All News

Even World Grandmasters Nod.

For a change, today’s article is a salute to this country’s first World Grand Master, Michael Cornell. It is written by Auckland’s Alan Taylor who for many years produced the daily Bulletins at our National Congress.

Alan ran a very popular “Even Homer Nods” feature which highlighted some instances where our top players had “minties moments” which proved they were human, too. Some of these involved Michael Cornell and his partners.

As a balance, we will recall Michael in more favourable light too, as becoming of a World Grand Master.

 

“Michael Cornell’s recent elevation to his  new exalted status brought to mind some of his less exalted moments. Firstly, let me introduce his appearance at the top of the “even Homer Nods Award” at Congress in 1998.

 

Michael (North) held   ♠ K952 ♥ J1075 ♦ J ♣ AK92

East opened 1♦ and West passed. Michael doubled for take-out. “What’s wrong with that ?” you ask? Well, Michael’s partner had already doubled! The director ruled that Michael’s double had to be removed but his partner was barred from the rest of the auction.

  Michael had to guess the final contract. His guess was 2♠.  Sadly, this meant he was playing a 4-4 fit instead of the 5-4 available in hearts. The heart contract would have yielded an overtrick for 132 matchpoints while the spade only produced 98, a loss of a mere 29, but not insignificant when you fail to qualify for the semis of the NZ Pairs by just 11.

But; when you are a World Grandmaster, you have the power to infect others. The next year, Michael partnered fellow international Dwayne Crombie. As I sat down to kibitz, the director was just leaving the table. Dwayne had been faced by an unusual suit combination problem.

 

How do you play AK94 facing AJ105 for no losers – yes, Dwayne was replaying the previous hand.
Then came the next:

 

Dwayne opened 1♥ and, over Michael’s 1NT response, he repeated the hearts. LHO came in with 2♠. And when this came back to Dwayne, he made a penalty double. What’s wrong with that ?” you ask? Well, Michael had already made a penalty double.

 

As declarer, you would probably feel a certain amount of trepidation since two international players have announced that you are going down in your contract. The trepidation abates somewhat when scoring up your overtrick.

 

Ryzard Jedrychowski was the next to tempt fate by playing Congress with Michael with fate succumbing to temptation. Ryszard had established himself as a master of squeeze play, winning the Babich Wines Play of the Week award by producing a compound squeeze and a triple squeeze within the space of an hour in the Pairs a couple of years earlier.

Michael took great pleasure in informing me of how Ryszard was extending his squeeze repertoire by mastering the auto squeeze. On one hand, Ryszard signaled for a defensive switch. Michael duly switched and Ryszard found himself squeezed.

 

Then, Ryszard cashed a defensive winner which rectified the count for declarer, enabling him to squeeze Michael. Ryszard was very aware of who my source of information was for the articles which I published on the 2 hands and, no doubt, was vowing vengeance.

 

Then, I sat down to watch Ryszard and Michael defending against Ishmael Del’Monte and Ashley Bach. Ish was playing a 1NT contract and by trick 11, he had 5 tricks. He was in hand with a small heart and a spade. Dummy held the KJ and there were two defensive hearts outstanding, including Q. While Ish meditated, I became aware that Ryzard was bouncing with unrepressed delight, casting meaningful glances alternately at Michael and me.

Finally, Ish led his heart towards dummy and Ryszard discarded a diamond, somewhat to my surprise as his other card was a heart. Ish resignedly played the K and was somewhat taken aback by the sight of Michael’s Q.

Ryszard could contain himself no longer, “you squeezed yourself!” he gleefully accused Michael. Michael’s response was a rather laconic “Never mind my squeeze. What about your !@#$% revoke?”

While one cannot revoke to trick 12, it does not seem that Ish’s card has to change as well. He was quite happy to leave the K as played.

   
Are Michael's eyes on his partner who
chose wrongly when following suit...
with only 2 cards in his hand!

 

Thanks, Alan. Happy memories though maybe less so for Michael and his partners!

One aspect that particularly impresses me about Michael is his table presence. Take the following from the 2001 PABF Championships in Singapore.

After opening a 12-14 1NT as North and a transfer from his partner, Malcolm Mayer, Michael ended in 6 and received a spade lead from East. With clubs only to provide one spade discard, he had to guess trumps correctly in order to make his slam.

With no opposition interference to give any clues, it would be normal to play two top hearts hoping for an even break. However, Michael was aware that East had been asking many questions during and after the end of the bidding. Michael felt that this interest indicated he may well hold the Q and backed his hunch by taking a second round finesse in order to make his slam and gain 15 imps with the opponents inexplicably in 2! Michael knows his percentages… and also knows when to go anti-percentage.

And here he is at work in the same event in 2006:

 

 

 

 

Against the event winning Chinese, Michael, South, received Q lead. Short of entries to dummy (and hoping later to run heart winners), he led a low spade from hand. West presumed Michael held KQ and went up with A, keen to get a heart ruff. West switched to a club which Michael took with his ace and successfully finessed Q, then drawing East’s last trump.

 

Michael was still facing two club and a heart loser, along with A he had already lost and played a heart though East ducked. So, Michael exited from dummy with a club to East’s K. East exited a diamond to Michael’s A and played his last two trumps in this position:

He discarded two hearts from dummy and East had to discard both diamonds. Michael exited his heart and whichever club East played, Michael had the last 2 tricks, his contract and 13 imps for New Zealand when the same contract was two down at the other table.

Thanks, Alan, for reliving the odd events that occurred to and around Michael. The last two deals do better highlight the real Michael Cornell.

Richard Solomon and Alan Taylor

 

Go Back View All News Items