A Beijing EndPlay by Ana Roth

December 13, 2013

The 2013 World Mind Games are being played in Beijing, China, December 11 to 18. Four Open Teams and four Ladies Teams  are representing Bridge in this incredible event.

After the first day of the Teams tournament, Poland in the Open, was leading the field. On the first match of the second day  Poland faced the Monaco team.

MONACO: Fantoni Fulvio, Helgemo Geir, Heiness Tor, Multon Franck, Nunes Claudio, Zimermann Pierre

POLONIA: Balicki Cezary, Buras Krzysztof, Jassem Krzysztof, Mazurkiewicz Marcin, Narkiewicz Andrzej, Zmudzinski Adam

The match’s second board was the first two digits swing. Both teams reached the same contract and Nunes from Monaco was able to reveal his spectacular skills in the play of the card.

 At one of the tables were : Helness-Helgemo playing against Jassem-Mazurkiewicz.

 The E/W partnership at the end of the bidding reached the 4 contract with East as the declarer.

 One of the BBO commentators wrote: the contract seems plausible not gonna be easy though to make. Both red jacks are not where they are needed, and of course the trump queen does not drop. Another one said: need to apply the brakes below game.

 Lead: Q

 Declarer ducked the first club trick and won the second club round with the A.

 He played the A and K, as the Q didn’t appear he started to play the heart suit with the K, he continued with the Q and the 10, Helness covered with his J, the A and Helgemo pitched the 6, the heart wasn’t 3-3 and now the 9 in North was good.

 Declarer almost with little hope, decided to attack the diamond suit, playing the 2, South played the 8, Mazurkiewicz played the K, Helness won the trick with the A, continued with the Q and exit his hand with the K.

Mazurkiewicz ruffed in his hand and end played North with a heart, hoping to find there the J…he was one down.

At the other table Fantoni – Nunes also arrived to the 4 contract and Nunes in West became its declarer.

Buras also lead a club, the 8. Nunes ducked the lead and won with the A the trump return, to continue with the K. When he saw that the Q didn’t appear, he played the A and ruffed a club, eliminating the suit.

Now he started to play the heart, 2 to the K, continued with the Q and the 10 winning the trick with the A, when he saw South pitching a diamond, he ruffed his last heart, eliminating the suit.

This was the 4 card end position:

Now Nunes only had to play a trump to end play North, who at that point only had diamonds…Buras exit his hand with the 6, Nunes played the 10, South covered with his J and declarer won the trick with his K.

But the action was not finished yet …Nunes played the 5, Buras the3 and Nunes played the Q…to win a hand where everybody had agreed that there was no way to make. We were really lucky to witness it.

When you see these hands you cannot help to feel: how beautiful is bridge!

Esta entrada también está disponible en: Spanish