Last week, I found copies of the 1970 and 1973 world championships. As it is currently summer, with 28 degrees in the shadow here, time to take a bottle of wine and find a nice spot on the terrace to read them.
While it is nice to read about these old events, I must say that the 1970 event probably qualified as the most boring Bermuda Bowl in history. Why? Only good team participated, the rest of the teams were considered to be capable of winning.
How did that come about? Well, first the Italian Blue team had decided, after winning 10 straight Bermuda Bowls to take a leave of absence for a while. Italy did send their best second team to the European Championships. They won, expected to be sent to the Bermuda Bowl, but then politics in the Italian NCBO started. The result: the European Champs withdrew and Italy sent 6 players without any international experience. The second European team, Norway, was generally regarded as a team that had qualified with a lot of luck. The two other teams, Brazil and Nationalist China (aka China back then or Chinese Taipei as it is known today) were considered decent but not strong enough to beat the North American representatives, the Dallas Aces.
In 1968, Ira Corn had established the first professional bridge team, the Dallas Aces, with 6 well paid professionals doing nothing but practice and play for a year. The goal of the team was to finally beat the Blue Team in 1970. Unfortunately, the Blue Team did not participate. The world would have to wait until 1973 for a Blue Team - Dallas Aces match.
The result of all this: one team way stronger than all others, and 4 teams playing for second place. The write-up in the book called the event “undistinguished” with “a predictable course”. The only thing really worth noticing involved the playing conditions. The Swedish organization had taken the instructions to provide a closed room quite literally, as the closed room was on the attic of the hotel with no windows, aircondition or even water. The waiters weren’t too helpful either, as one of them was quoted to say “I haven’t got the time to get you anything” when somebody asked for a glass of water.
The event was played in two stages, first a triple round robin of 32 board matches between the teams, followed by a 128 board play-off between the two top teams. The Aces won quite handily (229 VP, +489 imp’s) while the 4 others fought for second place, with China eventually coming out on top. Incidentally, none of the other teams did score above average. The final was also over after 96 boards, when it became theoretically impossible for China to win. This had to do with the scoring method. While the matches was over 128 boards, they were scored as 4 32-board matches with 20 VP’s at stake in each match. After 3 matches, the score was 45-13 in favor of the North American team and all they had to do was to avoid a blitz and a few dozen penalties over the last 32 boards.
Still, despite all this, there was some interesting bridge to be seen. Here are some problems, showing that the Chinese did something right, occasionally. First, you are in 7♣ after a strong club auction with no interference. 1♣ showed 16+ points, 1♦ either 0-7 or some strong hands, 2♣ natural, 4♠ showed 14+ with 1♠-444 shape and 5♠ was some sort of asking bid. What exactly this asked for is unknown, but the final contract is sound. Well bid by your Chinese colleagues. You get a spade lead (♠2, ♠8, ♠9, ♠A). Plan the play, trumps are 2-1.
At first, it looks like you have to take either a ♦- or a ♥-finesse. Pick your suit, if it works, it works, if not you are down. That is a straight 50%. Can we improve on that?
Yes, we can try to cash ♥AK, if the ♥Q drops doubleton or singleton (or east has all 5 hearts), we are home, if not rely on the diamond finesse. Alternatively, try to cash the ♦AK (discarding a heart) and ruff a diamond. If somebody holds ♦Qx(x), the ♦J is a winner for a second heart discard. Again, if it fails, take a heart finesse.
Which one to prefer?
Well, we have 8 hearts and 5 diamonds, so the opponents have 5 hearts and 8 diamonds. Which suit do you think offers the highest probability of somebody holding ♥Qx? Right, hearts. In fact, I make it 18.4% for the ♥Qx and 6% for ♦Qx(x).
So: win the ♠A, 2 or 3 rounds of clubs ending in south, ♥AK. If the ♥Q appears, claim. If not, ruff a spade and take a ♦-finesse.
In practice, it hardly matters what you do as both finesses were on with the queens doubleton. 11 imp’s to China when the Americans in the other room didn’t bid this grand. South downgraded his hand to 11-15 with 6♣, which looks questionable to me. North relayed, heard 2♥ showing 4 and then lauched into Blackwood. 5♥ showed 2 aces in either the majors or minors. That didn’t provide the right information to count 13 tricks. I don’t quite understand 4NT at the second turn, there is a lot of bidding space between 2♥ and 4NT.
With the Chinese EW, 4♦ showed 7+ solid spades with little outside, 4NT showed 2 places to play, 5♦ was an attempt to find a fit and I don’t understand 6♦. If you pull north’s double, then try at least 6♣ in case south has hearts and clubs.
A small heart lead would defeat the contract right off the bat, but west leads the ♠A, giving you a chance. Plan the play.
Obviously, you have to ruff the ♠A. The trump suit has to be played for 1 loser, the standard play is to lead the ♥Q which works if the finesse is on but there is a problem with that. If the finesse is off, then you are down as you still have a losing spade. If the finesse is on, the same problem occurs if west holds ♥Kxx. You then cannot afford to give up a trump trick as you have a losing spade left. In other words, this is not going to work.
Time for plan B: a diamond ruff in hand followed by a spade ruff in dummy. Now you have to keep your trump losers to 1. This can be done by cashing the ♥A and playing the ♥J, this works whenever somebody has exactly ♥108 and the other player ♥K42. Alternatively, you can play for ♥108x and ♥Kx by playing the ♥A and a small heart, but as west is known to have long spades and little outside, this is less likely to happen, though don’t me ask for the exact odds.
Does this work? Yes, the hand can be made by playing for the ♥K42 oppostie ♥108 option. The North American declarer missed this but also the alternative of playing for ♥Kx. The play record shows that he made a few moves but eventually lost control and went down 2 or -500.
In the replay, with the US EW, east doubled 5♣ as a stripe-tailed ape double. Yes, it makes with an overtrick, but 5♣x with an overtrick scores less than 6♣ making. Still 650 and 500, or 15 imp’s to China.
Finally, my friends in Rotterdam ask me to tell you all about their annual tournament they’ll be organizing in early August, click here for details.