The finals - 4 boards - part II

This is the second of four posts about swing hands in the second set of England-Italy. The first set Italy won by 16 IMPs (60-44), the third set Italy lost by 13 IMPs (17-30), and it was the second set (46-4) that gave them most of their 45 IMPs lead (123-78). We will look at four boards that delivered a total of 41 IMPs to Italy.

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On board 22 the Hackett twins bid all the way to 7 Diamonds!

South opened 1C, North responded 1D, East overcalled 1S, and now NS had the auction to themselves. South raised diamonds, North cuebid, South showed a spade stopper with 2NT, North set diamonds as trumps (and cuebid then 3D=game force), South showed heart shortness with 4H. Now it appears 4NT asked for keycards, 5NT showed two keycards and a useful void, and 7D placed the contract. As was said in an earlier post, try to be certain or close to certain of 13 tricks before bidding a grand, and here there was no way North had enough information to bid a certain 7D. Now it is possible that North could have taken 5NT as a grand slam try, but that does not seem possible after the mere 2D bid.

In the other room Malinowski made an awful overcall. South Nunes opened 2C 10-13 with clubs, North, Fantoni, responded 2D, which is either values, and/or a misfit trying for a better spot to land. Now East has a number of stop signs - vulnerable verus not, partner unable to make a takeout double of 2C even though East has club length, NS either have values or a misfit or both, bad spade spots. Instead East bids 2S, this swings around to North who doubles to show values, and South is happy to pass this for 800. Now Malinowski's 2S bid might have picked up IMPs if the Hacketts had halted in 6D but instead the action at the two tables combined for 13 IMPs to Italy.