It was pretty that Miksa edited our „vugraph” – now quite easy to remember, even though a week has flied away after the match (sorry all, I was not able to do it earlier).
Board 1: same weak 2S opening, then 4S final contract. Same 1 down… Al played very well, eliminated H and C suits, but then failed to finesse with !S J – and at the end was forced to lead D, so with Qxx – Kxxx diamonds had to lose still 2. For making needed to guess !S Q – neither Al nor opps could guess, so both 1 down. Was not really true, what one opponent told other: finessing with trump J (if loses) does not make the contract surely, because defender can safely exit with a trump and can force the declarer leading diamonds. Push board.
Board 2: we won the bidding! Al and Yvon in a competition reached and made 4!H; opps in the closed room failed to overcall and allowed Zoran-Andrea to make 3!D+2. +13 IMPs!
Board 3: in the closed room opps reached 4H via forcing NT; in the open we stopped in 3H – which was the correct contract at all. Zoran led 2S, and Andrea dropped the Q into dummy’s ace from QJ10. Opponents tried to make game with establishing D: and only 2 rounds of trump pulled, then followed by exit to D ace. Zoran won, pulled the winner S king (not good!), and then failed to continue – the dummy would ruff only with high H queen, and then Andrea’s jack would have been established (and would ruff 3rd round of diamonds, prevent S discards of the hand). The only play to set the contract: after D ace Zoran should lead a LOW spade to jack (Andrea had only 3 spades!), retaining the K. Andrea should win with J and follow the 10 (it the dummy would not ruff), and still put the J if dummy would ruff. Then heart jack able to ruff diamonds, and no more entry to dummy – but the !C Q IS entry to spade king which is our 4th trick. So pulling the S king established hand’s 9 (QJ10 had to drop in 3 rounds…), so after this move the contract was cold. –7 IMPs.
Board 4: in the both rooms 3NT; Al led D from J108, and we gave an overtrick (H lead would be the standard one – maybe now it worked better). –1 IMP.
Board 5: NT partscore was the contract at the both tables (while the 3NT was cold because of 6 D tricks); Andrea played very well, and could get one more trick as opponents in the other room (squeezed South in C Q10 and H winners AK). +1 IMP.
Board 6: we won the bidding again! Against Andrea-Zoran opps overcalled 1H without jump with an ugly J109xxx suit; Andrea bravely bidded the (correct!) 2NT with passed hand, but 11 hcps and AK in hearts; Zoran raised to game, which was cold after H lead (with S lead, and after pulling S tricks then club switch would have gone down). I the open room Al overcalled 2H with jump – and the weak heart suit was good for a wjo – so then the 2NT could not promise that a great support as Andrea’s jumped 2NT, so they failed to reach the game. +10 IMPs.
Board 7: 4H+1 both. It was harder for Al and Yvon, because of the 3C immediate weak jump overcall (Zoran overcalled only 2C without jump and only after a pass, second time). Self-finessing D lead at both tables (after C lead overtrick would be avoided possibly). Push board.
Board 8: very interesting. Opps against Al-Yvon reached and made with correct bidding the 3H partscore with misfitty hands. Andrea and Zoran were brave – and lucky: they bidded 3NT and made, even with unstopped C suit, and badly stopped S. But! Even if the lead helped them – see the hand once-twice more! 3NT always makes in this distribution, if the declarer plays well. Maybe North starts C QJ (South ducks with encouraging), and then North switches to spades. Ace must win (if not, club AK defeats the contract), and declarer has to see how many tricks available from top. 5 diamonds, 2 hearts – so the best play to pull H ace (safety play against South’s single Q), then to pull 5 diamonds, and finessing the heart jack, which wins, so 9 tricks: 5 diamonds, 3 hearts and the spade ace. +6 IMPs.
Board 9: 3 NT both – opponents made an overtrick (Al doubled the 2D transfer with KQx – too short for a dbl, even if a good honors in the suit). –1IMP.
Board 10: 4S both (little bit overbidded) – Al and Yvon defeated one more down for +1 IMP. Al-Yvon’s opponents blocked their D with retaining K from Kx… +1 IMP.
Board 11: 4H both, opps made +1 (we =). –1 IMP – who cares?J
Board 12: 4S both, we were allowed to make an overtrick (opps led a single H even though they overcalled C). +1 IMP – who cares?J
Board 13: we were the leaders by 23 imps, so Al bidded a „tactical pass” instead of balancing which allowed to opps making 1D, while we went one down in 2D. –5 IMPS, still who cares?J
Board 14: both 2C-2, push board – the 2-3 deals at the end of the match were tactical problems – we only had avoid the disasters, which succeeded! Very well done!!!!