The Sport of Kings (& Queens & Aces)
The Sport of Kings (& Queens & Aces) by Derrick Browne
It was under the presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch that the International Olympic Committee accepted bridge as an Olympic sport. Samaranch again demonstrated his support of bridge by attending the European Champions Cup, where he stated that bridge had gained recognition from the IOC because it is a true sport. However, despite being held as a demonstration sport at the 2002 Winter Olympics, the flame of Olympic interest in bridge dimmed.
Most serious bridge events – such as Olympiads – have been run as teams, while pairs is the other popular format. Today’s deal, however, comes from the 6th Generali World Masters Men’s and Women’s Individual Championships, held in Verona in September 2004. In an Individual, you keep changing partners. Because of this, everyone played the same system, basically French Standard: 5-card majors, strong notrump, weak twos in the majors and 2D as an 8-9 trick hand with 2C normally game forcing (like a back-to-front version of Benjamin Twos).
American Tobi Sokolow won the Women’s, while Italian Norberto Bocchi won the Men’s. In the hand below, he bid a tight game which his partner of that round, Jiansheng Jin of China, managed to bring home:
EW vulnerable, dealer North.
NORTH
♠ T32
♥ JT9
♦ J986
♣ AJ3
WEST EAST
♠ K964 ♠ Q875
♥ Q52 ♥ 86
♦ AKQ52 ♦ T72
♣ T ♣ Q865
SOUTH
♠ AJ
♥ AK743
♦ 5
♣ K9742
W N E S
Pass Pass 1H
Pass 2H Pass 3C
Pass 4H All pass
Tony Forrester, sitting West, had been deterred by the vulnerability from overcalling his diamonds but now, of course, he led two top ones. The second round was ruffed by Jin who then drew one round of trumps with the HA. The diamond had been his only sure loser but Jin could see there was a fair chance that he would end up losing a trick in each of the other suits too. He tried finessing to the CJ. This lost to the CQ, but Jin still had chances.
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