MKB qualifies for Riga
Summary
Event overview
A series of bad decisions!
A high-level deal
The U31 Team event
Anaïs’s excellent hand assessment
A very satisfying victory!
Next step: Riga!
Sixteen French bridge players ready to battle it out!
From 1 to 6 April, trials were held to select the French Women’s team. Eight pairs competed against one another to represent France at the upcoming European Championships in Riga (Latvia) in July.
After playing 252 deals, the top two pairs are automatically selected for the team, and the third pair is chosen from among the third- and fourth-placed pairs. The eight participating pairs were:
- Danièle Avon/Sylvie Gombert
- Lizzie Godfrey/Sophie Dauvergne
- Sabine Rolland/Catherine Sarian
- Anne-Fred Lévy/Muriel Clément
- Dominique Bourdin/Blandine Delestre
- Marion Canonne/Mathilde Thuillez
- Constance Belloy/Séverine Paulissen
As for me, I was playing with Anaïs, my partner in the French Women’s team for the past two years. We were the favourites to make it to the team again, but we had to give it our all during the six days of competition, especially as this was the first time either of us had been selected as a pair.
The concept: we play twelve deals against a pair in one line, then compare our results with the three other pairs who are in the other line. We then have an average of our performance as a partnership for each match.
A series of bad decisions!
This is my hand in South. A 1♥ opening on the right and it’s my turn. I had three options: double, 1NT and 2♣. I quickly ruled out 2♣ as I only play it with six cards when vulnerable, then the double as I was too afraid of a 2♦ response.
I ended up saying 1NT, and the sequence continued: 2♥ on the left, and 2NT Jacoby transfer to clubs opposite (Rubensohl).
I still needed to make a decision about 3♣, which is the standard response, but I felt like saying 3NT, because even if Anaïs doesn’t have much of a hand, if she has the ace of clubs-sixth, I’ll claim 3NT. And if she has the ace-fifth, there will still be time to try the spade finesse…
Anaïs thought long and hard before passing, and I went down because the spade finesse didn’t work… Perhaps one should choose 5♣ with this hand; perhaps one should also be able to show a game-forcing minor two-suiter from the very first bid to avoid this situation (traditionally, 3♠ covers a 5-5 minor two-suiter). A very difficult deal in any case!
A high-level deal
Here is Anaïs’s hand in North. After 3♠, she had no choice but to support with 4♥, or risk never being able to do so.
But when the bidding returned to her at 4♠ doubled, she had to make a decision: pass on the double or bid higher, choosing which trump to use.
She chose to bid 5♦ to describe her very distributional hand. this allowed me in South to visualise that long suit and call for the small slam.
I bid 6♥ rather than 6♦ because with KQJ of hearts and being almost certain to find the ace opposite, I wasn’t worried. But another player bid 6♦ in the same situation and it’s likely that was a better choice!
Relax time at the U31 Team event
On Saturday evening, I finished my fourth day of trials at 6.30pm and ran to the other side of the federation building: off to twelve deals with my regular partner Clara Bouton, with whom I won the European Girls Championships two years ago.
She played for the rest of the weekend with Saveria Garcia, her partner in the French Youth team this year, and the other pair in the team consisted of Théo and Grégoire, two particularly friendly U21s.
I was delighted to be able to play one of the six matches over the weekend with them! These competitions for players under 31 always take place in a very friendly atmosphere, and even more so when it’s a team event.
I was in South against Maxence Fragola and Clément Lejosne. I was in a 4♠ contract, having opened 2♠ (spades and a minor suit) in South on the lead of the 3 of hearts.
In duplicate bridge, my objective is clear: I simply need to take ten tricks with the spade trump suit. I had one club loser, maybe two, so I must above all limit my losers in spades.
I was not entirely sure of my play, and I was very tempted to play the jack of spades as a forcing card. If the queen is on the left, I’m off to a good start, and if I lose the queen on the right, there’s still time to play a spade to the dummy by passing the right card. Well, it turned out that playing a spade to the king and then a spade to my hand was statistically better, but in the meantime my jack of spades was covered by the queen, to the king and ace.
Clément paused for a moment before playing a club, so I decided to pass the king, because looking at the dummy, having the ace was a good reason to hesitate. I made my king and played a spade to the dummy, crossing my fingers for a good distribution of the suit… and it’s a win! Ten tricks despite some rather haphazard play! Here are the four hands:
The next day, Clara came to see me after my third match on Sunday: they had managed to win the bronze medal! I was even happier to have taken part in the competition alongside my team! And well done to the top two teams, who managed to stay one match ahead of us!
Anaïs’s excellent hand assessment
Here is Anaïs’s hand in North. After making a moderate reverse bid (3♣ starts at 16 points), she heard 3♦, which indicates a nice one-suiter. She decided to check for the heart stopper with the 4th suit forcing, and saw that I have the suit stopped.
She then realised that if I hadn’t bid 3NT directly over 3♣, it’s because I had an alternative contract in diamonds in mind, and she listed the strong points of her hand: the ace of spades, ace-king of clubs, and above all the king of diamonds. She said 4♦, and we had no trouble at all playing in small slam in diamonds.
Well done to her for her judgement during the bidding. She is the only one to bid on over 3NT and it was very well played!
A very satisfying victory!
My partner and I are so happy to have proved that we deserved our place in the team. There’s a special sense of satisfaction in qualifying as a pair, without owing your success to your team-mates. What’s more, we stayed at the top of the rankings from start to finish – quite an achievement!
Next step: Riga with Anaïs, Sabine, Catherine, Marion and Mathilde!
Here is our entire team – young and dynamic – and we’re hoping to achieve a good result this summer!
I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you about one last deal played by my new team-mates, Sabine and Catherine.
In the 6♠ contract, they led the 4 of hearts under ace-king-queen to try to give the lead to their partner and get a second trick by ruffing a club.
The declarer forgot to pass dummy’s jack, and they managed the feat of taking two tricks!
An imaginative defence that paid off.
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