by Francesca Canali for BDI Online…leggi in Italiano
Exercises in style, by Raymond Queneau, is a book in which the author tells the same fact in ninety-nine different ways, so making a commendation about the variation of the point of view.
Wednesday March 6th, Montegrotto Festival, Mixed Pairs tournament. At about half of the first round of play, Massimo Ortensi gives the change. The players in East-West stretch their legs while the players in North-South stretch their arms; board 20 comes at table 6 with board 19.
The players surrounding it don’t know each other, except for one (which is known by everyone). From now on, anyway, they are going to smile and greet each other when they meet. They are Fulvio Fantoni, Iolanda Riolo, Elena Liverani and Gianluigi Meneghini. Four different players, four different points of view, which converge… when it’s already too late.
Fulvio Fantoni (West): I open 3
and North bids Double. Pass, 3
by South, Pass, and 4. Now, with her cards, my East should know that North will very probabily go down, because of the raise from 3 to 4. He should have Spades support and a strong hand, about 16-17 points. The sum of their points should be about 28 and plus as I opened 3 vulnerable I shouldn’t have less than 7 points. Then South must have maximum 3-4 points, and 4 should be unmakeable. Iolanda, anyway, doesn’t extract from the bidding box a good “they should go down 3 or 4 and we will earn 800 or 1100 points” double, but she extracts from the hat a bad “it’s better if we go down than if they go down” 5. The opponents double and then… The King of Clubs is well placed, the Queen of Diamonds is well placed and the contract is made. Moral of the story? There’s no reason versus good luck. Click here to continue reading