The first International Mindsport Games was held recently in Beijing and featured "athletes" from over 150 countries. We even got an Olympics-style opening ceremony!
The fantastic venue was in the heart of the Olympic village, just a couple hundred meters from the spectacular Birdsnest Olympic Stadium. On a clear day you could even see it!
On a polluted day, not so much...
The Australian U28 team was comprised of John Hornibrook partnered with Orlando Wu, Nick Rodwell with Arian Lasocki and William Jenner-Oshea with Myself. We were competing against a strong field of 75 teams, the largest ever in a youth bridge event.
Our team performed consistently throughout the event winning 12 of our 17 matches. Going into the final day of the Swiss, we were well placed in 11th, just a handful of VPs away from the top 8. A disappointing finish saw us slip back to 18th - still a solid performance considering that half of our team were on international debut.
The teams portion in Beijing was played entirely behind screens which diagonally separate the table isolating North and East from South and West. Bids are placed on a board which is slid back and forth under the screen. Once the bidding is complete a flap is opened providing visibility of dummy and the other players' cards, but not their faces.
Here are some of my favourite hands from the event:
Hand 1
======
Dealer E - NS VUL
Sitting South, on the same side of the screen as West, John heard the auction begin:
At which point John passed the board under the screen. With the opponents announcing only invitational values, and knowing that all the suits were breaking badly, he decided to make a speculative double when the board came back to him. To his surprise, when the board reappeared Orlando had beaten him to it!
Accurate defense restricted the opponents to their 4 Aces and the Heart King for +800.
At our table, Will started with a Mini No-Trump (10-12 HCP) which kept us out of trouble:
I elected to use stayman and then passed Will's 2♦ response. North reopened with a takeout double and South converted to penalties - a wise choice as 3♣ doubled would have been expensive. Anticipating the bad breaks, Will played carefully, ruffing clubs in dummy to bring home 8 tricks for +180 and a large bundle of imps.
Hand 2
======
Every hand with Will is an adventure - especially when the vulnerability is favourable. This is well demonstrated on the following hand against Uruguay:
Dealer W - NS VUL
I passed as dealer (we play an intermediate 2♦ and 3♦ would have been stretching it just a little too far) and slid the board under the screen. It reappeared shortly containing a strong 2♣ from North and 4♣(!) from Will alerted as 'very destructive'. My screen-mate went into the tank for what seemed like an eternity. At one point he picked up a double card and stared at it intently before finally settling on 4♥. Exactly .2 of a second later I launched the board back under the screen throwing a pass card over the top after it. The opponents auction rolled on and they ended up in 6♥
When North tabled his 24-count strong 2 - IN CLUBS - I couldn't help but giggle. 6♥ is cold off on the layout and although we didn't gain any IMPs on this particular board, the opponents were clearly rattled and we picked up about 25 IMPs over the next 5 hands to win the match.
Hand 3
======
Will and I play our own home-made bidding system (called Minsk) which emphasises good 4 card majors over a longer minor. This can sometimes have unexpected benefits as demonstrated on the this deal where we extracted our largest penalty of the event at the 1 level.
Dealer W - NIL VUL
After Will's systemic, canape 1♥ opening, I responded 1♠ and South came in with a fairly ugly 1NT overcall, passed back around to me. Although we do open light, I liked my 2 aces and decided to chance a double which was passed out.
Playing attitude leads, Will started with the ♣3 to my Ace. I dutifully returned a club and was pleasantly surprised when the suit ran immediately! On 6 rounds of clubs the declarer pitched a heart so after a spade to my ace and a heart back through the king, Will could run his hearts too! Winning the first 11 tricks was worth +1100.
The moral of the story is that two aces are easily enough to double 1NT - a good partner will always provide the other 9 tricks.
Hand 4
======
William found a strong deceptive play as declarer in this deal from the Matchpoint Pairs Semi Final:
Dealer N - NS VUL
Lead S3.
After a simple auction West led the ♠3 to East's ♠Q and Will's ♠A. Not content with only 7 tricks, Will started with the ♥K and ♥J, carefully concealing the ♥A, before trying a club to dummy's 9 and East's 10. East returned a spade to the Jack and King. West, 'knowing' that his partner held the Heart Ace, placed Declarer with diamond values and failed to find the diamond shift. Will won the spade continuation, unblocked the hearts and was rewarded when the clubs came home too for +150 and almost all of the matchpoints.
Hand 5
======
Towards the end of the Pairs Qualifying you are playing against a strong Chinese pair and pick up this monster:
Dealer E - ALL VUL
Your RHO is dealer and opens 1♦. What do you bid?
I settled for a simple 1♥ overcall, confident that it wouldn't get passed out and hoping to be able to raise partners 1♠ response to 7♠ - the ULTIMATE in support.
When partner responded 1NT, I casually backed in with 7♥ and my opponents almost fell off their chairs. East, holding both missing aces was wise not to double.
Will tabled the ♥K and refused to give me any other cards but that was enough for 13 tricks and 75% of the matchpoints. There were no less than 6 pairs playing 7♥xx!
Hand 6
======
Perhaps my favourite hand from the whole tournament is this simple part-score from the pairs:
Dealer N - ALL VUL
I opened in second seat with a precision style 2♣ and South stretched with a 2♥ overcall. Will chose a negative double and North raised hearts which completed the auction.
Will led the ♣Q to my ♣A and declarer's ♣8. The defence seemed obvious at this point - I returned the ♣T, my highest, as suit preference for Spades. On this Declarer did well to play the ♣K, a card he was known to hold. Will ruffed, thought for a second and returned..... A DIAMOND!? It wasn't until after the hand that I worked out what had gone wrong.
From Will's point of view the club layout is most likely:
Where it's necessary for me to return an honour. By returning the ♣T, the lower of equals, I am actually demanding a diamond return!
The solution? At trick 2 I needed to think a little deeper about declarers clubs and return the ♣9. Ironically, only by playing my second highest club I can unambiguously communicate to partner that I want a spade returned. A very cute hand.
Acknowledgments
=============
I'd like to take this opportunity to thanks some of the people who made Beijing 2008 such an enjoyable experience:
- The Mind Sport Games organisers for running a superb event and also for covering our accommodation and airfares.
- The ABF for their generous support - uniforms, airline taxes, food etc etc.
- David Stern and the other organisers and presenters at the Youth Training Week in Sydney.
- Christy, Bec and Suz for their hard work as support staff, recorders and seamstresses.
- Cathy and Adam - Sensational captaining made being an "Athlete" in Beijing very easy.
- John, Orlando, Nick and Arian for being fantastic team mates throughout.
- And finally Will Jenner-Oshea, the best partner ever, who was even smart enough to steal a gold medal from England's U21 team!
The fantastic venue was in the heart of the Olympic village, just a couple hundred meters from the spectacular Birdsnest Olympic Stadium. On a clear day you could even see it!
On a polluted day, not so much...
The Australian U28 team was comprised of John Hornibrook partnered with Orlando Wu, Nick Rodwell with Arian Lasocki and William Jenner-Oshea with Myself. We were competing against a strong field of 75 teams, the largest ever in a youth bridge event. Our team performed consistently throughout the event winning 12 of our 17 matches. Going into the final day of the Swiss, we were well placed in 11th, just a handful of VPs away from the top 8. A disappointing finish saw us slip back to 18th - still a solid performance considering that half of our team were on international debut.
The teams portion in Beijing was played entirely behind screens which diagonally separate the table isolating North and East from South and West. Bids are placed on a board which is slid back and forth under the screen. Once the bidding is complete a flap is opened providing visibility of dummy and the other players' cards, but not their faces.
Here are some of my favourite hands from the event:
Hand 1
======
Dealer E - NS VUL
|
North ♠ K Q T 2 ♥ Q T 9 6 ♦ 9 7 ♣ Q 9 2 | ||
|
West ♠ A J 7 6 ♥ A J 7 2 ♦ J 6 5 2 ♣ 6 |
East ♠ 8 3 ♥ K 8 4 ♦ A T 4 ♣ A J 8 5 3 | |
|
South ♠ 9 5 4 ♥ 5 3 ♦ K Q 8 3 ♣ K T 7 4 |
Sitting South, on the same side of the screen as West, John heard the auction begin:
| Orlando | East | John | West |
| 1♣ | P | 1♥ | |
| P | 2♥ | P | 2♠ |
| P | 2NT | P | 3NT |
At which point John passed the board under the screen. With the opponents announcing only invitational values, and knowing that all the suits were breaking badly, he decided to make a speculative double when the board came back to him. To his surprise, when the board reappeared Orlando had beaten him to it!
| . | . | . | . |
| X | AP |
Accurate defense restricted the opponents to their 4 Aces and the Heart King for +800.
At our table, Will started with a Mini No-Trump (10-12 HCP) which kept us out of trouble:
| North | Will | South | Mike |
| 1NT | P | 2♣ | |
| P | 2♦ | P | P |
| X | AP |
I elected to use stayman and then passed Will's 2♦ response. North reopened with a takeout double and South converted to penalties - a wise choice as 3♣ doubled would have been expensive. Anticipating the bad breaks, Will played carefully, ruffing clubs in dummy to bring home 8 tricks for +180 and a large bundle of imps.
Hand 2
======
Every hand with Will is an adventure - especially when the vulnerability is favourable. This is well demonstrated on the following hand against Uruguay:
Dealer W - NS VUL
|
North ♠ A 9 3 ♥ A 4 ♦ A K 7 ♣ A K Q 4 3 | ||
|
Mike ♠ K T 8 ♥ J 3 2 ♦ Q J T 9 8 ♣ 5 2 |
Will ♠ J 7 5 ♥ 9 6 5 ♦ 6 ♣ J T 9 8 7 6 | |
|
South ♠ Q 6 4 2 ♥ K Q T 8 7 ♦ 5 4 3 2 ♣ - |
| North | Will | South | Mike |
| P | |||
| 2♣ | 4♣(!) | 4♥ | P |
| 4NT | P | 5♦ | P |
| 6♥ | AP |
When North tabled his 24-count strong 2 - IN CLUBS - I couldn't help but giggle. 6♥ is cold off on the layout and although we didn't gain any IMPs on this particular board, the opponents were clearly rattled and we picked up about 25 IMPs over the next 5 hands to win the match.
Hand 3
======
Will and I play our own home-made bidding system (called Minsk) which emphasises good 4 card majors over a longer minor. This can sometimes have unexpected benefits as demonstrated on the this deal where we extracted our largest penalty of the event at the 1 level.
Dealer W - NIL VUL
|
North ♠ 8 5 4 ♥ T 8 5 ♦ K J 5 2 ♣ 7 6 2 | ||
|
Will ♠ 7 6 ♥ A Q J 2 ♦ T ♣ K J 9 5 4 3 |
Mike ♠ A Q T 3 2 ♥ 9 6 ♦ 9 6 4 3 ♣ A T | |
|
South ♠ K J 9 ♥ K 7 4 3 ♦ A Q 8 7 ♣ Q 8 |
After Will's systemic, canape 1♥ opening, I responded 1♠ and South came in with a fairly ugly 1NT overcall, passed back around to me. Although we do open light, I liked my 2 aces and decided to chance a double which was passed out.
| North | Mike | South | Will |
| 1♥(*) | |||
| P | 1♠ | 1NT | P |
| P | X | AP |
Playing attitude leads, Will started with the ♣3 to my Ace. I dutifully returned a club and was pleasantly surprised when the suit ran immediately! On 6 rounds of clubs the declarer pitched a heart so after a spade to my ace and a heart back through the king, Will could run his hearts too! Winning the first 11 tricks was worth +1100.
The moral of the story is that two aces are easily enough to double 1NT - a good partner will always provide the other 9 tricks.
Hand 4
======
William found a strong deceptive play as declarer in this deal from the Matchpoint Pairs Semi Final:
Dealer N - NS VUL
|
Mike ♠ 5 4 ♥ Q 8 7 6 ♦ 9 8 4 ♣ A 9 7 4 | ||
|
West ♠ K 9 6 3 2 ♥ 5 3 ♦ Q J 5 2 ♣ K 6 |
East ♠ Q 8 7 ♥ T 9 4 2 ♦ A K 6 ♣ J T 5 | |
|
South ♠ A J T ♥ A K J ♦ T 7 3 ♣ Q 8 3 2 |
| Mike | East | Will | West |
| P | P | 1NT | AP |
After a simple auction West led the ♠3 to East's ♠Q and Will's ♠A. Not content with only 7 tricks, Will started with the ♥K and ♥J, carefully concealing the ♥A, before trying a club to dummy's 9 and East's 10. East returned a spade to the Jack and King. West, 'knowing' that his partner held the Heart Ace, placed Declarer with diamond values and failed to find the diamond shift. Will won the spade continuation, unblocked the hearts and was rewarded when the clubs came home too for +150 and almost all of the matchpoints.
Hand 5
======
Towards the end of the Pairs Qualifying you are playing against a strong Chinese pair and pick up this monster:
Dealer E - ALL VUL
|
You (South) ♠ A K Q T 5 ♥ A Q J 9 7 6 5 3 ♦ - ♣ - |
Your RHO is dealer and opens 1♦. What do you bid?
I settled for a simple 1♥ overcall, confident that it wouldn't get passed out and hoping to be able to raise partners 1♠ response to 7♠ - the ULTIMATE in support.
When partner responded 1NT, I casually backed in with 7♥ and my opponents almost fell off their chairs. East, holding both missing aces was wise not to double.
| Will | East | Mike | West |
| 1♦ | 1♥(!) | P | |
| 1NT | P | 7♥(!!!) | AP |
Will tabled the ♥K and refused to give me any other cards but that was enough for 13 tricks and 75% of the matchpoints. There were no less than 6 pairs playing 7♥xx!
Hand 6
======
Perhaps my favourite hand from the whole tournament is this simple part-score from the pairs:
Dealer N - ALL VUL
|
North ♠ J T 6 3 ♥ K J 5 3 ♦ J 9 ♣ 7 5 4 | ||
|
Will ♠ A 8 5 2 ♥ 9 8 7 2 ♦ K T 8 2 ♣ Q |
Mike ♠ K Q 4 ♥ 6 ♦ Q 5 4 ♣ A T 9 6 3 2 | |
|
South ♠ 9 7 ♥ A Q T 4 ♦ A 7 6 3 ♣ K J 8 |
| North | Mike | South | Will |
| P | 2♣ | 2♥(!) | X |
| 3♥ | AP |
I opened in second seat with a precision style 2♣ and South stretched with a 2♥ overcall. Will chose a negative double and North raised hearts which completed the auction.
Will led the ♣Q to my ♣A and declarer's ♣8. The defence seemed obvious at this point - I returned the ♣T, my highest, as suit preference for Spades. On this Declarer did well to play the ♣K, a card he was known to hold. Will ruffed, thought for a second and returned..... A DIAMOND!? It wasn't until after the hand that I worked out what had gone wrong.
From Will's point of view the club layout is most likely:
| Dummy ♣ 7 5 4 | |
|
Mike ♣ A J T 6 3 2 |
|
|
Declarer ♣ K 9 8 |
The solution? At trick 2 I needed to think a little deeper about declarers clubs and return the ♣9. Ironically, only by playing my second highest club I can unambiguously communicate to partner that I want a spade returned. A very cute hand.
Acknowledgments
=============
I'd like to take this opportunity to thanks some of the people who made Beijing 2008 such an enjoyable experience:
- The Mind Sport Games organisers for running a superb event and also for covering our accommodation and airfares.
- The ABF for their generous support - uniforms, airline taxes, food etc etc.
- David Stern and the other organisers and presenters at the Youth Training Week in Sydney.
- Christy, Bec and Suz for their hard work as support staff, recorders and seamstresses.
- Cathy and Adam - Sensational captaining made being an "Athlete" in Beijing very easy.
- John, Orlando, Nick and Arian for being fantastic team mates throughout.
- And finally Will Jenner-Oshea, the best partner ever, who was even smart enough to steal a gold medal from England's U21 team!
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