Italy; 2016 Open and Ladies Teams Championships
Salsomaggiore 22 – 25 Abril 2016
Last Open Results Last Ladies Results
April 23, 2016
According to top New York literary agent Noah Lukeman (The Plot Thickens), if a writer can maintain suspense throughout the story, many readers will keep reading even if the characters are undeveloped and the plot is weak. Clearly, suspense is a vital tool…
Can a bridge hand pull you to the edge of your seat, made your breathing a bit shallow, made you nervous, sucked you in and hooked you…? Those moments can appear in any good hand, at various points. Sometimes it is the bidding or the opening lead. Sometimes it is in the mid-hand and, obviously, it can come at the hand ‘s climax. But what about a bridge hand that can make you live four of this moments?.
The last two years, the Lavazza team (María Teresa Lavazza, Alejandro Bianchedi, Norberto Bocchi, Massimiliano Franco, Giorgio Duboin, Agustín Madala, Gabriele Zanasi) managed to win the gold in the Open Series.
This year, the Lavazza team has changed some of its players, as usual the participation of it’s historical players: Norberto Bocchi, Giorgio Duboin and Agustín Madala, with the argentine player Alejandro Bianchedi and the two most recent acquisitions: Dennis Bilde and Diego Brenner, from Denmak and Brazil respectively.
Despite the partnerships changes, Lavazza team showed all its potential when the team won the prestigious 2016 Vanderbilt Cup in Nevada (USA), one of the most important tournaments in the world (where Zia Mahmood replaced Dennis Bilde).
However, the Salsomaggiore field has equally illustrious opponents. Mainly the Angelini team, winner of the 2015 Silver Medal, with Lorenzo Lauria, Antonio Sementa, Alfredo Versace, Leonardo Cima, Valerio Júbilo and Mustafa Cem Tokay, from Turkey, now playing stable in Italy. The Vinci team, with Fabricio Hugony- Vinci Francesco, the participation of Bessis x 2, a father and son partnership, recognized worldwide as one of the best in the world; the team is completed with: Buratti-Comella.
In the second round of this 2016 Italian National Open Teams Championship, Lavazza clashed with Vinci, at the end of the 32 boards, Lavazza had won by 70-44. These were the partnerships, that played this match:
When board 31 get the table the match was defined for Lavazza (60-34 … zero risk). In this board an incredible defense by Bilde-Duboin and an excellent auction by Madala- Bianchedi sealed the 2015 Champion victory. This hapened in the BBO VG…
Board 31; Dealer: South. N/S Vulnerable
Bianchedi in second position, opened 1
and Madala started showing his hearts (transfer). Comella showed his spades and Bianchedi with a minimum without heart support chose to pass. Madala reopened with double, Bianchedi said 1NT and Madala jumped to 3
(forcing game). Bianchedi took the opportunity to show his heart Hx, and Augustin closed the heart game. Declarer scored + 420, only losing two diamonds and a diamond ruff.
At the other table Bessis x 2 chose to play 3NT.
1st suspense, all the kibitzers could see that any lead other than a spade gave time to declarer to develop the diamond suit and make his contract. After a while Duboin led the: 
2.
Bessis asked his son to play a small spade from dummy, Bilde won the first trick with his 10 and returned the 7. Declarer, covered South’s J with the king and began to develop the diamond suit, playing the 7 to Q, Duboin won the K …and enter the tank. The kibitzers could see that he no longer had entry to his hand, so to continue with spades had no future, diamond was declarer’s source of tricks and a heart return helped declarer to make his contract.
2nd suspense, when the kibitzers were at the edge of their seat…after a nervous moment Duboin led the 4. Bilde won the trick with the K, watching declarer play the J and now it was his turn to enter the tank…
Again we, the kibitzers, could see that a diamond or club return gave the contract…
3rd suspense, at this moment most of us were hooked…we had only to wait near a minute to see Bilde return a heart…East played the 
9, Duboin his J and dummy’s Q won the trick. Declarer at this point had serious communication problems between the hands, and was unable to use his A and K, so he left dummy playing a small diamond. And Besis rentered the tank …
4th suspense, all of us could see that if he played the A he was endplayed, any return allows the declarer to make his contract, Dennis again demonstrated his ability, playing low. Now was Bessis who was endplayed when he won the trick with his 10 and went one down …
An excelent defense to seal an incredible match. In the last hand Vinci team added 10 IMPs but Lavazza added a new well-deserved victory and we the kibitzers were very grateful for the opportunity to see a hand that Hitchcock would have really enjoyed.