Page 21 - ABF Newsletter December 2024

cashed the king of clubs and his two remaining spades, and that squeezed Krochmalik who, obliged to guard the clubs, had to throw a heart so that they produced four tricks and 12 in all; +680 and 1 imp to Israel, 118-105.
Twelve tricks are always available via the heart-club squeeze, unless the defenders lead clubs twice. This breaks declarer’s communications and there is no squeeze because the king of diamonds cannot be cashed in a timely fashion. Four pairs bid and made 6], three bid it but went down (at least one of them having received a club lead).
No sooner do we see one borderline slam, than a second comes along on the very next deal:
Board 26. Dealer East. Both sides vulnerable.
]Q7543 [K64 }—
{ A 10 9 8 2
] K 10 9
[J3 [A972 }AQ9872 }K653 {Q5 {KJ43
this round to his queen and playing a club straight back to the king. He cashed the ace of spades next then rattled off the diamonds. Engel kept the {A and two spades, while Cohen kept both major-suit guards, so the defence came to two tricks at the end for +660.
WEST Braithwaite
2. Heart values.
NORTH Engel
pass
all pass 1. Invitational raise.
EAST SOUTH De Livera Cohen
1} pass 3[ 2 pass
3{ 1 3NT
]J862 [ Q 10 8 5 } J 10 4 {76
Braithwaite’s 3{ response was invitational with at least four diamonds and 3[ a notrump probe. Engel led the ten of clubs against 3NT, Braithwaite running
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] A
Kalish made an inverted diamond raise then admit- ted to a spade stopper when Grinberg requested one. Lavings too led the ten of clubs round to de- clarer’s queen but, when Kalish played a club back at trick two, Lavings won the ace so giving away the twelfth trick; 1 imp to Israel, whose lead crept up to 119-105.
6} is all about the opening lead, with a heart re- quired to beat it as otherwise a club can be set up for a heart discard. In the Seniors’ event nobody bid the slam, but it was bid once in the Open, and North led the ace of clubs.
Time had run out for Australia; Israel picked up an imp in 3NT on Board 27, and the last three boards were flat. Australia had scored only one single over- trick imp in the 15-board set. Israel had hardly been prolific scorers either, but their 22 imps meant that they were through to the quarter-finals by a score of 120-105.
With other matches using the same boards, 70 imps were shared in the Türkiye v Italy match, while in the Women’s series the English women (featuring Fiona Brown) managed to turn around a 50-imp deficit, winning the fourth quarter on these same deals by 69-13.
Australian Seniors’ Team:
Andrew Braithwaite, Arjuna de Livera, Stephen Burgess, Gabi Lorentz, Robert Krockmalik and Paul Lavings
WEST Kalish
2. Asking for a stopper.
NORTH Lavings
2]
all pass 1. Inverted raise.
EAST SOUTH Grinberg Krochmalik
1} pass 3] 2 pass
2} 1 3NT
Australian Bridge Federation Ltd. Newsletter: December 2024
Page 21