The Italian Junior Championship with Valentina

The Italian Junior Championships are held at the Palazzo dei Congressi in Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy, every year during the four days just before Easter. The competition starts with the pairs event followed by the teams event.

The number of Italian U26 players has drastically decreased in recent years and unfortunately, we now count only 22 and 45 pairs playing the championships respectively in the Expert and Beginners categories.

The pairs event starts in the early afternoon of Wednesday and consists of 30 boards in the afternoon and 15 in the evening, completing the first day of play. On Thursday morning, we finish the event with another 18 boards.

I was playing with my sister Federica and at the end of the afternoon we had 58.33%, which put us in 4^th place overall at that point.

A bronze medal in the pairs event

The lead was the 4 of hearts followed by the king and ace, and I ruffed in hand with the 4 of diamonds. I played a spade to the ace, a spade to the king and a spade ruffed. And now I knew that spades were 3-4. Then I played a club to the ace and a spade. East didn’t ruff. I ruffed in dummy and played the ace of diamonds. Knowing that East didn’t have QJ of hearts and probably held the king of diamonds, and noticing that he hadn’t led a club, I played a club to the king and successfully caught the queen-doubleton.

All I had to do then was draw trumps, discovering that they were split 3-2, and claim 12 tricks.
A good 61.67% in the evening and we were now in third place.

The next morning we sat at the table at 10am. Luck wasn’t really on our side and after 18 boards we scored 53.61% in this session, but it was enough to consolidate our third place and win the bronze medal.

A silver medal in the teams event

The teams championship began on Friday afternoon. Our team included our older sister Eleonora and her partner Sophia.

The event features 11 teams and starts with 5 rounds of 8-board Swiss matches. Then on Saturday morning, based on the rankings, the teams play for 1^st/2^nd place, 3^rd/4^th place, and so on.

We started off strong and maintained a very high average with 18.37 VPs, 20 VPs and 18.53 VPs in the first three matches before dinner.

Right after dinner we faced the other top contender for the title and only scored 7.23 VPs, with the match ending 18-25.

We managed to bounce back by scoring 20 VPs in the final round of the group stage, securing first place in the standings and qualifying for the 1^st/2^nd place final with a 3.5 IMP carryover.

Here is a really good defence the opponent made against me for beating the contract:

The opponent led the 2 of clubs. I had 6 tricks in diamonds and 2 in hearts, so I needed to find a ninth trick. I played a small club from dummy, which was taken by the queen. Now West returned a diamond, cutting my communications. I won with the jack, then played a club to the 9. After the opponent won with the ace, she played another club, and at that point I had to give up on making the contract because I knew that I would pay 3 clubs and 2 spades.

Unfortunately, on Saturday morning, a few too many mistakes cost us dearly, and after 16 boards we lost 16.5–33 IMPs, with the two segments ending 8–24 and 5–9 respectively.

Despite the bittersweet ending to the teams event, we can be truly proud of having brought home two medals. It was a challenging but rewarding few days, full of intense competition, great bridge, and unforgettable moments.