Riga Round 12: Poland vs Switzerland, Norway vs Finland

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 hearts breaking friendly, game is still a far cry from perfect, as both spade honors would need to be onside to make it. Ultimately, the auctions and play developed quite differently across the field.

Kalita	Chmurski	Klukowski	Buras
		1♥	X
XX	3♦	P	P
X	P	3NT	AP

Buras made a modern takeout double, which Chmurski responded to by jumping in his two-card suit. Unfortunately, it wasn't crystal clear for Klukowski to pass the double of 3♦, so he resorted to another bid: 3NT.

Sadly, 3NT yielded only four heart tricks, two diamond tricks, and one spade trick, resulting in minus 200.

Gawel	Nowosadzki	Jagniewski	Piedra
		1♥	X
1♠	2♦	P	P
X	3♦	P	P
X	AP

Wojciech Gawel responded with 1♠ over the takeout double, which Nowosadzki overcalled with 2♦. Following a value-showing double by West, Nowosadzki competed one level higher to 3♦, where the auction ultimately ended doubled. A spade was led, and the defense took one spade, two diamonds, three hearts, and a heart ruff to beat the contract for minus-500. With this result, Poland extended their lead to 22–2.

The Norwegians ended up making 3NT after the Finnish pair misdefended, picking up 13 IMPs after initially trailing 15–0.

Kalita	Chmurski	Klukowski	Buras
	P	P	1♥
X	XX	P	2♥
P	P	3♠	P
4♠	AP

Rather than choosing to bid with the offensive hand over the redouble, Klukowski opted to pass, which was not penalty-oriented in this context. Instead, he later entered the auction with a 3♠ bid, which Kalita raised to game.

Only one lead could defeat the contract: the ace of clubs. This lead, followed by a second club return, would knock out dummy's only club stopper before declarer could establish the diamonds to pitch East's clubs. That is precisely the lead Buras found. After winning the ♣K at trick two, Klukowski crossed to his hand with a heart and played a diamond, hoping Buras held the ♦A and had no clubs remaining. The plan failed, and he eventually went down two after the defense scored an uppercut in clubs.

Gawel	Nowosadzki	Jagniewski	Piedra
	P	P	1♥
X	XX	2♥	P
2♠	P	4♠	AP

Here, Gawel and Jagniewski reached the same game, but it was played by the other side. Leading a heart from the North hand seemed more natural than a club. As a result, declarer won the first trick in dummy and immediately ran the jack of diamonds. This sealed the contract, as he lost only one spade, one diamond, and one club. With this result, Poland went up 38–8.

Neither pair in the other match reached game, yet the board still produced a 6 IMP swing. The Norwegians stopped in 3♠ and took nine tricks, while, rather surprisingly, the Finns went down one in 2♠. Without a Vugraph record, it's difficult to know exactly what happened, but bridge can produce some baffling results. Even at the highest level, it is not uncommon to see one table make a contract at a higher level while the other goes down in a lower one.

Norway vs Finland

Nyberg	Grude	Juuri-Oja	Berg
			1♦
1♠	X	3♣	3♦
P	P	3♠	4♦
AP

Jouni Juuri-Oja competed back to 3♠ after the fit showing he made previously. The Norwegians landed in 4♦, on which they received lead. The Finnish defended the hand flawlessly to only allow the offense to take 8 tricks.

Helgemo	Koistinen	Heiberg-Evenstad	Fagerlund
			1♦
1♠	X	4♠	5♦
P	P	X	AP

The 4♠ bid by Heiberg-Evenstad put immense pressure on South, forcing a difficult decision on whether to compete. Unfortunately, the 5♦ bid proved disastrous; 4♠ would likely have gone down, whereas 5♦ was theoretically down three. However, thanks to the spade lead, the contract only went down two, limiting the damage to 7 IMPs for the Norwegians.

Kalita	Chmurski	Klukowski	Buras
			1♦
1♠	P	2♣ (1)	P
2♠	P	4♠	AP

1. Artificial and values

This board featured a quieter auction, where the Polish-Swiss pair landed in 4♠. A club lead would defeat this contract double dummy, but a diamond was led instead. Still, declarer had plenty of work left to do. Jacek Kalita ruffed the diamond lead in dummy and played two rounds of hearts; South ducked the first round and won with his jack on the second. South then immediately shifted to a trump, covering declarer's queen with the king.

At this point, declarer faced two inevitable spade losers. He ruffed a third heart in his own hand, dropping South's ace, and ruffed a diamond back to dummy on the next trick. At this juncture, when declarer cashed the king of hearts, Buras had to discard a club; instead, he ruffed dummy's winner, which indirectly cost them the contract. Since South had no trumps remaining, declarer was able to scramble four more tricks by taking the club finesse and ruffing a fourth club.

The other room offered some more action in the bidding:

Gawel	Nowosadzki	Jagniewski	Piedra
			1♦
1♠	P	2♣	3♦
P	3NT	4♦	P
4♠	X	AP

The other room offered a bit more action in the bidding:

Piedra chose to jump to 3♦, in contrast to Buras's pass, which prompted North's 3NT bid. While 3NT or 4♦ by North–South would likely have ended in disaster, Jagniewski chose to compete with 4♦, which implicitly confirmed his spade support. This led to North doubling 4♠ at the end.

The first two tricks proceeded exactly as they had in the other room. However, Wojciech Gawel chose to play on clubs afterward, leading the king from his hand and then crossing to the ace. This allowed South to ruff with his short trumps. With one misfortune leading to another, they ended up losing 14 IMPs after going down three in the doubled game.

This board was certainly an exciting way to close out the set. Despite holding an absolute powerhouse, East had nowhere to go on this hand, finding zero help from partner.

Kalita	Chmurski	Klukowski	Buras
P	1♦	4♥	AP

The auction ended abruptly when Klukowski jumped to 4♥ after his partner had already passed. Buras chose not to take any further action. Even on this hand, there are layouts where 4♥ could make, such as when hearts break 3–3 and the ♣K is onside in a doubleton. This deal, however, was far less favorable. Klukowski quickly lost control of the trump suit and eventually went five down.

It is interesting to wonder whether the Poles could have earned an even bigger swing had Buras doubled 4♥. In this position, the double would typically be card-showing rather than purely penalty-oriented, making it quite likely that North would pass it for penalties. On the other hand, Buras may have been concerned that partner would remove the double to 5♣ or 5♦, which could explain his reluctance to act with this hand.

Unfortunately, +500 at this table wasn't even enough to win any IMPs.

Gawel	Nowosadzki	Jagniewski	Piedra
	1♦	1♥	3♥ (1)
P	4♠	X	XX
AP

1. 6+♠, invite

After South made an invitational transfer and Nowosadzki accepted with 4♠, Jagniewski faced his second decision of the auction. He chose to double with his powerhouse, but the decision backfired when Piedra happily redoubled with his shapely 6–5 hand. With all the outstanding trump honors and the ♣A favorably placed, Nowosadzki had little trouble bringing the contract home.

In the ending, Gawel carelessly surrendered a trick that left him endplayed, allowing declarer to score an overtrick for +1080. The resulting 11 IMP swing slashed Poland's lead to just three IMPs, and they ultimately scraped through 38–35.

The Norway-Finland match featured a smaller swing:

Helgemo	Koistinen	Heiberg-Evenstad	Fagerlund
	1♦	1♥	2♠ (1)
P	4♠	X	P
5♣	P	P	X
AP

1. Natural invite

Here, Helgemo chose to pull the double of 4♠, a decision that could easily have turned out much worse, as 5♥ had the potential to go three down for −800. Fortunately for Norway, declarer escaped for only −500 by taking nine tricks, which proved a better result than defending 4♠ doubled making.

Nyberg	Grude	Juuri-Oja	Berg
	1♦	1♥	X (1)
P	1♠	2♥	4♠
P	P	X	AP

1. 4+♠

Here, the auction began at a much lower level, with Tor Eivind Grude responding just 1♠ to his partner's double. East then took the surprising action of bidding only 2♥ before doubling Erik Berg's eventual 4♠ bid. This time, the double was not redoubled, and the Norwegians collected +590, good enough for a 3 IMP gain. One possible explanation is that, unlike the Swiss auction, North's sequence did not explicitly promise three-card spade support, making a redouble less attractive.

I was a little surprised that East chose 2♥ rather than doubling on the first round. By doubling initially, East could later rebid hearts to show a stronger hand with extra heart length. Even so, it is unlikely the final outcome would have changed, as Berg would almost certainly still have driven to 4♠ with his hand.