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Tournament Report

The 6th European Mixed Pairs Championship

The above event was held in Rimini, Italy. For a Mixed Pairs event the standard was fairly high, with people like Paul Chemla, a previous French World Champion, playing. The format was a qualifying round of three 26 board sessions with the top third going through for a further two sessions in the main final.

The man sits either West or North throughout and screens are used so that the men always have a lady screen-mate. I found these hard work, as trying to elicit information from a lot of Italian ladies about their carding methods was difficult, to put it mildly!

Sandy thought the screens were ideal because (a) she had the Italian men and (surprisingly) they appeared to speak better English, and (b) she could not see my unhappy face when her normally optimistic dummy hit the table!

Who is right I will leave you to judge with the following:

			A 10 4 3
			A 3 2
			9
			Q 10 8 4 2
	K J 7	N W E S			9 5 2
	7 6 4				Q 10 8 5
	K 8 2				7 5 4
	A K 7 6				J 9 5
			Q 8 6
			K J 9
			A Q J 10 6 3
			2

North	South
	1
1	2
3	4

None of the bids seem particularly bad but going off in 4 will be a bad board. 4 was led (4th highest). So, if you followed with A, Q throwing a club, you are off to a good start. I ruffed the third diamond and played small to Q. Eventually going back to dummy and finessing 10 resulted in 11 tricks for a very good score.

	A K 4
	A K Q 3
	Q 2
	A Q 10 8
	J 9 8 2
	9
	A K J 6 4 3
	9 2

After South opened 1, I eventually became declarer in 7NT with the J lead. The correct way is to play A, K, Q and A, K and then run the diamonds. With East holding Q and K, there is a squeeze. I fell from grace and eventually took the club finesse going two off for well below average.

Finally, a defensive problem:

			A J 10 7 6
			A 3
			A Q 4 2
			A 8
	K Q 3 2	N W E S			9 5
	J 10 8				K 9 7 3 2
	8				K 9 3
	10 9 6 5 2				K J 4
			8 4
			Q 6 4
			J 10 7 6 5
			Q 7 2

North	South
1	1NT
3	5
No*

* after a long pause!

The only defence is a diamond lead and then when you are thrown in with the third diamond, to lead a spade. Fortunately, I was North and received a club lead. Spread over three days, I would recommend the event to anyone.

Sandy and Tom reached the Main Final and were, I believe, the highest placed British pair.