Source: 7-17 July 2002 18th EUROPEAN YOUTH BRIDGE TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS
During the first couple of days we have heard on more than one occasion that juniors are uninhibited bidders.There may be some truth in that statement. We also recognise that many of the juniors participating in these Junior Championships later turn up in the corresponding Open and Women’s European Team Championships.
By then, they have often become more cautious bidders, but not always.Take a look at this example from the match between Ukraine and Russia in the recent Open Championship
in Salsomaggiore.
In the Closed Room, Russia were sitting North/South. When North, Maxim Khven opened in second seat with a Precision style 1
, South, Georgi Matushko felt that he had to talk his
opponents out of a likely game. Although East, Gennadiy Rybnikov had entered the bidding with a take-out double, Matushko calmly introduced his heart suit at the one level. And when West, Dmytro Nikolayenko made a responsive double and North was able to raise to 2
, Matushko competed to 3
over East’s 3
.
When this did not prevent West from bidding 3NT, Matushko had to sacrifice in 4
to prevent his opponents scoring their vulnerable game.
This was the full auction:
West led his lowest club to partner’s queen. The trump switch was won by West’s ace and a trump continuation by the king on table. A diamond to the ten and queen gave the defence
an opportunity to play the third round of trumps. Matushko won the trump on table and played
A then took a ruffing finesse against East’s king.Two down resulted in an 8 IMP pick-up as 3NT was made at the other table. Even on a forcing defence, playing the black suits instead of drawing trumps, the best the defence can manage is down three, which would still be a 3 IMP gain to Russia.
