We arrived at the BBO VG and chose to watch the Zagorin-Blass match that at that time was the most watched match (more than a thousand kibitzers). The set was at that time:  Zagorin: 16 vs Blass: 29…And they were playing board 12. Team Zagorin: Daniel Zagorin, Chicago IL; Peter Bertheau, Sweden; Antonio Palma, Portugal; Frederic Wrang, Stockholm, Sweden; Ola Rimstedt – Mikael Rimstedt, Halmstad, Sweden. Team Blass: Pepsi, Jacek Kalita, Michal Nowosadki, Sjoert Brink, Bas Drijver, Jacek Pszczola Data of some of the players: Mikael & Ola Rimstedt (twins from SWE, they are still juniors) are World Champions, playing together they won the Pairs World Champioship in Orlando in 2018. They are WIM and WBF Rank 105. Antonio Palma is a Portuguese professional bridge player and one of the best of his country. He has taken part in major bridge events playing in the Team Ventin and the Portuguese National Team. He is also is a big fan of challenges on Funbridge. Frederic Wrang: (SWE, he lives in Stockholm, WBF Ranking 64 (WLM) Runner Up in Chennai 2015). Bas Drijver & Sjoert Brink : WGM RANKING MUNDIAL 21 and 19. World Champion 2011 (Veldhoven), Teams World Champion WROCLAW 2016. Jacek Pszczoła, WGM WBF Ranking 23, 2017 World Champion: Team USA2. Two Golds: TransNational 2012 (MILNER TEAM), TransNational 2013 (GORDON TEAM)
Jacek Kalita: GWM WBF Ranking 14, World Champion: Chennai 2015, Silver Medal Pairs World Championship 2014 (SANYA), Professional bridge player. World Grand Master, Bermuda Bowl 2015 winner, Silver World Transnational Teams 2017, Silver World Open Pairs championships 2014, silver European Teams Championships 2010, silver World Transnational Teams 2009, 2 times European Junior Teams champion, 2 times World Universities Teams Champion. Spingold 2013 winner.
Board 12 was a tie since both tables declared 5club suitand made 12 tricks. Both declarers played the ace of club on the first round of the suit and made 12 tricks when they were rewarded with the fall of the club suitK.
On Board 13, at one of the tables, Pepsi in North opened with 1Heart Suitand his partner Kalita with: Spade Suit10963 Heart SuitJ109 Diamond SuitKJ106 club suit43 immediately showed a weak hand with heart support saying 2Heart Suit, which ended the auction, West took the option of not speaking at the  three level. N / S scored +110. At the other table after hearing his partner open with 1Heart Suit, Palma chose to show his spade suit, this gave West the opportunity to say 1NT. After two pass South chose to show his second suit with 2Diamond Suit, and that ended the contest. Finally the declarer went down two losing 3 IMPs.
On Board 14, South opened of 1club suitand O. Rimsted showed his spades saying 1Spade Suit. Pepsi doubled and M. Rimsted alerted his 2Heart Suitshowing spade support and an inviting hand… His brother did not hesitate and closed the game. The declarer could do nothing not to lose 4 tricks after the small heart lead. On the other table Brink-Drijver played at the level of three and made 4. Finally the set ended 38 Blass- 24 to 38. Don’t forget – you can still enter for the 6th World Youth Open Bridge Championships being held in Croatia from 20 – 29 August.

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