After 43 of the 48 boards in the World Transnational Open Teams final, Bessis, Bessis (father and son) and Multon from France, Fantoni and Nunes from Italy, and Zimmermann from Switzerland led Gromova, Ponomareva, Dubinin and Gromov from Russia, and Balicki and Zmudzinski from Poland by 5 international match points. Board 44 was an echo of 43.
If you had the West hand after the given auction, which occurred at both tables, what would you lead against one no-trump?
Andrei Gromov chose the club six. Thomas Bessis (South) called for dummy's nine and Alexander Dubinin (East) strangely played low. Now declarer led a diamond to his queen, then played the club queen. To defeat the contract, West had to take this trick and shift to a major suit, but he ducked. Probably expecting East to have the club ace, South played low from the board. Now declarer found the winning line: He cashed his diamond ace and played another diamond. East took his king and shifted to a low heart, but South put up his king and had seven tricks: one heart, four diamonds and two clubs.
Fulvio Fantoni (West) found the better lead of the heart 10. Claudio Nunes (East) won with his ace and returned the suit. Adam Zmudzinski (South) took the third trick with his heart king and played the diamond queen. East won with his king, cashed the heart jack, and shifted to a low spade, allowing the defenders to take three spades, three hearts, one diamond and one club for down two.
Plus 90 and plus 100 gave the Zimmermann team 5 imps, doubling its lead.
If you had the West hand after the given auction, which occurred at both tables, what would you lead against one no-trump?
Andrei Gromov chose the club six. Thomas Bessis (South) called for dummy's nine and Alexander Dubinin (East) strangely played low. Now declarer led a diamond to his queen, then played the club queen. To defeat the contract, West had to take this trick and shift to a major suit, but he ducked. Probably expecting East to have the club ace, South played low from the board. Now declarer found the winning line: He cashed his diamond ace and played another diamond. East took his king and shifted to a low heart, but South put up his king and had seven tricks: one heart, four diamonds and two clubs.
Fulvio Fantoni (West) found the better lead of the heart 10. Claudio Nunes (East) won with his ace and returned the suit. Adam Zmudzinski (South) took the third trick with his heart king and played the diamond queen. East won with his king, cashed the heart jack, and shifted to a low spade, allowing the defenders to take three spades, three hearts, one diamond and one club for down two.
Plus 90 and plus 100 gave the Zimmermann team 5 imps, doubling its lead.