World Bridge Championships – Day 9

In the Bowl, USA1 (Nickell) was trailing Hungary 81-70 at sun down two days back. The Nickell team is known for its famous comebacks. This time around, they shifted gears after going into lead in the fourth set and blazed ahead winning the fifth 54-2 Nickell himself leading from front. Hungary did not survive that onslaught and capitulated despite winning the sixth set 45-21.

For USA1, Zia Mahmood and Jeff Meckstroth teamed up with the other professional pairing Mark Lair and Mike Pasell. For India, Anil Padhye-Rajesh Dalal playing Precision based methods paired up with bronze medallists in 2019 Subroto Saha and Sukamal Das. Here is the VU Graph summary of 2022 SENIORS QF INDIA vs USA1.

• For the first three boards, contracts, were identical with same result.
• Fourth board, INDIA increased lead by 1 due to an over trick. In the next board, USA went to a game, but INDIA stayed in a partial. Gain of 5 when they went down, but we made with an over trick. India now ahead by 8.
• USA1 hit back. They bid a cold slam, but India strangely stopped in 4NT. Loss of 10 IMPs and now down by 2. Two push boards followed without any exchange of imps. India gained 2 IMP in a part score battle. After a gladiatorial battle of 89 boards SCORES WERE EVEN STEVENS!
• India went to a solitary IMP lead in the next due to another over trick.
• Then Anil-Rajesh almost didn't reach a thin 4H . Third hand Anil opened 1D and in their system a 2H jump response showed both Majors 5-5. Anil passed that bid holding just a bare opening hand KT, KQx, QJT9xx, xx. Mark Lair held xxxx, -, AKxxx, AJ32 and thought they were being talked out of a partial. He balanced with unusual 2N (to show minors), now Rajesh got a chance to bid 3H to show 6 of the good stuff. Mike Pasell bid 4C, but Anil raised to 4H forcing opponents to now find the 5C which Rajesh doubled as he could see defense with his diamond void.

  Anil didn't find the diamond lead. Instead, he led the heart King which would have resulted in 1 down if Pasell judged correctly. All Pasell needed to do was to ruff out 2 hearts and concede a heart and two spades. However, he could see a way to make the contract if two rounds of diamonds cashed (unlikely given the rebid of 3H by Rajesh). Pasell misjudged the hand and tried to crossover with a diamond to the Ace. Rajesh ruffed and now there was an easy 2 down with Spade King with Anil as entry for a second ruff. At the other table, After Zia passed holding AQJxx, Jxxxxx, - , xx, Meckstroth opened 3D with Anil's hand in third seat. Everyone passed. 3D went two down as Zia was void in the suit. It could have gone down 3 if Saha had given partner a heart ruff at trick 7 when Sukamal found a great underlead from AJxx in clubs to partners KQxxx. 2 down is +100 to India giving a nett of 9 IMPs. India ahead by 10 IMPs!

  The result in this board could have been different in many ways. For eg: 5CX could have gone only 1 down if Pasell played correctly, India would have picked up only 5 IMPs.

• All Indian kibitzers, who were praying for swings in India's favour, now switched sides and wanted only push boards so that our lead stood. Bridge gods obliged, and three quiet boards followed with identical result in both tables. India were thus ahead by 10 IMPs going to penultimate board. Then disaster struck.
• In board #95 of the 96 board match, Anil-Rajesh forgot their system. After Major opening their 2C response is artificial and starts a complicated relay. The exact sequence and who forgot what is not clear, they didnt find their 4-4 heart fit, they also didnt get their RKC response correct with the result that ended up in the worst possible contract of 7NT with ONE ACE missing. Lair was on lead and held the Ace. He also held QTxx in spades, suit opened by Rajesh. 7NT can be held to 11 tricks which would have given +300 to USA1. Who can blame him for cashing the Ace and taking the contract 1 down, that was what he did.

  All USA1 needed to do was to bid the cold 6H contract and Meck-Zia got their auction off to a good start playing fairly simpler and natural methods. 1S-2C-2H-3H and control bidding sequences followed. When Meck showed Diamond control by bidding 4D, East - Sukamal - who was the protagonist of a double with QTxx which propelled USA1 to an unbiddable grand slam - decided that if one double lost, another might gain. He doubled with A873.

  Now Zia had a problem. He held two small cards in diamonds, but a decent hand otherwise. So he passed leaving Meck to decide how to go ahead. Meck held KJx in diamonds. He knew Sukamal's double from earlier, top class Bridge players have memory of elephants. Still, how can Meck know that Sukamal might be doing a double bluff? It became a SPY vs SPY situation (for the fans of MAD comics). He rebid 4H.

  When it came round, it was Zia's decision point. He also remembered Sukamal's double from two days earlier. Would he call his bluff and proceed to Slam? After along thought Zia passed, much to the relief of Indian fans. Sukamal's double bluff worked. Zia played and made 12 tricks easily, so India lost 13 IMPs and now down by 3 IMPs only. If Zia had proceeded to the Slam, they would have gained 17 IMPs and India would have been 7 IMPs in deficit. 3 IMPs, still recoverable in 1 board.

• So we moved on to the last board of the QF, still too close to call. In the closed room, Pasell opened 1N holding Qx, AKQx, KQxxx, Tx. LAIR holding xx, xxx, Axx, KQJxx could simply have jumped to 3N. Instead, he decided to bid 3C. This gave Rajesh an opportunity. He held AKT9xxx in spades, 7312 shape. He bid 3S, Pasell passed holding only Qx in the suit (wonder what double would have meant - if it showed takeout in other suits, they can reach a 4-3 heart fit game which will go only 1 down - which turned out to be pertinent too).

  When the bidding came back to Lair, he would have started regretting his decision to bid 3C. He could Double (1 down), bid 4C (makes) or bid 3NT and pray. He bid 3NT which Pasell passed (afterall partner could hold Jxx from his point of view). This was serious misjudgement of their opponents. Given so much information, USA1 should have taken their plus instead of trying to bluff it out in a situation that opponents cannot go wrong. Anil promptly led a spade and Indians were happy to collect 4 DOWN! +400 out of nowhere. One would have thought drama would end there, after all down only 3 and +400 up in NS direction, what could go wrong?

  Well for one thing the result could get duplicated. It did look like that when Subroto opened 1N and Sukamal bid 3. It might have gone all pass and Meck might have found the lead. Zia holding the same hand as Rajesh decide to DOUBLE. Such doubles ask partner to lead his shorter major, an easy lead of Spade for Meck. Now Indian supporters finished chewing their nails and started on their fingertips. If India tried to bluff it out, consequences would be serious. +1100 to USA and the match.

  The Indians had two problems to solve. Could Zia be repaying Sukamal's double with a bluff of his own? After all Zia is ... Zia! He is very capable of making Indians run from a cold 3NT by coming in with a bluff double. Secondly will Indians judge correctly that 3N wont make and find their making partial? Will they go overboard? Subroto had no opinion in the matter and passed the decision to Sukamal.

  Sukamal (who held xx, xxx, Axx, KQJxx) went into long thought, Indian kibitzers turned blue holding their breath. Finally Sukamal decided that he had his doubts about 3NT. They were vulnerable and losses could be huge. He REDOUBLED. In modern Bridge, the REDOUBLE is not usually bravado, it conveys one's doubt in the final contract to partner, asks partner to judge. This made things very clear to Sukamal. He had an easy bid of 4D, this came around to Zia who decided that he had done enough. India turned the match on its head in the last board by snatching a win by 4 IMPs.

 

If you look back at the decisions marked in RED, in the first case, if USA played correctly, they would have won by 2IMPs. In the second one, if Zia judged that Sukamal was bluffing, the match would have ended in a TIE and as per rules, USA1 would have won the match as they had won the direct encounter in RR. Little would Sukamal know that the quiet 4D he played to make 10 tricks would be cheered all over by Indian Bridge fans, a commentator said 1 billion Indians cheering. He seriously overestimated the number of Indians who know Bridge (now if it were cricket ....)

Earlier in the day, Indian MIXED team finished 18^th in the championships. They lost the first match to USA2 (who failed to qualify) and won the last two matches against Portugal and Singapore.