2014 White House Junior: 3rd Set SF Norway-Denmark

Thursday, April 3 2014

At the end of the RR of the 22nd edition of the White House Juniors Internationals in the Netherlands, these were the 4 teams that qualified for the semifinals: (White House Juniors 2014 Swiss All Results)

In the semifinals (3 sets of 14 boards each) Norway defeated Denmark (99-97) and Germany defeated Israel (112-84). Here are some of the boards from the Norway- Denmark, third set.

Norway: Kristoffer Hegge – Christian Bakke; Harald Eide – Kristian B. Ellingse; NPC: Lars Eide

Denmark: Majka Bilde – Peter Jepsen; Signe Buus Thomsen – Emil Buus Thomsen; Dennis Bilde – Rasmus Jepsen.

 At the beginning of the third set Denmark was 1 IMP ahead.

Board 30

 After two Pass, Jepsen (DEN) opened 1, Dennis (DEN) 2 showed game interest with spade support. Jepsen closed the 4 game. Eide (NOR) led a club, Elligson (NOR) won the lead with the A and returned the 10 to his partner’s A. A diamond return, was ruffed by South, who switched to a club. Declarer won the trick, draw trumps but he had to give a heart for one down.

 At the other table the Norwegian player in West also played 4, but he received a heart lead. South won the first trick with his A, and switched to a small club. Now declarer was able to win the trick with his K, he draw trumps ending in dummy and pitched his club loser in a heart, he made 11 tricks and scored 11 IMPs for his team.

Board 34

Bakke opened with a 1 bid (strong) and Hegge answered 1 (transfer, showing hearts). The 1 rebid, denied three heart cards (normally natural, showing spades). Hegge was excited and replied 4 showing a club void with spades. Some cue-bids followed, 4NT was BW and the pair landed comfortably in the spade slam.

The spade lead, helped declarer to locate the trump queen, winning the first trick with his J. Bakke continued with a heart to the A, he ruffed a heart in his hand, he continued ruffing a club in dummy, another heart ruffed showed the suit was 3-3. Declarer continued playing the K, when the Q appeared he played hearts, and when the 9 won the trick, he claimed 12 tricks.

At the other table, Dennis Bilde also opened 1. His partner showed his heart suit with a 1 bid, Dennis showed his strong hand with 2, but when his partner rebid was 2 … he passed … 13 IMPs for Norway.

Board 35

N/S quickly reached 4 and declarer received the 8 lead.

South played low from dummy, Bakke (NOR) played the 10 and declarer won the first trick with the J. Thomsen(DEN), played a club to the A and left dummy playing the 10. Hegge (NOR) won the trick with his J and returned a club. Declarer after winning with his K, ruffed his Q in dummy, but was over-ruffed with East’s A.

Bakke left his hand with a diamond and Hegge ruffed with his Q declarer’s A, but he was lost. A club return allowed declarer to ruff in the table and pitch a losing spade from his hand and the play of a spade from his Kxxx, achieved the same result. 10 tricks for declarer.

At the other table Jepsen led the J, Elligsen(NOR) won in his hand with the K, to continue with A and 7. Jepsen in West won the trick with his K and returned his 8. When everybody played small, declarer’s J won the trick. He continued with a club to the A and a heart to East’s J.

Jepsen left his hand with a small club, declarer ruffed in dummy, but Bilde overruffed with his A, to return a diamond. When his partner ruffed declarer’s A…the contract was one down.

Board 38

After three pass, North opened 2 FG. South’s 2 was waiting, North showed his club suit, South gave a heart option. But North continued showing clubs till the partnership arrived to the club slam. East’s A helped declarer to arrive to his twelfth trick.

At the other table: Eide also opened 2, but this time South answered positively with a 2 bid, showing one or two top honors in the suit.

 This excited North, his heart doubleton, was in some way protected by his partner, so he continued asking keycards. Obviously his partner answered keycards in hearts, showing one keycard. When Eide realized that they had only 4 keycards he closed the 6 slam.

 But his partner, who was still thinking that hearts were trump, believed that he was invited to play a heart Grand Slam and accepted with a 7 bid. 

 When the tray was back Eide must have realized about the misunderstanding and corrected to 7NT. Bilde doubled, and declarer was 1 down on a A lead. The board gave 14 IMPs to Denmark. In the Board 41 (missing only 1 board to play) the match was: Denmark 97- Norway 88. But in Board 41 a Denmark defense mistake, let Norway make a 3NT game, and as Denmark in the other room was down in a club partscore, the board resulted in 11 imps and the semifinal for Norway.