BRIDGE (5)

The biennial World Bridge Championships have been going on for the past two weeks in Veldhoven, the Netherlands. There are three competitions; the Bermuda Bowl (open), the Venice Cup (women) and the d'Orsi Bowl (seniors). In each competition, the 22 teams play round robin matches over 16 boards, 3 matches a day for a week. The top 8 teams then proceed to the knock-out stages, over 96 boards.

The powerhouses of world bridge are Italy and the United States. In the previous 39 editions of the Bermuda Bowl, the U.S. has won 18 times and Italy 14; not much room there for anyone else. Italy were champions in 2007 and the U.S. in 2009. Furthermore, although the U.S. were sending a new, young team to defend the title, Italy had four of their 2007 squad on the 6-man team, and were confident enough to be able to drop the world's number one ranked pair, Fantoni and Nunes.

As expected, Italy cruised through the round robin stage, finishing top, and then beat China in the quarter-finals. However, they then came unstuck in the semi-finals against a Dutch team playing out of their skins on home turf. A very close match resulted in a dead heat with 16 boards to play. In the final session, the Dutch bid and made two small slams, whereas the Italians with the same cards made the same twelve tricks, but had only bid game. 26 imps to Holland and the match.

In the final against the U.S., the Americans started well, and led after two sessions. However, the Dutch hauled them back and won comfortably in the end to record a second world title after their first in 1993. Congratulations to them.

In the women's competition, Indonesia surprised most pundits by staging huge comebacks to beat first the U.S. in the quarter-finals and then England in the semi-finals. Then they ran out of steam and lost easily in the final to France, the match stopping after 80 boards since the French were so far ahead.

However, the performance of the tournament  belongs to the French seniors. Winners of the round robin section, and easy victors over Germany in the quarter-finals, they needed a 6-imp swing on the very last hand of the semi-final (a little part-score contract) to beat Poland by a third of an imp! Then, in a seesaw final against the U.S., they let a 44-imp lead at the halfway stage slip to a 9-imp deficit with 16 boards to play. But they dug deep and won a tense final session 33-19 for an overall victory by just 5 imps.  

I watched some of the matches live on my Bridge Base computer programme (where you can also play with people from all over the world). Although the players are much better than me, it was reassuring to see that they also make mistakes from time to time. Though I suppose it is always easier to play the hand when you can see all four sets of cards!

Walter Blotscher