The Spingold 2013 final faced two teams: Bridge 24 (an incredible team of only 4 players from Poland: Jacek Kalita, Michael Nowosadski, Rafal Jagniewski and Wojciech Gawel) and the Grue team with exquisite players from USA, Canada, France and Sweden: Joe Grue, Les Amoils, Brad Moss, Thomas Bessis, Peter Bertheau and Jacob Morgan. In the first 16 boards set when the match was Bridge 24 11 – Grue 0, appeared this board over the table, Click Here to read what happened in Board 3.
Board 5: Two boards after, E/W arrived to a 3NT game. Grue lead the 10, Nowosadzki played dummy’s Q and Moss won the trick with his A to return the 4. West ducked and North won with his J and played back his 9…now declarer won in his hand, but when he lost the spade finesse in South, he could play two clubs and a heart return for two down.
The outcome could have been very differente if declarer would have won the second club, because the club suit would have remained blocked leting declarer make his contract.
At the other table: Amoils-Morgan found the nice diamond fit and ended playing a diamond game . Declarer only lose the A and the A to score +400 and 11 IMPs for Grue team.
It did not take a single board for Bridge 24 to recover 9 IMPs:
After a 1 opening bid, and after learn that his partner had a balanced inviting hand Kalita chose to play a NT partscore.
Nowosadazki received the 5 lead…and ducked to win the diamond return with the A, to continue letting run the 10, when he won the trick continued with a to the J and A.
He left his hand playing the 7 to the J…trick…played the K and claimed 8 tricks.
At the other table Grue team arrived to a 3NT game: North here chose to lead his fourth best spade and dummy’s J won the first trick. Declarer continued with the 2 and South won with his K to return the 9, West played the Q, and the K won the trick, to play the 5 to declarer’s A, who continued with the J to the A and another . South won with his Q, won next trick with the K and played another , declarer won with the A. But when declarer lose the heart finesse in South, he made his Q and returned a diamond…his partner make the last two tricks: 10 andQ…for three down and 9 IMPs for Bridge 24.
Grue team added 10 IMPs more in two boards, but Bridge 24 achieved to add 11 IMPs twice in boards 14 y 15.
Board 14: Kalita-Nowosadazki stopped before slam and made 11 tricks, at the other table Morgan-Amoils didnt find the way to stop…11 IMPs for bridge 24.
Board 15 after Moss’s 3 preemptive openning, Kalita-Nowosadazki with little bidding space considered to play 3NT.
Moss lead a club expecting his partner to play a diamond back, but dummy’s Q won the trick, declarer continue with the 10, and covered North’s K with his A to play the 4 to the J and returned the 2. When Grue played a little one he played the 8 and won the trick.
Kalita continued with the three top spades, while Moss pitched diamonds, Kalita continued with the A and give Moss the hand with a heart, Moss had to give declarer the ninth trick. At the other table Rafal Jagniewski and Wojciech Gawel played 3, scoring + 110 and another 11 IMPs for Bridge 24. The last board was a spade slam for both teams.
Completed the first 16 tablets the match was: Bridge 24 43 – Grue 36. In the second set only the Grue team added more IMPs, they added 1 IMP in 7 different boards, one 5 IMPs board and one 7 IMPs board to finish: Bridge 24 43 – Grue 55.