27th European Youth Team Championships – Day 4
Follow the European Youth Team Championships taking place in Oslo, Norway, with Milan Macura from 4 to 11 July!
Milan Macura is the captain of the Czech team sponsored by Funbridge. He is familiar with Funbridge. You can watch the weekly videos of his challenges against Argine in our Videos section.
Throughout the Championships, Milan will share the highlights of the event as well as interesting deals. His summary of Day 4 is already available.
DAY 4: Half of The European Youth Team Championships
Report #4
Deal analysis:
From match 12 in the Round Robin, you will get a real test both as Declarer and Defender.
After a standard bidding, you reach 3NT as NS and opponents lead a ♠6. How do you see your chances?
 J 2 A Q 8 A 8 3  A Q 5 3 2 |
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 |
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| 10 9 5 K J 5 2 Q J 7 6 4 K |
As declarer you have four tricks in ♥, one trick in ♦ and three tricks in ♣. That is 8 quick tricks in total, so you need to get more trick. An easy solution where to get the last trick is to make a finesse in ♦ and hope the ♦K is with East. But, if opponents cash only two top spades and switch to a ♣ or a ♥, do you see a better way to play?
You should expect East to have six spades since West failed to play a third round of spades. So you unblock the ♣K, cross to the hand with ♥A, cast the clubs and cash the hearts ending in the dummy. East follows twice in clubs and three times in hearts. Playing the diamond finesse gives you 50% chance. But, if you do the distribution analysis, you will find East holding 6♠3♥2♦2♣. The right play is to exit with the ♠10 and East has to lead from the ♦K to give you the nineth trick for making.
Can East do something better in this board?
Yes. East can see the endplay and try to protect against it. The sooner East realizes he will be endplayed, the sooner he should discard a ♦ to make his ♦K singleton. Declarer has to figure it out and play the diamond to the ♦A to make all his tricks which is not that easy as the endplay.
Can you even a better play for E-W pair?
West can help his partner from the difficult situation later and return the diamond after he cashes the two spade tricks. Bridge is partnership game and partners need to help each other.
The proper defense should be taking the ♠A first and then the ♠K to signal doubleton. East should play the right spade in the second trick to show the suit preference. Smallest spade should show the ♣ switch, highest spade shows the heart switch and the middle one can be a preference for diamonds. So, if you lead 4th best, you lead the 6 and you should play the ♠7 in the second trick which should be the middle spot card since partner knows about your higher card and should also know about the small ♠, because North denied 4c major.
Here is the full deal:
| J 2 A Q 8 A 8 3 A Q 5 3 2 |
| Q 8 7 6 4 3 9 6 4 K 9 10 8 |
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A K 10 7 3 10 5 2 J 9 7 6 4 |
| 10 9 5 K J 5 2 Q J 7 6 4 K |
In the European Youth Team Championships, only half of the field beat this game. Those pairs who went 3 down played the diamond finesse immediately to lose 6 spade tricks and a diamond. 2 pairs reached the best contract of 4♥ which is unbeatable. AS declarer, you lose only 2 spades and a ♦K.
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