More reading and study of the world championship books. This time I’m looking at some hands from the 1963 event after I recently found a copy of the book.
At first, the result seems rather unexciting, the Blue team was the strongest team around and they won all their matches, including a 313-294 victory over the North American team. However, something happened at the victory banquet. The Italians gave their winner’s trophies to the North American team, because they felt that they were so lucky that they did not deserve the win. The report says, amongst other things:
In this match Italy bid and made 3 grand slams missed by North America. None were laydown, though two were good contracts and the third had a 50% chance.
With the final margin of 19 imp’s, any of the 3 going down would have turned an Italian victory into a North American one. What strikes me as odd in this sentence, is that the Italians bid good slams but still considered themselves lucky. If I bid good slams, I expect to make them. So, now that I finally have the book, time to look at the hands and judge for ourselves.
EW were playing an early version of the Neapolitan Club, where all balanced hands in the 12 to 16 range were opened with one of a suit. 4♣ showed a spade fit and a control. 4NT was not Blackwood but rather asked partner for another cuebid. In that light, I don’t understand 5♠ as the ♣K must be a useful card. 5NT asked about trump quality.
This slam is definitely not good. It looks as if you have 13 tricks on a dummy reversal, by ruffing 3 rounds of clubs but one is an entry short for that on a trump lead and a 3-1 trump break. And this still requires diamonds to split 3-2 (68%). That makes it well below 40%
In practice, north tried to cash the ♣A which seems futile, as east would never bid 7♠ with a singleton club. It didn’t cost anything though, as there were 13 tricks from the top with this trump split, but on a different layout this could easily have given the contract away.
In the replay, the North American west opened 1♣ even though their card says 15-18 1NT. After that, they never fully appreciated the full strength of the hands.
So, not a good slam and a lucky 14 imp’s for the Italians.
Board 63: I like Belladonna’s 1♦ and minimum 3♦ rebid, over Nail’s pass and 3♦ limit raise. West probably expected a bit more for a minimum opening bid, which explains his 4NT and 5NT grand slam try.
This slam looks as a straight 50% chance. The 1♥ overcall makes it a bit better, as the heart finesse is likely to be on. There is another tiny chance, somebody holding ♠J10x which will set up the ♠9 for a heart discard. I make it about 60% to 70% which means that one should bid it.
In practice, both options worked and declarer had in fact 14 tricks, and 11 imp’s.
In the other room, pass and then 3♦ meant that east had to catch up convincing partner of his strength. He tried so using Blackwood for aces and kings, but could not find out about the right cards. And finally:
1♥ is the systemic bid holding a 1♠-444 pattern in 1963 Neapolitan club. If I understand the notes correctly, the sequence used by south showed a heart fit and either first or second round controls in both minors. The rest of the auction is not fully clear to me.
This slam is on a ruffing finesse: win the opening lead, draw trumps, cash the ♠A, cross to east and lead the ♠Q. West held the ♠K so the slam came home.
In the other room, east had to jump in his second round and west could not make an intelligent move before venturing Blackwood. After 6♣, he had to settle for 6♥.
A decent grand slam needs about 57% chance of making, so this is another lucky slam for the Italians worth another 11 imp’s.
Adding this up, 37 imp’s on a bad slam, a decent one and 50% slam, so this is indeed lucky for the side that bid them all.
A final comments: There were 19 hands, out of 144, where slam was bid at at least one table. Of those hands, 9 were washes. The North Americans won imp’s on 3 hands, and the other 7 were slam swings in favor of the Italians. So, even though they were lucky on the 3 hands above, the Italians did do better in the slam department.