Bridge | 20 July 2017

The first week of July is heaven for those of us who don’t normally hear the words ‘bridge’ and ‘holiday’ in the same sentence. Off we trot to Biarritz to walk on the beach, eat delicious food and, at around 4.30 p.m. every afternoon, take a stroll in the sun to the old Bellevue casino to play some bridge — finishing in time for dinner ofc. Back home the LMBA held their London Swiss Congress last weekend at YC — no walk on the beach that. Swiss is a punishing format; you continually play people with the same score as you so the last couple of matches can often decide the winner. In the Sunday teams one team had been leading for most of the day. They were still in front going in to the last round, when they drew Kiril Delev, son of World Champion Nevena Senior, not to mention stepson of Brian. In seven boards he made a nice guess to land a game, a great switch to beat a game, and then this gem:
 
West led ♦A against Kiril’s 4♥, East signalling an odd number with the 2. Keen to knock out the entries to dummy’s Diamonds, West switched to a Club (the ♠10 might have led to a different outcome this time). Kiril finessed the Queen, and led another Diamond off dummy which West won and played another Club. South ruffed a Diamond and drew trumps. After West’s weak overcall, with A,K of Diamonds on the side, it was clear who had ♠K and, having eliminated East’s exit cards, it was easy to lead a Spade to the nine, endplaying East to lead away from the King. Congrats to Kiril, Nick Boss, Claire Robinson and Martin W. Jones. Well done guys.