From: sater@cs.vu.nl (Hans van Staveren)
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: report 10 from the EBL juniors
Date: 23 Jul 92 07:54:47 GMT

Let me start with a hand that I forgot to tell you some time ago in the
Italy versus Ireland match on Vugraph. This was it:

brd 13	A Q 10 9 7
N/All	A 9 3
	10 6 5
	5 4
J 8 4 2		K 5 3
Q J 10		6 4 2
K Q 4 3		A
A Q		J 10 8 7 6 3
	6
	K 8 7 5
	J 9 8 7 2
	K 9 2

Both Wests played 3 NT. The Irish North led the 10S after which declarer
had no problems. Versace led the QS! This left declarer helpless and at
the end he needed a throw in to cut his losses to one down.

And some more about board 19 in that match:
brd 19	-
S/EW	Q 9 7
	J 9 7 6 3
	10 6 5 4 2
A Q 10 9 8 3	J 6 4
J 6 4 2		A K 10 5 3
A 10 4		K Q 5
-		A J
	K 7 5 2
	8
	8 2
	K Q 9 8 7 3

We saw MacGann going down because his ability to count to 13 was
temporarily disabled. This is the bidding in the Norway - Romania match:

West		North		East		South
Karlberg			Helgemo
---------------------------------------------------------
						pass
1S		pass		2H		3C
4C		6C		7H		pass
pass		dbl		7NT		all pass

<Quoted from the daily bulletin>
When Karlberg announced a good hand with 4C, the auction got a little
crowded. As so often, Helgemo had to do some guesswork, and as so often,
he attributed most of the values he was missing to his partner. This
time 7H looked a little bit too much, needing a finesse and a good
guess, but North found a Lightner double to make life easier. Holding the
AC, Helgemo went straight to 7NT. After winning the AC in trick one, he
could finesse the spades with absolute certainty and postpone the heart
"guess" till the end, to score his "well-deserved" 2220.
<End of quote>

Someone on r.g.b asked about the 1C, 2C alert not having been made or
not having been seen. Let me quote the "Rules and regulations" of this
tournament:

<quote>
The ALERT procedure is as follows:

A player who makes a conventional call alerts his screen-mate by
placing the alert card over the last call of the screen-mate, in his
segment of the bidding tray; the alerted player must acknowledge by
returning the alert card to his opponent.

<end of quote>

Furthermore at the captains meeting at the start of the tournament it
was made clear that if an alert is not seen it is not done, so even if
you do not follow the rule above you should at least see your
screen-mate nod his head or anything showing he saw it. In the case I
described this was evidently not done. The mere fact that the 2C call
was explained as majors is proof enough of this.

The only argument that could win an appeal for Iceland is that opponents
have been preparing their defense against the system for probably at
least half an hour. The fact that they now didn't realize that 1C was
strong might be explained as mental laziness or so. Anyhow they decided
not to appeal, so we will never know what the appeals committee would
have ruled.

Ok, on to yesterdays only round. I will give the results and some hands
on which a ruling was done, it was an exciting round and I expect some
play hands to appear in the daily bulletin with comments I could quote.

The results of round 13:
Turkey - Germany		 6 - 24
Italy - Sweden			24 -  6
Ireland - Hungary		11 - 19
Iceland - C.I.S.		10 - 20
France - Finland		25 -  5
Romania - Estonia		25 -  2
Great Britain - Greece		20 - 10
Belgium - Israel		21 -  9
Poland - bye			18 -  0
Norway - Austria		 7 - 23
Denmark - Netherlands		19 - 11
Lithuania - Portugal		13 - 17

Norway had a bad session, while Italy trounced Sweden. The Estonians are
still laughing every now and then, but in this tournament they are
really outclassed. Well, every tournament someone must end last, and
this one is known. My countrymen seem to have trouble keeping their
momentum.

The top 5:
1. Italy	240
2. Poland	233
3. Norway	231
4. Austria	229
5. Germany	226

An interesting ruling from Italy - Sweden

brd 6	A 3
E/EW	K Q 8 6 3
	6 4
	K 10 7 5
Q 8 7 2		K J 10 9 5
4		9 7
10 9 3		A K Q J 5
Q 8 4 3 2	J
	6 4
	A J 10 5 2
	8 7 2
	A 9 6

West		North		East		South
Haglund		Sementa		Fredin		Primavera
----------------------------------------------------------
				1S		2H
3S		4C		4D		p
4S		5H		p*		6H
dbl		all pass

11 tricks made(look at the club spots!)

What happened was that at the NE side of the screen the pass to 5H was
not alerted, and on the SW side it was not alerted until South had
passed. Then the pass was alerted, and explained as forcing after which
South changed his call to 6H. Since the explanations at both sides
differed I was called. East claims that in this bidding sequence the
pass is not forcing.

Since we know what South would have done if there was no misinformation
the only question left, or so it seemed to me, was what West would do.
Given the fact that he seems to think his partners pass is forcing you
would say that two scores are possible: 5H! made, scoring NS +650, and
5S!-1, scoring NS +200. This seemed to me, after a bit of persuasion
from a more experienced colleague to be one of those hands that
might even pass a forcing pass, since both sides have bid very strongly,
and if it goes down it will be at most one. If you decide to double you
might as well pass, so to say. Anyhow I ruled 5H made scoring +450.
There will be an appeal by the Swedes. I'll let you know.

Another ruling this time from Denmark - Netherlands. As soon as
something happened at that table I ran away, as per instruction, to let
the other directors figure it out. Here is the story as I heard it.

brd 17	K Q 5
N/-	Q 8
	Q J
	A 10 7 6 5 4
A 9		7 6 4 3
K J 9 6		-
K 10 7 6 4 3	A 9 8 5
8		K Q J 9 2
	J 10 8 2
	A 10 7 5 4 3 2
	2
	3

W	N	E	S
	1NT	dbl	4H
dbl	4S	all pass

1NT = 15-17, dbl=5m+4M
4H is natural in the system, but North goofed and explained it and acted
as on a transfer. EW felt damaged, because after it went four down they
would like to double it. The ruling was to let the result stand, since
West would have to double 4S, knowing his partner has four, and West is
the one with the correct information. No appeal.

Well, we are on the home stretch in this tournament, and by now I
wouldn't mind it to end. Interesting though it is, a bridge mono-culture
of some 10 days is a bit much. Luckily I have tomorrow off, so I can go
and play the tourist for a day. There should be something to see in
Paris.

	Hans van Staveren
stand, because
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge