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French Team Championship: Division Nationale Open I (DNOI) – Protecting the partner. The French Championship is held in three week-ends, with twelve teams playing each other in eleven rounds of 26 hands. The dates are: 1-2 of October (four rounds, played); 5-6 and 19-20 of November (four and three rounds). The first four teams will play semi-finals and final in January. These are the twelve top teams: Zimmermann, Laffineur, Cronier, Vinay, Piganeau, Fleury, Allix, Doussot, Chemla, Payen, Salliere, Tardy. There are only two Italians, Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes, in Pierre Zimmermann’s Team.
After the first week-end, Payen led with 81 IMPs, over Zimmermann (73), Doussot (69), Sallere (67), Fleury (66), and so on. After the second week-end, after eight rounds out of eleven, Zimmermann took the lead:
Pierre Zimmermann 155
Bernard Payenne 151
Bernard Doussot 134
Guy Laffineur 133
Stephane Tardy 125
Croustibat 120
Philippe Cronier 117
Gerard Salliere 110
Patrice Piganeau 108
Paul Chemla 107
Herve Fleur 107
Jean Francois Allis 68
In the match Zimmermann-Cronier, at board 12 of the second segment, E-W vuln, Combescure, North in OR, opened 3♣. Bompis passed, Dechelette passed, Quentin reopened by double, North passed. What do you do, in East, with these cards?
♠AQ10 ♥Q72 ♦K653 ♣J64
Bompis dared 3NT. He hasn’t club stopper, but if the partner had singleton or void in club, it would have reopened more probably by a 4♣ cuebidding, rather than by double; then, after the double, South should be singleton or void in ♣, and at least there’s the hope of a block in the suit.
This was the complete hand:
3NT made, +600.
In CR North (Claudio Nunes) opened 4♣, not 3♣. We aren’t going to debate whether 3♣ is better of 4♣ or vice versa; we just report what happened. Benedicte Cronier, in East, passed; Fulvio Fantoni passed, and Sylvie Willard, in West, reopened by double. What now?
After Nunes’ 4♣, the situation is quite different as West hasn’t room to differentiate the balancing from a strong hand. Benedicte Cronier hasn’t an easy bid at level four (what is easy, from her viewpoint, is just to fall in a 3-3 fit), and, what’s more, she knows nothing on West’s strength. Probably she thought “Well, it looks we have to die here; at least, I want do it singing”, and bid 5♣, where Sylvie “choose” to die in 5♥, doubled,-4: -1100.
Arrivederci to Nov 19-20th for the last three rounds: 9th, 10th, 11th.
Here’s the link to all results >>
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Paolo Enrico Garrisi
(11/03/2011)