Nordic Junior Championship
The Nordic Junior Bridge Championship took place from 17 to 19 April, bringing together players from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
It was an intense competition featuring the region’s best players, including five members of Team Funbridge, who recap the event for us!
Christian Lahrmann
CHRIS
Ella Rosthøj
MOUSE
Getting started with Nicolai (Norway U26s)
On the opening day of the Nordic Junior Bridge Championship, we had 2 matches, against Sweden and Finland.
The 1st match was quite tight, with a lot of flat boards, and we edged past Sweden by 2 IMPs. On the other hand, the 2nd match was more entertaining and we crushed Finland 20-0.
Here is an interesting hand from the 2nd match:
What would you bid?
3NT, 3♠ showing the minors or something else?
I opted for a quantitative 4NT, which worked a treat: my partner jumped to 6♣ with A32 AJ 75 AKQ742. In the absence of a spade lead, making the contract was plain sailing.
After day 1, we were 2nd in the U26 category, behind Denmark.
Day 2 with Ella (Denmark Women’s U26s)
We were 2nd in our group in the morning, but we rose to top spot after the 3rd match.
It is worth noting that the U16, U21 and women’s U26 teams played together because there were not enough teams to form separate groups, unlike in the U26 competition.
Here is a hand that required a bit of thought as declarer:
I was sitting West, playing opposite my usual partner, Julie Marina Sigsgaard. North opened 1♠ and we ended up in 4♥.
4♥ was perhaps a bit ambitious, but that is our style.
North led the ace of spades, followed by the king, which I trumped low in dummy. I had to carefully plan the play from there on.
I had 2 options:
- Use my low trumps to ruff all my losing diamonds and clubs
- Try to establish the clubs
The starting point for both lines is cashing the ace of diamonds to try to get a clue about the distribution. I did so, with North playing the 9 and South the 7. Since they were using reverse count, I inferred that the diamonds probably split 5-3.
Option 1 :
I play the king of diamonds (discarding a club), then ruff a diamond. Next, I play a club to the ace and ruff a club.
If I proceed to ruff a spade, South will discard her remaining club. Then, when I try to ruff a 2nd club, she will ruff in with the queen of hearts and play another trump. This will cost me 1 ruff and I will go off.
As a result, I have to play the king of hearts before ruffing a club. I can then ruff a spade and a club. If South ruffs in with the queen, I can try a coup en passant for my 10th trick. This line works if South holds queen to three hearts.
But if North had held AKQTx in spades and king-queen to three clubs, he would surely have opened 1NT, so this is unlikely.
What about simply cashing the ace-king of diamonds, discarding and then cross-ruffing?
The problem is that if the club finesse loses, North plays another diamond. When South gets in, she can play the queen of diamonds. North can then play a spade, forcing me to ruff with the ace/king in dummy, and South will make a heart.
I eventually chose option 1, but in hindsight, I should have gone for option 2, which works against practically all layouts in which North is 5-2-3-3.
Friday night: transnational speedball
Morten Bilde and I organised a 14-board speedball with transnational teams (no pair could consist of players of the same nationality). In a speedball, the time per hand is reduced by at least half.
I played with a Norwegian, Einar Osen, and we finished 3rd. Andrea and Palma were the winners.
It was a lot of fun and a perfect opportunity to socialise with my fellow juniors!
Home straight with Andrea and Andreas (Sweden U21s and U26s)
The final day was upon us. The U26s had five matches left to play and the U21s had four. Denmark were out ahead in the U26s, while it was wide open in the U21s.
What makes this event so special is the fact that it pits long-time friends against one another. They play the same hands at different tables and then get to compare their decisions afterwards.
Here is a board played by two members of Team Funbridge: Andreas (Sweden) and Nicolai (Norway). Faced with the same hand, they made completely different decisions.
After a 1NT opening to his right, playing green vs red, Nicolai opted to double for penalty on the basis of the 7 obvious tricks in his hand. East passed with 7 points, hoping that the contract would be makeable.
Nicolai’s partner, not wanting to defend, bid 2♣. Next, Nicolai jumped to 3♦ to show a strong suit. East doubled for take-out and the Swedes found their way to game in spades.
Nicolai decided to sacrifice in 5♦, which was doubled and went down 2 for -500. Total bids by Nicolai: 3.
At the other table, Andreas passed 1NT. His reasoning: it was the ideal contract to defend against and he did not want to give the opponents a chance to wriggle out of it.
When East bid Stayman and West showed spades, Andreas passed again. Perhaps overly optimistically, he hoped that responder had the other major and would correct back to no trumps. Total bids by Andreas: 0.
The full layout:
There was one common denominator between their approaches: both felt that, green vs red and holding a long, solid suit, defending was preferable to declaring. The outcome was 8 IMPs to Sweden.
Roll of honour
After a final day full of excitement, Denmark claimed gold in 3 categories: U26s (with a team featuring Christian Lahrmann), U16s and women’s U26s. Norway won out in the U21s. Sweden collected 3 silver medals and finished just 1 VP behind Norway.
Congratulations to everyone involved!
The evening was rounded off with dinner at a hotel. The food was excellent, but the highlight remains the impromptu dance party at the competition venue! 🎶💃
What did you think of this article?
Give us your opinion in the Comments section below!
Congrats to Christian, and everyone 🙂