 
A and continued with the Q, after a encouraging sign by his partner. South played his K, but Malinowski ruffed.
The Q removed the last trump in the opponents hands. Declarer left his hand playing a small to the 
A and continued with another heart, when South played a small heart, he stopped to make his maths…
North’s small diamond lead marked South with the diamond ace, he showed the Q in the first trick and afterwards he played the K, 9 HCP, if he also had the K he would have opened…so he played the 10 and was rewarded when North won the trick with his K…10 tricks for declarer…
At the other table E/W played 6, no line…11 IMPs for De Botton.
Board 7
After two pass, North opened 1, his partner showed no spade support and a minimum hand with a 1NT response and the partnership finally landed in 3NT.
The J lead, helped declarer to find the heart suit position, so he made 9 easy tricks: 1 spade, 4 hearts, 1 diamond and three clubs.
At the other table N/S chose to play 4. Declarer won the K lead with his A, to continue playing a trump to the A and the K.
De Botton ruffed, won next trick with her Q and declarer couldnt make his contract…
Another 12 IMPs for the future champions. 
Board 9
De Botton opened 1, South showed his heart suit and Malinowski doubled to show his spades. Finally N/S played 2…
Lead: Q
West won the first trick, and returned a club, South won the trick with his A, covering East’s Q. The declarer continued with the K, a to the A, and J pitching a diamond from his hand. In the next trick De Botton ruffed with the 8 the Q and South over ruffed with the 10.
Jokish continued playing a club, East won the trick with his K, played the A and continued with the K. South ruffed with the 6, and West overruffed with the Q and left his hand playing a club, his last three cards were A J 4…
West made two more tricks for one down.
Photo: De botton team
At the other table GROMOELLER Michael-REHDER Martin knowing the match was horrible for them, decided to play 4 doubled, two down = -500… 11 IMPs for De Botton, that not only had managed to reach the first position, they also had good results the next three rounds and finished the event as the champion of the 2015 Reykjiavik Open teams tournament.
Were they able to see the Northern Lights?