A Slam by Decree in the DN1

January 24, 2014

The French DN1 Semifinals were played on January 24; 2014, this event is the equivalent of what in many countries is called the National Open Teams Championship. After the qualifying stages these were the 4 teams who managed to arrive to the semifinals:

1. Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Geir Helgemo, Tor Helness, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes
2. Franck Riehm, Julien Gaviard, Lionel Sebbane, Christophe Oursel, Godefroy de Tessières, Frédéric Volcker
3. Romain Zaleski, Michel et Thomas Bessis, Dominique Pilon, Philippe Cronier, Philippe Toffier
4. Bernard Doussot, Chau Pham Ngoc, Michel Lamongie, Yves Lormant, Fabien Lacroix, David Harari

The semifinals, 64 boards played in four segments of 16 boards each, faced:

Zimmermann vs Doussot y Riehm vs Zaleski

Finally Zaleski and Zimmermann are going to play the Finals.

 In the Riehm vs Zaleski Semifinal 4th segment, in one of the tables W/E were Michel Bessis- Thomas Bessis (father and son) for Zaleski and Frédéric Volcker-Lionel Sebbane for Riehm.

Board 13

Dealer North, All Vulnerable

The match was 121 a 72  for Zaleski, Michel Bessis in West, received:

— A K 10 9 8 4 3 A K 8 7 4 3

The bidding:

West		North		East		South
M. Bessis				T. Bessis
		Pass		Pass		1
2*		Pass		3NT		Pass
5		Pass		6		The End

* hearts and clubs

After two Pass, South opened 1 and Bessis father showed his two colored hand with hearts and clubs. Bessis Jr (a passed hand) showed his partner a game hand with: spade and diamond stoppers plus cards in his father’s suits.

Michel decree that that was enough to play slam and said 5, showing a spade void and asking Thomas to chose one of his suits as trump, or to bid 6NT, East decided to play 6…The 4 hands were:

Lead: A

After East’s 3NT and 6 bids, South decided to watch the dummy and lead the A. The K would have helped declarer to make 13 tricks.

After winning the first trick, South continued with his K. Thomas won with his A and played a small heart, when he saw South’s Q, he covered with dummy’s A and played a trump. After two rounds, he stayed with his J, and having seen North pitching a diamond, switched to a heart. The declarer knew that he needed two hearts in South to win his contract.

 When he played a heart and found the J in South he claimed 12 tricks.

 At the other table the bidding begun exactly the same but West was more cautious and only chose to play game.

West		North		East		South
		Pass		Pass		1
2*		Pass		3NT		Pass
4		The End

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