Sunday June 15, 2014
This saturday ended the 2014 Polish Premier League with the victory of the Ruch AZS Pwr team: Włodzimierz Starkowski, Michał Klukowski, Stanisław Gołębiowski (Captain), Piotr Gawryś, Cezary Balicki, and Adam Żmudziński.
In a final where the teams played 6 sets of 12 boards each, the Champion defeated the KONKRET Chełmno team: Krzysztof Jassem, Jacek Gackowski, Jacek Kalita, Marcin Mazurkiewicz (Captain), Michał Nowosadzki, Adam Wujków, Jarosław Śmieszek, Mariusz Arutiunianc.
Third was Bridge24: Krzysztof Buras, Jacek Pszczoła, Grzegorz Narkiewicz (kapitan), Norberto Bocchi, Giorgio Duboin, Michał Kwiecień
The last results were:
| table | c-over | seg.1 | seg.2 | Σafter 2 | seg.3 | Σafter 3 | seg.4 | Σafter 4 | seg.5 | Σafter 5 | seg.6 | Σafter 6 | seg.7 | Σafter 7 | seg.8 | ± | imps | ||
| FINAL | |||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | KONKRET RUCH AZS |
+9.6 |
53 23 |
8 28 |
70.6 51 |
32 21 |
102.6 72 |
12 18 |
114.6 90 |
5 55 |
119.6 145 |
26 42 |
145.6 187 |
5 27 |
150.6 214 |
26 23 |
176.6 237 |
||
| play-off (only segments 2,3,6,7) | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | BRIDGE24.PL RAL Poznań |
+4.8 |
 |
27 31 |
31.8 31 |
16 5 |
47.8 36 |
|
|
25 13 |
72.8 49 |
2 15 |
74.8 64 |
|
74.8 64 |
||||
Path of Glory
Before sitting down to play the last set of the semifinal, Pwr AZS Ruch, the 2014 champion team, faced Bridge24 and was 48 IMPs down. In the last 12 boards the champion added 62 IMPs to reach the final, it was amazing to watch two Grand Slams swings of 16 and 17 IMPs, that defined much of the fate of that Semifinal.
Board 17
North opened with 1
(strong or clubs) and South showed his heart suit. Starkowski, redeclared his spades, showing the strong hand. When South showed a his clubs, the partnership added their keycards and landed in the club grand slam.
Pepsi led his 
Q. The declarer won with the A and played the K. After confirming that trumps weren’t 4-0, he begun to play hearts: 
Q to the A, and ruffed a heart. A club to the J and another heart ruff. A spade to the 
A, and another heart ruffed with the Q, watching the last opps heart over the table: the K.
Declarer only had to ruff a spade and play the A to claim 13 tricks. At the other table N/S also arrived to the club grand slam, but the declarer after winning the heart lead with the A, played two trump rounds and couldnt make his contract. The board was 16 IMPs for the 2014 champion.
Board 22
After East’s 1 opening bid, Gawrys showed hearts. Later in the bidding West informed his partner he had 5 hearts. After confirming all the keycards they arrived to the heart grand slam.
Bocchi led a trump, declarer won the lead, and played another trump round, when he saw both opps playing a heart, he continued playing the A and ruffed a diamond. He returned to his hand with a small spade, played another trump round and claimed 13 tricks.
At the other table a bidding misunderstanding stopped E/W in 4NT…the hand was another 17 IMPs for the champion.
Above are the 12 boards of the set: