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The JICL has left the round robin and entered the knock outs. Only 8 teams (out of the 40 teams that made a start at the JICL) got admitted to this KO phase that started with quarter final matches. All four of these matches have been played, each consisting of two times 12 boards, no barometer.
In the match between Nottingham-Groenekan, team Nottingham gained a 30 imp lead on the first five boards and never looked back. Groenekan was desperately looking for opportunities that, however, never materialized.
The match between Port Royal – Prague2 was truly spectacular. In the first 12 boards Port Royal was dominating the match. Team Prague2 had to do their best in the second half to catch them. They did their best over the first 11 boards of the second 12. Prague2 got back on these boards, but it was not enough to gain a lead.
Then board 12 of the second half, the very last board of the match, was dealt. On this board team Prague2 bid and made a 7 sp contract. And this… won them the match
The match Palermo – Istanbul was won by team Palermo. Our TD almost cancelled this match. I want to advice all teams in case you have differences of opinion, please call the TD immediately and refrain from arguing at the table. And please follow TD’s instructions. If not, we might have to take drastic measures that one of the teams (or both teams) will not be happy with. And neither will we.
The fourth knock out match in the quarter finals, between Lahore and Zagreb, was delayed to give team Lahore a chance to participate in the national trials in Pakistan. This fourth match had its fair share of swings. After the first 6 boards team Lahore was heading with 10-0, but team Zagreb kept their cool and gained 26 imps on the next 6 boards. This gave Zagreb a clear lead. From that moment on, and despite some further swings, Zagreb stubbornly refused to give up this lead.
So, the semi final of the JICL will be Prague 2 vs Nottingham and Palermo vs Zagreb. Play time is this evening (17th March).
The date of the finals will be discussed with the finalists (once known) and subsequently be announced.
As some of you might have heard: the winning team of this first JICL will get the chance to play a match against a team of world class players including Fred Gitelman. This will be sometime in April.
The second edition of the JICL will start in the last or one-but-last week of April and will take 7 -8 weeks; it will be groups of 6 teams.
Teams from the first edition will have the chance to pre-register. More about that later.
Jantien