The Girls won gold at the 29th Youth Championships in Wroclaw (Poland)! (updated on 18/07/24)
29th Youth Championships in Wroclaw
Train journey and visit to the city of Wroclaw
A deal by Ninon Bens and Eulalie Bonin, members of the Under-21 team
The point for the U26s by Luc Bellicaud
Three intensive days of competition
A card-play deal from our first day of the Championships
A difficult deal on high-level two-suiters
29th Youth Championships in Wroclaw
The 8th World Youth Transnational Championships began on Saturday 13th July. They were preceded a few days earlier by the 29th Team Championships, on the same site in Wroclaw, Poland.
The difference with the Transnationals? The young bridge players who participate in them are required to represent their own country. Margaux Kurek-Beaulieu (Team Funbridge member) and Luc Bellicaud (Funbridge ambassador) give us an insider’s glimpse into this event.
Meet the teams
From the 7th to 12th July, after the “grown-up” championships which took place in Denmark, the Youth Championships in Wroclaw, Poland, took place. 5 teams took part in it: the U16s (under 16 years old), the U21s, the U26s, the U31s and the U26 Girls.
Esteban, Lubin, Blanche, Robin, Saveria and Grégoire. Captain: Thibaud Vincenot
Baban, Colin, Pierre, Raph, Louis and Thomas. Captain: Nathalie Frey
Luc, Théo, Léo, Maxence, Roro and Nao. Captain: David Harari
Costa, Maximilien, Eulalie, Clément, Ninon and Silvère. Captain: Christophe Oursel
For my part, I was still playing for the Girls, for the third year in a row, with my partner Clara and with Zoey, Elise, Wil and Constance, still accompanied by our coach Wilfried Libbrecht.
The U26s and U21s started playing on the Sunday, over six days, while the U16s, U31s and the Girls played four days, from Tuesday to Friday.
Train journey and visit to the city of Wroclaw
As for the Championships in Denmark, I was part of Team Train, this time in the company of Luc, Roro, Raph and Clara (passing through Cologne and Berlin).
As for Constance, she cycled from Paris to Wroclaw, which was almost 1,300 kilometres! Even more eco-friendly than us!
As we would only start playing on the Tuesday, we visited the city of Wroclaw, also called the Venice of Poland. We visited the city centre, dotted with statues of dwarves made of bronze, which are characteristic of the city, and tasted the famous “pierogi“.
At the end of the first two days, the French U21 and U26 teams were not ranking too well; but it was just the beginning!
The provisional rankings for the Under-21s in green and that of the U26 Open in blue.
A deal by Ninon Bens and Eulalie Bonin, members of the Under-21 team:
Eulalie’s hand as South:
My partner opened a Kokish-style 2♣, meaning that she had 22-23 points or a game-forcing hand. Over my obligatory 2♦, she made the bid of 2♥, which had two meanings: either 22-23 balanced (2NT over 2♦ would have shown 24+) or a game-forcing hand with Hearts. I therefore had to make another relay with 2♠ and Ninon bid her second suit naturally with 3♦. I then had a magnificent hand opposite and was able to show support with 3♥. Ninon decided to jump suddenly to 5♣: this was Exclusion Blackwood; she had a void in Clubs and wanted to know whether I held keycards other than the Ace of Clubs, which would be useless to her. I therefore responded 5♥ (4 or 1 keycards, excluding the Ace of Clubs).
Ninon asked me for Kings by bidding 5NT. She was looking for a grand slam and I was far from having shown my whole hand: I had a diamond shortage, three trumps when I might just have two, the Ace of Clubs which could cover a loser, the Queen of Spades as a side card. I went for it and bid 7♥!
Played by Ninon, who made thirteen tricks after ruffing two diamonds in the dummy, with the Ace and the 10!
The point for the U26s by Luc Bellicaud:
After two days of play, we had had a difficult start and were sitting 9th in the rankings. The team had not had a very inspired game, unlike our opponents, who made astonishly few errors given the standard of the category.
Here is a very nice defence found by Romaric during the last match and I suggest you put yourself in his position:
(1) 2NT: heart fit, unlimited
(2) Pass: no diamond singleton, limited to 16 points
Your partner leads the ♦9 and it is now up to you to find where your second trick is coming from at the sight of this formidable dummy!
Romaric very correctly analysed the hand and returned… a club! In this way, he severed Declarer’s communications so that he could no longer cope with the trumps being 4-1.
On a passive spade defence, Declarer will suspect that the King of Clubs is onside after the initial pass followed by a 3♦ overcall. He would then be able to play two rounds of trumps and combine his chances: if the trumps were 3-2, taking a successful club finesse and establishing them with a ruff, also succeeding with the Clubs 3-1. But if the trumps were 4-1 and the Clubs could not be established with a ruff, the only option then would be to play for the King of Clubs to be singleton or doubleton onside, as was the case here!
The full deal:
Three intensive days of competition
For the five teams that were present, the goals were very different: the U31s and the Girls, respectively first and second in the previous World Championships, were indeed hoping to pick up a medal. The U21s and U16s had new teams and were aiming to qualify for the World Championships in 2025. As for the Juniors, qualification was also the priority, as we shall see later!
A card-play deal from our first day of the Championships
The first of the second match, against the Israelis. My right-hand opponent opened a weak 2♦, over which I overcalled with 2♠. 4♦ on my left and 4♠ by Clara.
Ace of Diamonds lead and these were our two hands:
To make my contract, I needed to only lose the Ace of Diamonds and two clubs. I therefore had to work on the assumption that the heart finesse would succeed. If the Ace and King of Clubs were divided, I would make easily. If both were sitting over me, I would try to execute a throw-in: on the second diamond ruff, I therefore won with the King to take the heart finesse. Queen, King, Ace of Hearts and then the Jack and a heart ruffed. Ace of Spades and a spade to Dummy’s King, heart ruffed. Spade to the 10 and a club to the Queen.
West was on lead with the King of Clubs and had nothing to return: if he played anything other than a club, that would be a ruff-and-discard and I would ruff in my hand, discarding a club from the dummy. Only two clubs to the opponents and +620 for us!
Constance, the eldest on our team, and me, in red for our first day of the competition.
A difficult deal on high-level two-suiters
Over a Multi 2♦, Clara and I play specific two-suited bids on the first round, on the basis that the opponent has Spades. 3♠ is a minor two-suiter and 4 in a minor shows a 5-5 hand with Hearts and the minor bid. The bid is almost forcing. I decided, despite a significant number of losers, to make a two-suited bid because if a large number of spades came back, I would never be able to show both of my suits.
Clara bid 4♥ over 4♦ despite her lovely cards (Ace of Hearts and two honours in my diamond suit). Luckily, as after having lost two hearts and a club, we were delighted not to be too high!
During the Championships, we took the time to have a meal with the whole team in the centre of town, invited by our coach. In the photo, Wilhelmine Schlumberger, with whom I played the Transnational Championships the following week (Teams and Pairs).
A very difficult defensive deal for Clara
Here is Clara’s hand as North. The opponents were playing in 4♥ and she was on lead. She decided to lead her singleton club.
The dummy:
The 10 was won by West’s Ace and Clara saw the 4 appear from me. In this situation, I was not giving my partner count: I knew that she would want to ruff and I was giving her suit preference to help her to put me in to give her a ruff.
When West played the Ace and then the Jack of Hearts, Clara then had to win the Queen and return a diamond away from the Ace, the only way of getting me in to give the ruff! What is more, the ruff also severed communications with the dummy and Declarer went three down in 4♥.
On Thursday evening, the third day for us, we reached the match that I had been looking forward to the most: France-Norway! First, the Norwegians were our main competitors in these championships and you should know that the previous week, I had come second in the Women’s European Championships in Denmark, behind Norway. Out of the question to do that again!
Well, the final reason why I was really looking forward to this match was because I would be playing against my friend Sofie Sjodal, whom I had met when we played together in the Winter Games in Alpe d’Huez. I was therefore pleased to measure our teams against each other in an atmosphere that promised to be very pleasant.
After a great victory against the Norwegians, we were almost certain to be at the top of the podium the following day. We had two matches left: Netherlands and Germany.
As for the other teams, the U31s were currently second by 3 points to the Bulgarians. In the U26s and U16s, it was a provisional eighth place, which would have to be maintained at least in order to play in the championships the following year. In the U21s, it was going to be tough to qualify but we had faith!
A final day that promised to be decisive!
As expected, we won the gold medal with more than a match to go! The Danish girls finished second and the Italians third; well done to them 🙂
As for the other teams, the U31s finished fourth after a difficult final match. The U16s and U26s qualified for the World Championships. The U21s, though, were very close behind those who qualified and we imagine they might be “drafted in” to play next summer.
Clara, Zoey, Elise, Wil, MKB and Constance
I am very happy to have won this first place in the European Championships. See you very soon for the World Championships!
This is my first gold medal in a Teams Championship, on a really nice team: Wilhelmine, my partner Clara, Constance who was playing in the Girls category for the last time (venerable age), and Elise and Zoey, who are new on the French team. Still accompanied by our coach Wilou, this time we won the competition, with more than a match to go!
As I said above, the Norwegians were our main competitors, with Sofie Sjodal (who is part of Team Funbridge and my occasional partner). Unfortunately, it ended very badly for her and her team as they finished just off the podium.
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