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Ana Roth and Fernando Lema (CSBNews editors) analyzed two boards played by Fantoni-Nunes in the semi-final of the Italian Team Championships (Salsomaggiore Terme – September 22, 2011). Before publishing they requested information to Fulvio Fantoni, who kindly contributed to the writing of this article. To Claudio and Fulvio, Ana and Fernando devoted a few lines taken from Jorge Luis Borges’ famous poem “Y uno aprende”: ” Y uno aprende que realmente puede aguantar, que uno realmente es fuerte, que uno vale, y con cada día… uno aprende.”
Y uno aprende…
by Ana Roth & Fernando Lema
The 22 of September, thanks to the BBO VG, people all over the world could watch the Italian Club Teams Championships 2011 semifinals and learn from the best bridge masters. Playing for the Angelini Team, were: Benito Garozzo; the legend, with Leonardo Cima, and the great partnership Fantunes (Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes) that as usual, continued to develop high level performances.
East opened 1NT(15 to 17) vulnerable and Fornaciari overbid 3
. Garozzo said 4, showing his long spades and leaving no space for a 4 opps bid. Mina didn’t doubt and declared 5, but Cima didn’t hesitate too and finished as a 5
contract declarer. He couldn’t avoid loosing a heart and 2 clubs in the first 3 tricks, later he also lost a diamond trick for 2 down.
On the other table, in N/S were Fantoni-Nunes and in East/West Comella-Buratti and the auction was:
The bidding started exactly the same; but Nunes didn’t pass over Buratti´s 5 and declared the heart slam, Comella doubled.
The contract is always cold, but in this case the lead was the 
K so Nunes made the 13 tricks scoring 1310 IMPs.
The play: Claudio won the lead with the A, played a heart to the J, and continued with the J, playing the Q from dummy, to continue with the 8, pitching his spade looser. When West didn’t ruff, he claimed 13 tricks. The hand scored 15 IMPs for Angelini Team.
With their foot still on the accelerator, the hand 23 arrived, and Fantunes showed again their incredible skills.
When South closed the contract in 3NT North passed….very different was the auction in the other table.
When Nunes said 3NT, Fantoni continued bidding showing a good club support and slam intentions, Nunes now showed his heart control (denying diamond control and so showing 2 or 3 small diamond cards). Fantoni´s 4 informed his partner about his diamond and spades control. When Nunes 4NT showed an even number of keycards, Fantoni decided to say 6
(to play):” I prefer to play in diamond, because I want to be protected from a spade lead just in case you have the Q. As you can see the contract is always cold. “
Another 1370 points and 12 IMPs for the “Angelini” team that won the semi-final…to play the finals against the Allegra Team…
Y uno aprende que realmente puede aguantar,
que uno realmente es fuerte,
que uno vale,
y con cada día… uno aprende.
***
by Ana Roth and Fernando Lema
(http://www.confsudbridge.org)