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Monaco wins the 2012 Spingold Trophy: Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Tor Helness, Geir Helgemo, Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes.
In the round of 16 Monaco beat Berg (162-68 in three segments) whereas Nickell easily prevailed over Schreiber: 176-82. Just needs to recall that Schreiber had been started from the opening round, then eliminated Hamman-Lall in the round of 64 and Mahaffey in the round of 32: a great Spingold for Michael Schreiber, Bob Etter, Jim Munday, and Alexander Kolesnik. After, the four winners of the quarter-finals were Monaco (Fleisher 145-104); Nickell (200-82 against Brink: after the first half they were still 56-53); Gordon (151-77 against Levine) and Cayne (149-62 against Carolyn Lynch in three segments).
In semi-finals we had a tie match between Nickell and Gordon (81-73), and the fratricide clash: the battle between the two most Italian speaking players teams, Monaco with Fantoni-Nunes, and Cayne with Lauria-Versace and Duboin-Sementa. The former dominated the match: +15, +32, +29, +27 have been the results of the four segment, for the large 174-71 victory.
In final Monaco beat Nickell 143-101 (36-21, 68-44, 91-101, 143-101).
The hand we picked from the final is entitled: “evoking a phantom”. In the board four of the first segment Helness is playing 4♠; he has the lead and has already cashed seven tricks. What must discard Steve Weinstein to avoid an overtrick?
He has to blank his ♦K. But he hasn’t it, notes the pernickety kibitzer; true, but it’s not matter of what Weinstein has but of what the Declarer should think about. Weinstein, instead, discarded a diamond and the heart, and being Levine forced to abandon his heart, Helness had the precious new that only diamonds were remained, enabling him to finesse the king. Helness, however, didn’t finesse: he cashed the ace. He had lost the count of the hand.
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July 23, 2012
Paolo Enrico Garrisi
In the picture ACBL President Sharon Anderson presents the Spingold trophy to the winning team. (Source Bullettin #11)