On the schedule, Switzerland was set to face several of the tournament's strongest contenders near the end of the round robin. Their opponents this time were Belgium, who sat in 13th place, eight victory points behind Switzerland, who occupied 12th. The Swiss entered the match having already lost five consecutive matches, including recent defeats against Norway, Bulgaria, and Denmark. Unfortunately, the bleeding continued. Despite seven push boards in the set, Switzerland was

Before this encounter, Denmark still trailed the gold medal position by around 12 victory points, while Switzerland was fighting to keep its Bermuda Bowl hopes alive. Having lost four consecutive matches, the Swiss had fallen five victory points behind eighth place and were in desperate need of a turnaround. Would this finally be the match that kept their qualification hopes alive? Given the location of the ♣K, slam appeared to be an excellent contract. Even if West had held

With only a few rounds remaining, this match carried huge implications for both teams. England and Denmark were not only fighting to stay inside the top eight, but were also well within reach of the medals. A big win would strengthen both their qualification chances and their hopes of finishing on the podium, while a loss would make the final rounds far more stressful. This was one of those gambling hands, with the East hand holding a long, solid source of tricks. The only pr

As the tournament entered its closing stages, this match carried enormous implications for both teams. Norway sat in second place, just 1.26 victory points behind Denmark. A win here could propel them into first, especially with Denmark facing the equally dangerous French team. Even a narrow loss would likely keep Norway firmly in the race for the top spot. The situation was far more precarious for Switzerland. After consecutive losses to Georgia and Lithuania, two teams that

Score: 31-57. Many exciting boards in this match! Board 19 With both NS pairs playing a strong NT, many would expect the auction to end after North opens 1N. However, neither table followed the expected scenario. First, Belgium's NS pair: West (Paske) North (De Donder) East (Gold) South (Bahbout) P P 1N P 2C P 2D P 2N P 3N All Pass Bahbout decided that with the 5-card club suit and major suit holdings, he was strong enough to invite to 3N. He may have been planning on bidding

The score was extremely close, with Norway edging out the victory in a 51-56 IMP win. Board 19 6D by EW is cold, yet surprisingly, neither table reached it as their final contract! I'm sure both pairs would reach 6D if it was an uncontested auction, but of course, the opponents have to get in the way. Norway stopped in 5D after South opened 1S: West (Berg) North (Yilmaz) East (Grude) South (Kubac) 1S X 3S X P 3N P 4S P 5D All Pass East's double was responsive, showing the min

These two teams met last year in the quarterfinals of the Bermuda Bowl. Sweden destroyed the Swiss hopes of winning three consecutive titles in that event. Will the tables have turned this time around though? Klukowski O. Rimstedt Kalita M. Rimstedt P P P 1NT P 2♦ P 2♥ P 2♠ (1) P 2NT AP Invitational with 5 hearts Jacek Kalita declined the game try made in this room, despite holding three card support. His hand was likely more suitable for no trump, but perhaps that option cou

With only nine matches remaining in the tournament, the featured matchup was Iceland against Norway. Iceland had quietly emerged as one of the tournament's dark horses, as few would have predicted them to be in contention for a top-eight finish at this stage. This set, however, was absolute chaos. There were so many entertaining and swingy deals that I genuinely had to use a random number generator to decide which ones to cover. Nearly every board had something interesting to

With so many swings this round, and most of them overlapping between the two matches, I would like to analyze the interesting boards for both matches at the same time rather than separately. Bulgaria lost 6-82 and Germany won 62-50. Board 3 Clearly, EW are destined for a major suit game. But which one? As it turns out, because of the heart ruff, 4S is down 1 while 4H makes. Although it seems like hearts are better, it's very easy for West to insist on spades being trump, whic

Switzerland won this tight round 33-27. Board 18 Let's look at the Italian NS table first: West (Klukowski) North (Sementa) East (Kalita) South (Versace) P P 1D 1S X 4S P P 5D All Pass The auction feels fairly normal: NS did a good job of forcing EW to guess. East could've doubled, but since their side had a diamond fit (1D showed 4+), he opted for a 5D bid instead. Additionally, East's defensive values are soft, meaning 4S doubled could make, especially given that Versace bi

Even despite the weak hand from North, the North-South side still had slam available to them. O. Rimstedt Toledano M. Rimstedt Zamir 1♣ (1) P 1♦ (2) P 3♠ (3) P 3NT AP Artificial, 16+ 0-7 Some splinter Khutorsky Upmark Zeitak Nystrom 1♣ (1) P 1♦ (2) P 1♥ (3) P 1♠ P 2♣ P 2♦ P 2♥ P 3♣ P 3NT AP 16+ 0-4zz, A=3, K=2, Q=1 20+ After both Precision auctions, the North South pairs both survived in three no trump to secure nine tricks. On the other hand, Greece jumped on this hand to ga

We had two struggling teams meeting yet again. Unlike other matches, quite a few interesting declaring and defensive problems emerged in this set. The Polish team fell behind early by 21 IMPs, but they ultimately rallied to take the match by 13 at the end, with a final score of 44 to 31. Both tables experienced relatively similar auctions: Open Room: Reps Jagniewski Fritsche Gawel 1♥ X 2♥ P 2NT P 4♥ AP Closed Room: Chmurski Gruenke Buras Eggeling 1♥ P 2♥ P 4♥ AP In the open r

Germany v Switzerland: Score 30-32 IMPs Board 21 Notice that 3N and 4S by South go down on a club lead, while 4S makes North since the NS club holding would be protected. Barring a heart lead from AJx (which would be odd if West didn't bid), 3N by North makes as well. Let's see if some pair right sides this one: West (Klukowski) North (Fritsche) East (Kalita) South (Reps) 1D 2C 3C P 3D P 3N All Pass With a minimum hand, Fritsche signed off in 3D, but South's hand was too good

While this matchup featured its fair share of quiet, mundane boards, a handful of fascinating hands kept things highly entertaining. Despite some stubborn resistance, the Norwegians ultimately took care of business, locking up the match 30–9. East-West had very fitting hands; likely enough values for either side to make a slam try in either hearts or clubs. However, the only problem was that they were missing two bullets in diamonds and spades. Therefore, there wasn't a viabl

Unfortunately, there seemed to be only 1 vugraph match this round, featuring a 18-62 victory for Denmark. Nevertheless, there are still some surprises in this match to delve into. Board 10 Fascinating hand: EW have the majority of the strength but can't make any game, while NS make 5S with their mere 17 HCP. Let's take a look at the auction at the Danish EW's table: West (Schaltz) North (Khutorsky) East (de Bilde) South (Zeitak) 1C 1S X 4S 5C All Pass A popular saying in brid

The first round on Wednesday kicks off with a Nordic showdown, alongside a highly anticipated matchup featuring three former Polish players now representing Switzerland against their home country. Unfortunately, there was no Vugraph archive available for the Norway–Finland match. As a result, the analysis for this match will be limited primarily to the bidding, as the play records were unavailable. We were presented with a thin game that many East–West pairs bid. Even with he

Watching this round from my end, one thing immediately caught my attention: the sheer number of slam decisions. It felt like it was slam after slam after slam. Even more remarkably, many of them were extremely thin and had to be judged in the face of fierce competition from the opponents. Let's take a look at the successes and disappointments of the slam bidding throughout the round. Italy vs Norway: Closed room Gerli Bakke Manno Brogeland P 1♣ 1♥ 2♥ (1) 2♠ P 3♥ X P 4♣ P 5♣ A

This match featured high scoring between the teams. Denmark slightly outlasted Sweden with a close score of 57-51, while Israel dominated Poland with a decisive 58-28 victory. With so many different swings between the teams, we delved into some of them here: The first swing came on this deal, where everything hinged on locating the missing diamond honor. All four East-West pairs reached 4♥ through an uncontested 2/1 auction, leaving declarer with no additional information abo

Norway v Belgium: Score 35-34 IMPs A very tight match! There were many swings that benefitted both sides. Board 11 The choice is between 3N and 4H: although EW have an 8-card heart fit, they're doomed to lose 2 clubs, 1 diamond, and 1 spade in 4H. 3N, by contrast, is cold: the defense cannot get their spade and set up their clubs before declarer establishes diamonds for enough tricks. The question is, how do you know to disregard the 5-3 fit? How could you avoid 4H at the tab

This hand involved a duo of two preemptive hands. Had the opener not chosen to preempt, the East hand would most certainly have done so. All four North players chose to preempt, either with a 2♥ opening or a Multi 2♦. However, one approach clearly identified opener's major, while the other left it unspecified. This board did not bring significant impact for the Norwegians nor the English. Dyke Heiberg-Evenstad Byrne Helgemo 2♥ P 4♥ AP Here, the simple auction brought the Norw