Transnational Day 1

DAY 9 Monday 23rd September

 

The Australian involvement is now solely in the Transnational event.

In this event, as the name suggests, entries are not limited just to players from the same country and many players have embraced this concept.

There are 110 entries and, even though the field comprises of players not to reach the quarter finals in their respective sections, there are many very good teams and players.

There are 3 days of Swiss play with 5 matches per day. Then follows the knockout round of 32, 16, 8, 4 and the final [which is Saturday 28^th September].

The Australian involvement includes the following

AURUSSIA	Renee Cooper	Ben Thompson	Olga Paulushko
	C. Lund Madsen
Australia Seniors	Peter Buchen	Ian Thomson	Pauline Gumby
	Warren Lazer	Bruce Neill	Avi Kanetkar
Australia Mixed	David Beauchamp	Jodi Tutty	Andrew Braithwaite
	Arjuna de Livera	Stephen Fischer	Pele Rankin
PIONEERS	Kim Morrison	Avon Willsmore
	Plus 4 competent Chinese
GINNAN	Laura Ginnan	Peter Hollands	Jenny Thompson
	Denis Humphries	Susan Humphries
Australia Open	Peter Gill	Sartaj Hans	Liam Milne
	Tony Nunn	Nabil Edgtton	Andy Hung
Australia Women	Helena Dawson	Lorna Ichilcik	Rena Kaplan
	Helene Pitt	Avril Zets	Giselle Mundell

 

At the end of the first day, the placements were as follows

AURUSSIA	6th
Australia Mixed	17th
Australia Seniors	22nd
GINNAN	35th
PIONEERS	43rd
Australia Open	102nd
Australia Women	109th

 

Match 5                          

Boards of interest in this match:

Board 18

 

In the Australian Seniors match, the bidding went as follows 

 

Ian Thomson opened 1♦ as South and Peter Buchen bid a game forcing 2♣ as North. East, who passed originally, bid 2♠ and Ian doubled showing four ♥s. Peter asked for a ♠ stopper and Ian bid 3NT.

West led the ♠9 and East ducked and South won the ♠Q and with a lot of losers returned a ♠ to the ♠J and ♠K.

At the table, East cashed all her ♠ tricks and West was squeezed in three suits on the play of the last ♠. This is called a ‘suicide’ squeeze. West was helpless and didn’t really commit suicide but had it thrust upon them (perhaps ‘homicide’ by a partner).

It is interesting in another way. If East does not wish to commit ‘homicide’ and cashes only two ♠s and exits with a small ♦, West is still finished in the end game as East can’t get back in again, if South plays carefully. This time the ‘homicide’ is committed by declarer. You can try it as a problem yourself.

Posted by Chris on Tuesday, 24 September 2019 at 20:13