Qualified for the 2027 World Championships!

Hi everyone!

As usual, Anaïs and I tried to travel by train rather than fly whenever possible, so we did the entire Paris–Riga journey by rail on the way there!

That meant travelling from Paris to Berlin, Berlin to Warsaw, Warsaw to Vilnius and finally Vilnius to Riga, which also gave us the chance to enjoy a full evening in Vilnius.

Of course, this train journey was a little more tiring, so we were glad to arrive two days before the competition and get some proper rest 🙂

Then, on Wednesday 1 July, it was time to begin seven days of round-robin competition, during which we would face each of the other 21 teams once.

This time, Vanessa Reess was our captain for the week, and our teammates were Marion Canonne and Mathilde Thuillez, as well as Sabine Rolland and Catherine Sarian. Before the competition, our main goal was to qualify for the World Championships, especially as they will be held in Barbados 😉

A well-bid hand… but an unlucky one

Let’s start with a hand from the second day, during our match against England. I was sitting South and Anaïs North:

Over 1♥, I had already shown four or five spades with a Cachalot double. After West’s 2NT, showing a four-card heart raise, Anaïs made an opener’s double to show three spades in a positive hand.

I could therefore place her with a singleton heart, since the opponents had a nine-card fit and I held three cards in the suit. I also knew she had around ten good points and necessarily a minor-suit fit with me: her shape had to be either 3♠–1♥–4♦–5♣ or 3♠–1♥–3♦–6♣.

I made a takeout double to find out more, and she replied 3♠, denying six clubs. I now knew she had four diamonds! I tried an invitational 4♦, and she raised to game. Looking at both hands, the contract was perfectly reasonable, but with trumps breaking 4–1, it was impossible to make… A shame, as I was rather pleased with our auction!

At the other table, our teammates defended 3♥, which went one down.

Let’s go and get those points!!!

East overcalled with Landy, showing both majors, over my partner’s 1NT opening! Before the intervention, I had planned to bid Stayman: if Anaïs held four spades, I still wanted to play game, and without a fit I would invite game in no-trumps with 2NT, as my club length brought my seven high-card points up to invitational strength.

Once East had shown both majors with Landy, however, I no longer had a spade fit to look for, nor any way to invite game in no-trumps… My options were to try doubling them at the two level in a major, use Rubensohl to play 3♣ — after the intervention, 2NT would be a transfer to clubs — or simply bid 3NT and cross my fingers!

That is exactly what I chose to do, with a stopper in both majors and several potential tricks. Anaïs managed to make the contract with some excellent play: a spade was led to West’s ace, and West returned a spade to East’s queen, followed by another spade.

At that point, Anaïs played a club to the jack — partly because West was more likely to hold the clubs, and partly to avoid blocking the suit — then cashed the king of clubs and all the remaining clubs before playing a diamond towards her king.

That gave her nine tricks: six clubs and one in each of the other three suits! We won’t comment on the 1NT opening… 😉

A doubled part-score made against Poland

Here is my hand in South. After opening 1♣ — I know some players prefer to open 1♦ and rebid 2♣, but that is really not my style: I would rather rebid my clubs than risk playing in a 4–2 diamond fit — West made a takeout double.

Anaïs then bid a natural 1♠, which East doubled for penalties, showing at least four spades.

I passed, as 1NT would show an intermediate-strength hand with short spades in our system, and I was no longer forced to misrepresent the length of my clubs.

The auction continued Pass – Pass – 1NT from Anaïs, followed by 2♠ from East. I now knew that East held five spades, since she had rebid the suit, which meant Anaïs had only four. She had also denied four hearts, so she was either 4-4-3-2 with four diamonds or 4-3-3-3. Either way, we had a minor-suit fit.

I therefore bid 2NT for the minors, accurately showing my 5-4 shape, so that we could play at the three level in whichever minor she preferred. Even if we had gone one down, I think 2♠ was making… but this time I made 3♣ exactly, while our teammates also scored 2♠ making in the other direction at the other table!

It was wonderful to be in Riga, the capital of Latvia, and to enjoy its very charming old town.

The cat is one of the city’s symbols, so we went looking for the various cat sculptures around town, including the most famous one on top of the Cat House 🙂

An endplay in the final match!

To finish, here is the first board of the final match of the championship, against Norway. Two years ago, we had also ended the championship against this team, who finished first by the narrowest of margins, just ahead of us…

This time, we were sitting in sixth place. We were no longer at risk of missing qualification, nor did we have any chance of winning a medal, so our only aim was to stay focused and try to push them a little further down the standings 😉 We actually played a very good match against this excellent team, who eventually finished fifth.

I was playing 2♠ after my partner made a minor-major double over 1NT.

The defence started with the ace of diamonds, followed by the king and a third diamond to my queen. I could therefore infer that East had started with three diamonds.

I played a club towards dummy, hoping to discard a heart if I could establish a club trick, while also gathering more information about the distribution. East won with the king of clubs and switched to a heart, which West played to the nine and dummy won with the king. I ruffed a club, played a spade to the ace, ruffed another club and then played the queen of spades. West won with the king and returned a heart.

At that point, I was left with J-9 of spades and one heart. I knew West had started with 4-4 in the minors, and I strongly suspected she also held three hearts and two spades. However, if I played a heart, I could indeed finesse East’s ten, but the danger was that spades might be 3-3. In that case, I could be uppercut and lose to West’s ten of spades…

In the end, I played a heart because my reading of the distributions felt right. This line also combined the chances of West holding a doubleton king of spades and spades being 3-3 with the ten third in East, in which case nothing would have changed anyway.

That gave me eight tricks, after losing only two diamonds, one spade, one heart and one club, while the Norwegian declarer at the other table went three down on the same lead!!