DAY 1 - Monday August 8th, 2022
Welcome to the World Youth Transnational Bridge Championships, coming to you from Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy.
The 10 Aussie Youth players and two Non-Playing Captains all met up in Salsomaggiore yesterday just in time to enjoy a delicious team Lunch. Many thanks to David Stern and the Friends of Youth Bridge for their generous funding. It’s Summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the temperature has been around the mid the high 30s for the last few weeks. Although downtown Milan was stifling hot, Salso has lots of shady parks with tall trees and gardens, and it feels much cooler. Nice gardens.
The atmosphere around the team so far has been excitement, with a sprinkling of nerves. Eight of the players are representing Australia (in a face to face tournament) for the first time.
Australia Under 21 Representatives
Bertie Morgan & Jack Luke-Paredi. Jacob Rose & Lara Topper.
Australia Under 26 Representatives
Josh Tomlin & Damon Flicker. David Gue & Jamie Simpson.
Australian Under 31 Representatives
Jamie Thompson & Andrew Spooner.
Good Luck, Have Fun!
Australian Youth Team Captains
Will Jenner-O’Shea & Mike Doecke
The Youth Pairs Qualifying started today, with 56 Pairs in the Under 21 division.
They will play six sessions over 2 days to qualify the top 26 pairs to the Under-21 A-Final, with the remaining players playing in the B-Final.
After the first session today, Bertie and Jack were leading the field with an impressive 66.03%, Australia’s other under 21 pair Lara Topper and Jacob Rose are not far behind. This is only 10 rounds out of 47, so there is a long way to go, but what a great start.
Player Interview – Bertie Morgan
Bertie Morgan is a 20-year-old South Australian native and learnt bridge 5 or 6 years ago. “My parents would often have people round to play bridge socially and having always loved board games and card games it was only a matter of time before I learned the basics of bridge.” He honed his game at the Adelaide Bridge Centre and through various youth practice sessions.
“My favourite bridge memory is winning the 2022 ANC. It was a great feeling when everyone’s hard work preparing for the event paid off. There were ups and downs but ultimately, we managed to come out on top. The feeling of relief and happiness when you win I'd excellent. I also brought back 3NTXX making 2 overtricks for 1800.” How many of you have seen that score?
When he isn’t playing bridge, he helps organize a bridge club and works in a warehouse making rugs. “Working in the rug warehouse is ok. It's not too hard and the hours are flexible.” He also enjoys video games, hanging out with friends and reading "classic" novels.
Player Interview - Jack Luke-Paredi
Jack started taking tricks very early in life, playing 500 and Euchre with his parents from the age of 5. He learnt bridge a couple of years later in primary school.
“A Big shout out to Paul Brake for teaching me. I played my first club session in grade 5 and have loved it ever since. On Thursday afternoons my sister had sport training, so it was the library or bridge. Bridge had ice-cream and lollies, so it wasn’t a tough choice!”
Jack has just turned 19 so 10 years of experience makes him a relative veteran in the under 21 field!
“My most memorable bridge experience was my first youth week in Canberra. I was only 12 in a house full of older people, but they were all so welcoming. They showed me so many things not only about life but the amazing culture of youth bridge. This is one of the biggest reasons why my love for bridge is still so strong today.”
Jack is about to complete an actuarial science degree at uni and hopes that the job he has lined up doesn’t cut into his bridge playing time too much.
“I love sport, both watching and playing. I also play chess and have been coaching this game for 2 years.” Being a Queenslander, it’s no surprise that his favourite tournament is the GCC which he tries to play every year.
Convention-wise Jack likes to keep it simple. “I love a good Weak 2 - shout out to Matt Smith for teaching me to open them extra light. Not a great fan of matchpoints, I much prefer the team experience where you are working together to get the best possible result.”
You can watch some of the action on bridgebase.com by clicking Vugraph – then WATCH – and find the events called 2022 WYTC. There will be two tables on Vugraph during the Qualifying, and 4 tables in the Finals.
The matches start at 6PM AEST and restart after lunch at 10:30PM AEST. During the Pairs, the players move every few hands, so it’s not easy to follow a pair, but you might be lucky and see an Aussie pair on screen. The Teams will be longer matches, and hopefully we get to watch some Aussies in action!
Here was a really well played hand by Under 26 Josh Tomlin who recently moved from Canberra to Adelaide, and promptly won the Youth ANC for South Australia.
Pairs Qualifying Round 1
Board 15, rotated
Josh received the ♦3 lead (3rd/5th) and immediately won the ♦A, then played a Diamond to the King and then ruffed his losing Diamond. He led the ♠J finessing, and lost a trick to the singleton ♠Q. East returned a Heart which Josh won, and hoping for good news, he led the ♠A. Alas, trumps were splitting 4-1 and with West holding the ♠K9, the ♣A missing, and Josh already having lost a trick, things were not looking good. Here is the position that Josh was in:
Josh led a Club to the King, and East’s Ace. East would have done better to return a Club in this position, but played a Heart back. Josh ruffed the Heart in hand, then finessed a Club to the Ten, and ruffed another Heart. Fortunately, everyone followed suit when a third round of Clubs was led to Dummy, and now with only a few cards remaining Josh led another Heart from Dummy. East had the ♠K9 but had to play in front of Josh’s ♠T7, allowing Declarer to only lose one more trick, make his game, and earn a very handy 80%.
Well played Josh!
Australia’s recently Over-26-But-Under-31 player Andrew Spooner found a nice overtrick on this hand, played in 3NT.
Pairs Qualifying Session 2
Board 6
After a Puppet Stayman auction to 3NT, West led the ♠9, which was covered by the ♠Q, King and Ace. Andrew played a Spade to Dummy’s Eight, and then tried a Club finesse, losing to West’s Queen. More interested in suit quantity than quality, West returned another Spade. Andrew won and played a Diamond to the Ace, and with his contract secure, tried playing the Heart Nine to West’s Ten.
West continued with their Spades, knocking out Andrew’s fourth and final stopper. Andrew now cashed his winning Clubs, leaving this position with the ♣J being led to this trick:
East had to keep their Diamonds to prevent any extra tricks there, so discarded a Heart on this trick. Unfortunately for them, they needed to discard their Ace, and when they didn’t, Andrew played a Heart which East won, and East had to return a Diamond away from their Queen, allowing Andrew a free shot to play the ♦J and to score a handy overtrick. If East had discarded their Ace of Hearts, then the endplay wouldn’t work, since West had kept their carefully established Spade winner.
There are five divisions in these Youth Championships, and Australia has representatives in three of them. In the Under-31 division, Australian Veteran Youth players Jamie Thompson and Andrew Spooner are playing. There aren’t many entrants and they need to finish in the top 6 out of 13 U31 Pairs in a combined U26/U31 Qualifying to make it into the A-Final.
The Australian U26 Pairs are Josh Tomlin (ACT/SA) & Damon Flicker (Vic), and Jamie Simpson (SA) & David Gue (SA). They need to finish in the top 18 out of 35 pairs to qualify for the A-Final.
The U21 Pairs include Bertie and Jack from the previous page, as well as Jacob Rose & Lara Topper from NSW. They are both doing well and need to finish in the top 26 out of 56 Pairs at the end of tomorrows Qualifying to win a spot in the A-Final.
There is also an Under 16s and a Under 26 Women’s event happening with no Australians playing.
You can find the Main results page here:
db.worldbridge.org/Repository/tourn/salsoyouth.22/microSite/Results.htm
Click Running Scores to see the current position of all the players.
Here was a very effectively bid hand by India’s Under 31 Pair Sagnik Roy & Sayantan Kushari against their own countrymen in the Pairs Qualifying.
Pairs Qualifying Session 2
Board 9
North opened an aggressive first seat favourable pre-empt and East tried a practical 3NT.
Not many pairs have agreed system in this auction, but West bid 4♥ as a Transfer to Spades, and then used a six-level splinter to show shortage in Clubs and a great hand. East has the absolute perfectly suitable hand, with a couple of good Spades and all the useful Aces, as well as not too many wasted points in Clubs. West has committed to slam already, and so must be offering a Grand Slam, which East accepted, and quickly wrapped up 13 tricks, and an equal top board with only one other pair.
Here was a good bid made by Jamie Thompson in the Pairs Qualifying Session 2. The auction begins Pass, Pass, to you in third seat with both sides Vulnerable. What would you bid?
Jamie found a perhaps unusual looking 3♣ opening. This hand is a lot stronger than a pre-empt would usually be, but with partner already passing, and only 3 cards in the Majors, Jamie figured that game would be unlikely for his team, and he wanted to shut the opponents out if possible. It worked extremely well when the auction finished with him winning the bidding in 3♣.
Here is the full hand.
Jamie made his 3♣ on the ♠K lead. Note that North-South on this hand do quite well in Hearts, with many pairs bidding and making 9 or more tricks in Hearts.
It was nearly impossible for North-South to enter the auction after the 3♣ opening.
Great work Jamie, and a rare example of a more conservative Youth Bridge action!
Posted by Will on Tuesday, 9 August 2022 at 15:45