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In the evening session there are another 16 hands, and on Vugraph we can follow Allegra – Villa Fabbriche and in particular, we’ll follow Duboin/Sementa against Montanari/Arrigo Franchi. The first pair are two of the mainstays of our national team, while the other pair are certainly among the most promising young Italian players.
In the meantime there was a correction of the score of these two teams: at the end of the first session it is 47-24 since a score was incorrectly inserted in the Bridgemate, the machines located on each table which give a running score in real time.
After two hands almost tied (almost, because the Turin team had increased their advantage by 5 IMP’s), Giorgino bids a violent 6NT, actually counting too much on luck, which doesn’t make, 3NT plus 2 in the other room and 11 IMPs for Villa Fabbriche. Truth to tell as the opponents’ cards lay, it would have been enough to exchange a 7 in the dummy with a 9 in the hand, but the fact remains that it was not a good slam. IMPs returned with interest immediately afterwards, when Allegra makes 3NT, defeated in the other room. A good technical teaching hand, the classic situation in which after the lead and after winning a trick again, you don’t know whether to return in the lead suit or switch to another suit. The only way to resolve the situation is to agree on a signal which the leader’s partner must give as soon as possible. Mostly this is Eco Smith, where an unnaturally high card played on the second trick shows preference for the leader’s suit, while a low card suggests a change of suit. The match is in any event quite lively even without goulash hands, and on the 5th hand Buratti and Comella, the other pair playing for Turin in this session, bid 3NT when they are decidedly light and go 2 down, losing 5 IMPs. The Sicilians Giuseppe Failla and Dario Attanasio are the third couple of the Villa Fabbriche team.
The boards which follow show no great upsets, 8 out of 10 playing the same contract in the two rooms, and the two different contracts composed of game contracts with different weight (3NTplus 3 compared to 4 spades plus 2 for Turin) and the other 3 spades less one against 4 spades doubled less 2, 6 IMP’s for Villa Fabbriche.
The final score is low, an indication of a good level of play, with a partial recovery of Villa Fabbriche evaporated on the last board where Dario, in 4th seat with Kxx xx xx AKQ109x opens 3NT directly. The Jxxx in clubs condemns the contract and added to the partial contract reached in the other room, practically brings the session to a tie (26-25 for Turin) for a total of 73-49.
In the other semifinal match on the other hand, Varese made a better recovery; they were behind by 25 points, but at a few hands from the end they were only down 10. In this session the pair Angelini with Boye Brogeland, the third Norwegian taken on by Francesco, made its debut.
Finally in the women’s tournament, Catania leads Posillipo by about 50 points, while the gap between Reggio Emilia and Ancona is about 30 points in favor of the former.
Tomorrow the last and decisive 3 sessions of 16.
See you!
Gluck