Norwegian Pair Championships 2024
Check out the first article by Nicolai, a young Norwegian prodigy!
The only junior pair participating!
Day 1: A nice suit preference play for the set!
Day 2: Finally, we finished first at the end of each day!
Day 3: And finally, the gold medal!
The youngest gold medalist in the Norwegian Pair Championship
Who am I?
My name is Nicolai, I am 16 years old, and I am part of the Norwegian U26 national team.
I’ve been passionate about bridge from a very young age, and I recently had the honor of becoming the youngest player to win a gold medal at the Norwegian Pair Championship. It’s an immense pride for me to represent my country in this game that I love so much.
Additionally, I am part of the Funbridge Team, where I proudly wear number 22.
Link for the article on the Funbridge Team : Team Funbridge is seeking to conquer the world!
The only junior pair participating!
This weekend the Norwegian pair championship was held in Kragerø in the southern part of Norway.
54 pairs were qualified through different qualification tournaments.
My partner and I qualified as the winners of last year’s junior championships which made us the only junior pair in the event.
My partner is 24-year-old Markus Lund. We have played on the Norwegian U26 team in the last couple of years and we have played together for 3-4 years.
Not only is Markus an incredibly talented bridge player but he is also one of the nicest partners and friends I have, so I looked forward to the event.
The tournament lasted 3 days, 53 rounds of 3 boards, 159 in total. Our goal for the event was to be fighting for a medal.
Day 1: A nice suit preference play for the set!
We got off to an amazing start leading half-way into the first session, but then we had a couple of very bad rounds, which put us just below average after the first session.
In board 26 Markus got a defence problem, with this hand:
The partner, surprisingly after having opened with a preempt, doubles.
What would be your opening lead?
Markus chose the Ace of Hearts and was able to see the dummy.
On the Ace of Hearts, partner played the 3 and North played the 7.
How do you continue?
Markus thought it would be difficult to beat this contract without a club trick, so he continued with the King of Clubs! I played the Queen on the King. Trusting my suit preference signal, Markus played another Heart, which I was able to ruff!
This was the whole deal :
The second session started after we had lunch and after a solid session we were now second after the first day.
Day 2: Finally, we finished first at the end of each day!
When we arrived at the playing area, we learned that a director’s ruling had moved us from second to first place. We were now going to start on BBO, where we played 10 of the 12 rounds in the session. In the second session, I played two interesting 4♠ contracts.
I was playing 4♠ after North overcalled 2♣️ over my 1♠ opening. I received the lead of the King of Clubs, which was covered by the Ace, followed by a diamond return from South. I won it with the Ace. Now I had to decide how to handle the Spades: if I played for a 2-2 split, I could play the King of Spades to their Ace, win the Diamond return, draw trumps, and claim eleven tricks by discarding my Diamond on the Hearts.
But I chose the other option: after the Ace of Diamonds, I played three rounds of Hearts, discarding my Diamond. Then, I played the 3 of Spades from the dummy. It was followed by the 2, and I played the 4 (!!!) from my hand, revealing North’s singleton Ace of Spades. I was able to score my eleven tricks and a very good percentage.
The second 4♠ came just 5 boards later. I was playing it from the West hand, as we play transfer responses after 1♣️.
The defense started by playing the King and then the Queen of Diamonds, which I ruffed. I drew trumps in two tricks, ruffed a Diamond, and played a Club towards the King. Now, watch what happened when I played all the Spades. I reached a very nice five-card end position, where if South discarded the Jack of Clubs, I could give up the Ace and claim the rest. Or, if South discarded a Heart (which they chose), I now had four heart tricks. I’m not sure what this type of squeeze is called, but I think it’s a squeeze without the count.
We finished the day in the lead with a massive 140-point advantage (26 points being a top), and we had led the entire day. In the evening, we went to the spa and pool to try and relax before the big final day.
Day 3: And finally, the gold medal!
We had a huge lead and just needed to avoid a catastrophic final session to secure our first Norwegian gold medal in the open category.
We started the session with a few decent rounds, increasing our lead to around 200 points. But then, we had a disastrous table with a score of minus 50, reducing our lead to only 120 points, as the players behind us had a good table.
And then I pick up this hand. Both my partner and my right-hand opponent had passed initially.
I didn’t really have a good opening bid, so I decided to pass. To my great surprise, my left-hand opponent opened 1♠. My partner, who had passed, intervened with 1NT, showing a two-suited hand. The right-hand opponent doubled. I knew my partner had the red suits, and I knew this was going to be a disaster; we were at risk of getting a 0% board when we were so close to victory. I felt my heart racing and made an effort by bidding 2♣️. My left-hand opponent doubled, and my partner bid 2♦, quickly doubled by the right-hand opponent.
I then made a very bad bid of redouble, hoping for a possible escape to 3♣️ or even 2♠. Unfortunately for us, my partner misunderstood my redouble and passed!
I felt awful as I laid down the dummy, and I left the room to get a glass of water and calm down. I knew we were probably still leading with about 60-70 points after this board, and that with two normal rounds, we could still win. I returned to the table after a few minutes, and Markus had managed to limit the damage to -1000, going down two.
Here is the full deal:
The youngest gold medalist in the Norwegian Pair Championship
After the board, we looked at each other with a smile and said we just needed to forget about this board and move on.
As expected, we scored no points on that board. But after two flat rounds, we had done it! We had won our first national championship together.
We also made Norwegian bridge history, as at 16 years old, I became the youngest player ever to win the gold medal in the Norwegian Pair Championship.
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So young, so brillant ! congrats Nicolaï
❤️❤️
Such an impressive win, congrats
Congrats Nicolai !