It
was not bridge alone that determined the
eighth qualifier to the knockout stage of
the Round Robin of the 1999 Canadian
National Teams Championship.
At the end of the Round Robin, Teams FOURCAUDOT and FERGANI (both
Montreal-based) were tied in Victory Points.
The official tie-breaking rules gave the nod
to FOURCAUDOT, but as the team captains were
leaving the conclave, Marc-Andre Fourcaudot
remembered that his team had been assessed a
1 VP procedural penalty earlier in the event.
Had the penalty been included in the posted
scores? It had not. By bringing attention to
this oversight by the Directors, FOURCAUDOT
was eliminated, but his selfless, clear-headed
declaration had earned his team a special
measure of respect from the bridge community.
Both sides vulnerable; South deals
West |
North |
East |
South |
|
|
|
Pass |
Pass |
1 |
Pass |
1 |
Pass |
2 |
Dbl |
4 |
? |
|
|
|
This was the popular start at most tables (boards were duplicated across
both fields). East has a classical hand for
his double, defined as "sound takeout of
hearts," suggesting length in opener's first
suit. Over 4,
West has a very close decision; pass, double,
and 4
are all reasonable.
Kokish: I bid 4,
doubled by North, who followed generally
sound practice by clearing trumps. I won the
third, played three rounds of clubs, ruffing,
then the
J,
ducked, and a diamond to the king and ace.
South can put declarer back in dummy with a
diamond to ruff out the clubs, with a
ruffing entry still in dummy, or play a
heart, allowing declarer to score the
K
for his tenth trick. If North starts a heart
instead, declarer can't afford to discard
and must use one of dummy's trumps
prematurely. If declarer plays three clubs,
then two diamonds, South wins and clears
trumps, this time to better effect.
Kraft: I passed 4
and led the
9.
Partner had suggested good clubs and
declarer, a passed hand, rated to be
distributional. To defeat the contract, West
must lead a club and East must take both
club winners before declarer can use dummy's
second high spade. Unfortunately, at my
table and several others, East switched to
the
K
at trick two, not knowing that West held so
many spades.
Kokish: The diamond switch was tempting, but East should continue clubs;
the lead might have been a singleton, after
all, and West would not lead the nine from
972 in this situation.
Kraft: In retrospect, I think I should have bid 4,
simply because it was too close. It takes
perfect defense to defeat 4
or 4
and there's a lot to be said for leaving the
critical guess to the opponents.
This is the deal on which FOURCAUDOT incurred that momentous penalty. The
Appeals Committee decided that although an
incorrect explanation by FOURCAUDOT's South
player was not responsible for a terrible
result for East/West, it was essential that
pairs employing "complex" methods to explain
them properly. FOURCAUDOT was docked 1 VP
for the sin of the nineties - Convention
Disruption.