Buenos Aires, Saturday March 29th 2014
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Vanderbilt 2014:
This Saturday night, in the vu-graph of BBO, I was enjoying the third of the four sets of the Monaco-Lynch semifinal, they were playing the 33 to 48 boards. While I was commenting on the alternatives with Gonzalo Rubio a Bridge Master from Chile the board 43, appeared.
In the close room, for Monaco, in N/S were, Fantoni/Nunes and for Lynch: Bramley/Stansby (E/O):
4
by Bramley. The lead was a trump.
Declarer won the lead with dummy’s A and continued with a diamond to his 
K. Interestingly he made the trick!.
Claudio Nunes with A J x x hold up his A. Despite declarer had 10 tricks, he arrived to a dark area. Maybe if Nunes would have won the K with his A, declarer play would have been simplified.
In trick number 3, Bramley played the K both defenders played a spade, he ruffed a diamond and played the 
K, North covered with his A and declarer won the trick ruffing with his 7, he continued with his Q, eliminating the last defense trump.
So far the first 6 tricks were made by the declarer, the plan now was to lose only one diamond and two club tricks. This Plan as we will see, it was only a mirage. The Position was:
Bramley, continued with “his plan”, he played a club to dummy’s 
A (he cant lose a trick because of the diamond suit) and over the Q he pitched a diamond loser, 8 tricks now, but in reality this play only produces one trick and the loss of the trump control!. Here’s why:
Bramley left dummy playing a club, Fantoni won with his K and played his Q and another diamond, this forced declarer to ruff with his last trump and to lose the last two tricks for one down (Q y J) .
In the Open Room: Playing for Lynch were the WGM from Poland Balicki/Zmudzinski (N/S) and the WGM from Monaco Helgemo/Helness (E/O). They were playing the same contract.
Driving the coup was Helness Tor.
South led his 8 to North’s K, who continued with his 9. East played the 10 and South’s Q was covered with dummy’s A. Declarer played a small heart ruffed in his hand and continued with the 4 to dummy’s 8, losing what he always considered a loser.
South considered playing his J, but A 3 2 wasn’t attractive, so he played a small diamond, North won the trick with the 10 and switched to a trump. Tor checked his plan counting winners: ” I have three tricks, I need 7 more, ¿Where can I find them? Three trumps in m y hand, two clubs and a heart = six tricks, and a diamond ruff in dummy= 7.
Next step ¿What about the plan timing? because to do two club tricks I need to draw trumps twice”. Then is better to win in dummy!, so he won South’s J with the A. This was the position:
Now K, North played his A and he entered in an automatic ending, just as planned. East ruffed in his hand, played a diamond, ruffed in dummy, played the Q and a trump to his K Q, to end the hand winning two clubs.
A well thought and well executed plan, which added to the good defense deployed in the other room, was a perfect sample of how this game must be played, plus 10 IMPs for the team.
Muchas Gracias Maestros!