January 2012 - 22

World Championships

It looked natural to declarer to ruff
a diamond, cash the A and play
another trump. However, East won
and gave his partner a spade ruff. Guy
Lasserre switched to the Q, and
a second round of hearts stranded
declarer in the dummy, forced to concede the last trick to East's Q. The
defenders had taken one heart, two
diamonds and two clubs for down
one.
At trick four, declarer would have
done better to duck a heart (he can
even play his king). Then he would
have had the communications to arrive at nine tricks one way or another.
To win the match, the French
North-South had to be at least plus
170. This was the bidding sequence:
West
Russyan
Pass
Pass

North
Leenh't
1
Dbl

East
South
Lasocki Piganeau
2
Pass
All Pass

With a singleton in his partner's suit,
four reasonable trumps, and vulnerable opponents, it was sensible for
Patrice Piganeau to go for a penalty.
South led his heart, probably disappointed to see Krzysztof Lasocki take
the trick with his 10. Declarer led his
K, South signaling an odd number
with the 2. So North, Francois Leen-

hardt, ducked the first club, took the
second, and pushed through the J,
covered by the queen and king.
South might have continued with
the 9 or 7 to keep declarer out of
the dummy, but after a lot of thought,
he led a low spade. North won with
his ace and gave his partner a heart
ruff. South then exited with a trump.
East won and played a spade, but
South took that trick and led his last
trump. Declarer won and played another spade. After South won, he had
to lead a club to dummy's queen, on
which East's last spade was discarded,
but the contract had gone down one,
the defenders taking three spades, one
diamond, one club and one heart ruff.
Plus 50 and plus 200 was worth 6
IMPs to France and victory by onethird of an IMP.
The final
France, down 6.3 carryover IMPs
against USA2, started off like gangbusters, winning the opening set 45-8,
the second 21-11 and the third 23-20.
At the halfway point, it was 89-45.3
for the French.
Set four turned things in the Americans' favor as they outscored their
opponents 79-13 to take a 124.3-102
lead.
This is one of several swing deals

from that set:
Dlr: West  10 4 3
Vul: E-W  10 7 6
 K 10 8 6 3
93
Q652
KJ87
N
AK
QJ983
W E
QJ2
4
S
KQJ5
762
A9
542
A975
 A 10 8 4
West
Grenthe
1
2NT
3

North
East
South
Robinson Vanhoutte Boyd
Pass
1
Pass
Pass
3 (1)
Pass
Pass
4
All Pass

(1) Checkback.
West
Kozlove
1
1
3NT

North
Leenhardt
Pass
Pass
Pass

East
Kasle
1
2
4

South
Piganeau
Pass
Pass
All Pass

Francois Leenhardt led a trump,
South taking his ace and switching to
a low club. West won with his king,
drew trumps, unblocked his heart
honors, and led the Q. South won
and cashed the A to stop the overtrick.
Against Patrick Grenthe, Robinson
led a low diamond. Boyd won with his
ace and found the best defense: the
A and another club. To get home
now, declarer had to take the ruffing diamond finesse so that he could
discard dummy's remaining club -
and that looks like the indicated line
of play.
West, however, played a trump.
South won and gave his partner a club
ruff for down one.

Senior Bowl champions: Philippe Poizat,
François Leenhardt, Patrick Grenthe
(also French Bridge Federation presi‑
dent), Guy Lasserre, non‑playing captain
Philippe Cronier, and Patrice Pïganeau.
Inset: Philippe Vanhoutte.
Photo by Ron Tacchi.

22 Bridge Bulletin January 2012
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2012
