8th Bridge Tournament “Riga invites to Jurmala” – Yesterday evening Janis Neimanis together with Andis Geste from the Latvia won the Invitational Pairs Tournament in Jurmala, Latvia.
24 pairs played 7 rounds (4 boards in the round) and at the last round Neimanis-Geste were playing against Swedish pair Marten Gustawsson and Gunnar Andersson. The result of the tournament was manly decided on board No 27:
West made a light take-out double and Geste chose to bid his clubs (1♣ could be short) on the second round of bidding, after which Neimanis jumped to 3NT. Now Marten has to choose what to lead: small heart from his longest suit, or small spade from his strongest suit. After heart lead defenders have a chance: declarer has to duck two hearts, and then West can switch to diamonds and they have time to take 5 tricks. After spade lead declarer has tempo to develop 9 tricks before defenders can get five. Unfortunatly for Swedish supporters, Marten chose to lead a spade and Neimanis made nine tricks. 3NT making gave 8 IMPs for the winners, leading a small heart and switching to diamonds, would be enough for Gustawsson-Andersson to win the tournament.
Neimanis-Geste won the event with 53 IMPs, followed by V.Kholomeev-I.Sliva (Russia) with 40 IMPs and Gustawsson-Andersson were third with 37 IMPs. All details and results you can find at www.rigainvites.lv.
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Kārlis Rubins