The-Future-of-Bridge-Quiz: D for Donati – With All Vulnerable, the auction is simple: North passes, East 4D (natural, preemptive), You 4H, All Pass.
West leads DJ and dummy comes down:
North (dummy)
S 10 9 8 7 6 4 3
H K 5
D Q 10 9
C 2
South (you)
S A Q
H A 10 9 8 7 4
D 8
C A K Q 9
You cover, East wins the King. Next comes DA. You ruff with the 10, West pitching a club. Plan the play.
If you, like declarer in real life, smell a rat, you may conclude that trumps are divided 5 (West) – 0 (East). You go on with a sneaky H7, which holds the trick. Yes, East pitches a diamond indeed. Now you cash your three top clubs and ruff the fourth club with the King of trumps. West throws a spade. Then you play D10, which you ruff with the H8. At this point, whatever West does, he is (repeatedly) endplayed. So declarer brlliantly ended up with ten tricks. This was the full board:
Quiz
Who was declarer?
A) Geir Helgemo
B) Alfredo Versace
C) Bauke Muller
D) Somebody else
The answer is D., because declarer was Giovanni Donati, the new kid on the block. With 17 years of age, Donati is by far the youngest player at the EC in Budapest. Looking at the hand and also the fact that he plays a lot with the great Alfredo Versace, one may conclude that the future of bridge is secured by Giovanni, who makes his debut in the Italian Open team. And yes, the hand was published in an earlier Budapest Bulletin, but in that article declarer went down in the same contract. Moreover, 4H was played 11 times at the EC, but Giovanni Donati was the only player who made it.
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Jan van Cleeff