Riga Round 29: Italy vs Denmark

Italy was already out of contention and would miss the Bermuda Bowl after qualifying for so many consecutive years. As a result, this match had little impact on the standings, but we'll still feature two interesting hands to keep things short and sweet.

Schaltz	Gerli	Bilde	Manno
		2♥	3♣
3♥	5♠	AP

Andrea Manno declined his partner's slam invitation, as he did not hold a heart control. The 5♠ bid presumably asked for a control in the opponents' suit. This resulted in 650 for the Italians

Percario	Hammelev	Donati	Tylvad
		2♥	2NT
3♥	4♥	P	5♣
P	5♥	P	5NT
P	7♠	AP

Here, Tylvad took the interesting route of overcalling 2NT. Hammelev clearly intended his 4♥ bid as a transfer, but Tylvad instead showed his clubs, and Hammelev ultimately settled in 7♠ despite missing a pair of aces.

Unfortunately for the Italians, Donati led a club instead of his own suit, giving declarer a chance to make the grand slam. However, after winning the opening lead, Hammelev immediately drew one round of trumps, and that proved to be the losing play.

The correct line was to cash three rounds of clubs immediately, forcing West to ruff the third round. Once that happened, declarer could draw a round of high trumps, leaving dummy's last trump as an entry to enjoy the established clubs.

Instead, after drawing trumps, Hammelev cashed the ♦A and ♦K before ruffing the third diamond, even though it had become high. He could now discard only one heart loser before Percario ruffed the third round of clubs.

Italy still gained 13 IMPs on the board instead of losing 17 after the missed opportunity.

North South were cold in 4♥ on this hand, but with so much strength in the East-West hands, many pairs would likely have declared the contract themselves instead.

Percario	Hammelev	Donati	Tylvad
1♠	2♥	2NT	3♥
X	P	3♠	P
4♠	X	AP

Here, Percario appeared to be making a game try over the 3♥ raise. After his partner declined the invitation, he nevertheless pushed on to 4♠, which was doubled. I'm not sure Hammelev had enough strength to expect the contract to fail, but the double certainly worked out.

Percario did not take the spade finesse and eventually lost three diamonds, two hearts, one club, and one spade. It was simply an unfortunate combination of events: the diamonds broke badly, both red-suit finesses were offside, and he also guessed the trump position incorrectly. The result was −800.

Schaltz	Gerli	Bilde	Manno
1♠	2♥	3♠	4♥
4♠	5♥	X	AP

Manno raised to 4♥ despite holding a somewhat light hand with only three-card support. The game contract had three immediate losers, and Gerli eventually went two down for −200. Denmark picked up 14 IMPs on the board.

Although Denmark narrowly lost the match to Italy, they had already done enough to secure the silver medal. Norway claimed the gold medal, while Israel captured bronze after a dominant victory over Switzerland. Congratulations to the medalists, the Bermuda Bowl qualifiers, and every team for battling through all 29 matches.

And with that, it's time to say goodbye to Riga!