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On-line to Nelson: National Swiss Pairs.

Many words have and will continue to be written and spoken about this event being transferred late in the day to on-line. Whatever one feels about that decision, it was great having 98 pairs participate.

We are going to salute the successful pairs….and discuss this deal below:

 

Congratulations to the following prize-winners:

0verall							vps
1	Pamela Livingston	New Plymouth		Jan Alabaster	Christchurch		131.04
2	Jeff Miller	Otago		Graeme Stout	Otago		129.93
3	Lynda Rigler	Karori		Peter Delahunty	Karori		124.74
4	Jenny Wilkinson	Christchurch		Shirley Newton	Christchurch		123.51
5	Grant Jarvis	Franklin		Jan Cormack	Auckland		123.17
6	Geo Tislevoll	Akarana		Geeske Joel	North Shore		121.37
7	Ian Berrington	Akarana		Fuxia Wen	Akarana		120.98
8	Val Gardiner	Akarana		Carlos Pellegrini	Overseas		119.75
Top 4 without a Grandmaster
1	Jerry Chen	Akarana		Dong Gao Bi	Mt Albert		118.07
2	Tani Blackburn	Wellington		Peter Collinge	Havelock North		113.16
3	Barbara Gordon	Nelson		Raewyn Taylor	Nelson		110.33
4	Rona Driscoll	Taupo		John Driscoll	Taupo		109.4
Top 2 TOPs Pairs
1	Peter Bone	Nelson		Thomas Pyatt	Nelson		106.5
2	Jo Gear	Westport		Wendy Coburn	Westport		99.15

The end result was in doubt until virtually the last card was played. One of the last matches to finish was that between Pam Livingston- Jan Alabaster and Lynda Rigler- Peter Delahunty, who had an extremely good tournament. Pam and Jan picked up 9 imps over the last three boards to win a tight match by 3 imps and just enough vps to squeeze past Jeff Miller and Graeme Stout. A very consistent performance from the winners who lost three matches, the largest loss being by only 4.65 imps.

The top three

 
Jan Alabaster and Pam Livingston

 

 
Jeff Miller and Graeme Stout     Peter Delahunty and Lynda Rigler

Winning matches certainly helps, helps the partial As, and Barbara Gordon and Raewyn Taylor actually won more matches (8) than the overall winners!

Splinter to Slam

So, back then to our problem….and problem it must be as less than one third of the East-West pairs made it to the coldest, lay-down small slam possible. The two hands had only 26 hcp between them and 25 of them were necessary for the contract to be so cold. The East-West hands could have come out of a text-book on splinter bids.

 

Some East players used a Jacoby 2NT (game-force, spade support) in response to West’s opening. However, when West jumped to game with a minimum hand and no shortage, they declared. Others simply bid 2 and jumped to 4 over their partner’s 2 rebid. The East hand has too much potential for a delayed game raise.

This is a deal where East has to show rather than ask their partner more about their hand. A double jump (4) should be a singleton or void with 4 card spade support and is traditionally in the 10-13 hcp range. Yes, it is a jack too strong but was probably a more useful and certainly a more successful approach.

With minimum values, but most importantly, nothing wasted in clubs, West should make one try for slam, with a 4 cue-bid. One try was all East would need as Roman Key-Card did the rest. While East could not be sure about the Q or indeed whether West had three small diamonds, with West surely having some length in clubs, they had to be shortish in one of the red suits: well worth the slight risk of a second loser along with one of the black aces.

A few North-South pairs bid aggressively in clubs, right up to the 5-level! While trumps were not a problem, every other suit was. Both North and South hands were essentially flat, making such aggressive bidding risky. Had any East-West decided to punish 5, they would not have had to worry about missing slam, -6 or 1700 for the defenders. Alas for East-West, no pair took their opportunity. Pre-emption lives on, as the interference seemed to talk the opponents out of bidding slam. A warning there when you do bid aggressively. Do not just look at your trumps.

Finally, thanks to all those involved in running the event, the directors and scorer, Allan Joseph, Caroline Wiggins and Kevin Walker, and to Evelyn Muncaster who ably oversaw the change from live to on-line event on behalf of the Nelson Club.

A defensive problem from the weekend will be featured tomorrow.

Richard Solomon

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