Recent realbridge.online
Today's diagram depicts the last board of a recent realbridge.online match between the Australian three-pair squad - Avi Kanetkar and David Beauchamp, Stephen Burgess and Gabi Lorentz, Paul Lavings and Robert Krochmalik - that will represent Australia in this odd-numbered year's version of the world seniors teams championship and their New Zealand equivalents. One reason for the attention the deal attracted was the fact that the 10 IMPs it generated made the match result an exact 113-all tie, an occurrence about as rare in bridge as in AFL competition.
The match in no way affected its participants' prospects of going to Marrakech, this year's world championships venue, in August. Australia and NZ are the only nations in the World Bridge Federation's South Pacific Zone which owns two of the 24 spots in that field. Identical rules apply to the concurrently staged open, women's and mixed fields; but their equally pointless and - in the interests of regulatory uniformity - similarly WBF-mandated play-offs will take place face-to-face two or three weeks hence in Hong Kong during the Asia-Pacific championships to which all the relevant teams except the NZ seniors have accepted their customary invitations.
The diagrammed auction in which Kanetkar and Beauchamp were respectively EW match can hardly, if at all, be adversely criticised; but 4♠, into which NS thus climbed, was much more likely to fail than succeed against unknown EW distribution consistent therewith. Vulnerable at IMP scoring, however, constructively pressing on to 4♠ amounted to a five-to-three-on bet. On the full deal, best defence would, despite the favourable lie of both ♥Q and ♣Q, take 4♠ one down. but, as it turned out, South did amass the 10 needed tricks.
The play began ♦3, partner's bid-suit, to 2-A-8. Any non-diamond lead would have kept EW on track for a result of one down. Next came ♠3-A-2-7, ♦K-6-4-5, ♦Q-J-♥2-♦7, ♦9-♣3-♠J-♦10, ♣5-2-4-9, ♣8-J-A-♠4, ♠K-10-♥3-♠8-6, ♠Q-♣10-7-♠9, ♥10-5-4-A-♥8, at which point declarer's claim of his game contract was accepted.
The contrastingly unambitious bidding at the other table went Pass-Pass-1♣-1♠, 2♣-Pass-Pass-2♠, Pass-Pass-Pass, during which East's club length was announced as at least two cards. Krochmalik's ensuing declarer play, which accordingly didn't greatly matter, also generated 10 tricks. West's opening lead of ♣9, likewise partner's bid suit, elicited 5-2-4. Accurately somehow diagnosing the need for a shift, West did less well in choosing her continuation. Any one of ♠102 ♥Q95 ♦J would have given South no immediate line for a second overtrick. Instead the play continued ♦3-2-A-8, ♠6-4-10-J, ♦4-7-K-6, ♦9-J-♠7-♦5, ♣K-A-♠5-♣3, ♠A-2-♥2-♠3, ♠K-♣8-♥3-♠9, ♠Q-♣10-7-♦10, ♦Q-♥5-4-8, ♥J-Q-K-A, ♣6, after which it was agreed that EW could no longer make more than three of their four originally available tricks.