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South African Bridge Federation

2020 Congress – Cape Town

BULLETIN #6 Sun 15 March 2020

Compiled by: Neil Hayward

Neville Eber Praises the Stabell Brothers for a Well-Defended Hand

Neville Eber along with Chris Bosenberg, Tim Cope, Glen Holman, Alon

Apteker and Craig Gower, was a member of the South African team in

Shanghai, China which reached the semi-finals of the 2007 Bermuda

Bowl by beating the powerful Italian team, before losing to the USA by a

mere 8 IMPs in the semi-finals.

Although bridge does not receive as much recognition as it deserves in

this country, that was an achievement which filled the bridge-playing

community in South Africa with tremendous pride.

Neville also plays poker and backgammon at a high level. Some people just love stress!

Board: 5 Vul: NS Dealer: S

AKT973 6 QJ75 85

654

QJ8

J983 KT7

AT3 9642

Q62 974 2 AQ542 K8 AKJT3

West North East South

1

Pass 1 Pass 2

Pass 3 Pass 3NT

Pass Pass Pass

This board has, again, been orientated to put declarer in the South seat to produce a

familiar perspective.

Leif Stabell found a brilliant lead: the 5. This lead breaks the communications in spades

between dummy and declarer right away. A suit bid and re-bid with a jump: not many would

even consider that lead, let alone actually choose it.

Winning with the A, Eber led a club to the J, losing to the Q. The T was exited –

another good card – covered by the J. Had the A popped up, Eber was ready to unblock

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the K to create an entry to dummy. As you see, this did not happen. The K was cashed,

followed by four clubs, and then the K, won by Leif Stabell. A spade was now led to the

Q, and, the 7 was led back (the T would have been better, especially if the K and J

been interchanged). Stabell had to overtake the 7, playing the 8. Eber now had a “free”

finesse at trick 12.

There are not many bridge hands which are quite as mundane as they might seem. This one,

for example, is more complex than a casual look might suggest. Benito Garozzo once said

that, if playing at the top of his form, he made around seven mistakes per session. Yet you

hear players talk about how they played flawlessly throughout a session. Bridge is so

complex that we cannot see over its horizons to fully appreciate its depth and beauty.

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Bridge Humour

Overheard at the bridge club:

We had a 75-percent game last night!

Three out of four opponents thought we were idiots.

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Uncharacteristic Modesty – Plus Two Great Punch Lines

Terence Reese writes about a hand in which a player made the contract, missing a difficult,

but still better line. “Despite that,” writes Reese, “nothing was going to prevent him from

telling every bridge player he met for the next few months about his wonderful play. There

are many qualities you need to reach the top at bridge. Modesty is not one of them.”

Reese might have been surprised by this modesty in another player, who wrote: “In a

college dormitory game (at Vanderbilt University) I picked up:

♠ Void ♥ AKQJ109xxx ♦ Void ♣ AKQx.

The player writes: “A manipulated hand, one might think, but I saw the cards being shuffled.

I remember the thirteenth card I picked up: it was the ♥A. I decided the 4th club would be

taken care of one way or another and risked an opening bid of 7♥. Fortunately, Partner held

♣Jx. We were all rotten players, of course, but this deal somehow established my

reputation, because who but an expert would open 7♥?

“Unfortunately, the rest is not exactly history.”

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Great Play by a Great Player

Oswald Jacoby gave us transfers over a 1NT opening and he also invented

the 2NT game-forcing raise over a major suit opening. He played the hand

below in 1950, declaring a contract of 6 after North’s 1 opening and

East’s overcall of 1, which West raised to a pre-emptive 4. The lead is

the 10. Can you match Ozzie’s line of play?

Ozzie drew trumps, and led a diamond across. Five diamond tricks appear to be in the bag,

until you realise that the fourth round will be have to be won in your hand. When you spot a

problem, you are closer to solving

it. Here, the solution is simple and

elegant. Give them a “free” heart

trick, throwing a diamond. Should

a defender hold Jxx, you have

cleared the blockage. When it

comes to declarer play, the stars

of yesteryear had plenty of class.

They probably burnt less of their

brain power on remembering

intricate systemic bids. The

sequence on the right is too

modern to have been seen in 1950.

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Don’t Give an Inch

A long time ago, Brian Keable, playing with Joe Amsbury, an English international, said (after

something went seriously wrong with their defence): “Joe, I was probably 95 percent to

blame.”

Amsbury, with raised eyebrow: “And where exactly do you propose to apportion the other 5

percent?”

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Knot a Good Result

South, writing in the score : “5 Diamonds doubled, played by East, four down vulnerable.

That’s minus 1100.”

North, to East : “You got yourselves in a knot there.”

East : “We certainly did. Our path was paved with nothing but good conventions.”

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652

Q3

AKQ42

J54

AKQJ83

-

T986

AT3

West North East South

– 1 1 1

Pass 2 Pass 4(a)

Pass 4NT(b) Pass 6(c)

Pass 6 [end]

(a) Shortage (b) Keycard Blackwood

(c) Odd no. of keycards plus a void

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Did You Know?

The greatest age at which a contestant has won a world

championship in any code is 89. This was the age at which Boris

Schapiro won a world championship. Okay, so it was the world

Seniors Pairs Championship, but it made him a world champion

nevertheless.

Schapiro’s first major success was in the Gold Cup in 1945. He went on to win this trophy

eleven times, his last victory coming at the age of 88 in 1998.

Partnering Terence Reese, he was a member of the British team that won the Bermuda

Bowl in 1955.

Boris Schapiro played in our national congress in the year 2000.

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A Catastrophic Omission

Richard Fleet, an English international, and his wife, Marijke van

Beesten, owned seven cats, named Blackwood, Stayman, Terence,

Boris, Rixi, Branco and Fritzi. If Blackwood or Stayman jumped up

onto the table during the auction, Fleet and his wife had a house rule: they had to use the

convention after which the cat was named during the current auction. On one occasion, two

of their opponents bid to a slam without using Blackwood, missing two aces. The result was

predictably disastrous for them.

Blackwood was soon up on the table, rolling about ecstatically, as if making the point that

they should not have insulted him by breaking the house rule.

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A Peep is Worth Two Finesses

In rubber bridge, which can be a rather coarse game, there is the story

about a player who loved a good peep. He would sway back and forth in his

chair, keen to take full advantage of any evidence that came to light. One of

his opponents, sitting on his right, decided to get his revenge by placing his queen of

diamonds in his heart suit. Having completed his swaying routine, the dodgy operator

finessed the heart jack and immediately placed his hand on the table, claiming 3NT.

Unfortunately for him, his left hand opponent produced the heart queen, completely

unexpectedly, defeating the contract. Peeping Tom just about fell off his chair. He

immediately picked up his glasses and gave them a good clean.

After that incident, he would sway both ways, peeping into each opponent’s hand just to be

sure.

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When in Rome .....

At a regional championship in Canada, a local player opened 1, and the partner of the

visiting expert overcalled 2. The third player doubled.

The expert waited for some clarification of the double, but none was forthcoming. After a

while, he turned to the opener and complained, sharp-edged: “At the clubs where I play, we

alert our negative doubles.”

The opener turned to the expert and replied: “At the clubs where I play, we don't play

negative doubles.”

The contract of 2 doubled cost the expert and his partner an unpalatable minus 800.

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The Annual Bridge Club Party

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” called the director at the duplicate bridge club’s annual Christmas

party, “order please. We have a new record. Someone has just scored minus 3400.”

As the triumphant declarer took his bow, a tipsy voice came from the back: “Could he have

made his contract on a different line of play?”

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And the Teams Championship Winners for 2020 are…

… the STABELL team (Leif-Erik Stabell, Tolle Stabell, Jan Mikkelsen and Sverre Johnsen) who

finished victorious in the head-to-head finale verses the EBER team (Neville Eber, Hennie

Fick, Anders Morath, Sven-Ake Bjerregaard, Val Bloom and Tas Nestoridis).

After agreeing to play a 48-board match, the Stabell team took a convincing early lead

winning the first round 29:8. Not deterred, the Eber team fought back valiantly taking the

second round 43:23 and virtually levelling the match at 55:51 overnight. Anxious to return

to colder climes, the Norwegians stormed ahead in the third round (47:11) increasing their

lead to 102:62. Making up 40 IMPS on 12 boards against the Vikings was never going to be

easy and so it proved to be. Well done to both teams for an enjoyable match played in

excellent spirits and no need for TD rulings.

HEAD-TO-HEAD NATIONAL TEAMS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2020

Score for Round Cumulative Scores

STABELL EBER STABELL EBER Carry Over (from Round Robin) 3 0 3 0

Round 1 (12 Boards) 29 8 32 8

Round 2 (12 Boards) 23 43 55 51 Round 3 (12 Boards) 47 11 102 62

Round 4 (12 Boards) 21 14 123 76

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FINAL RESULTS OF PAIRS QUALIFIERS (Page 1 of 3)

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FINAL RESULTS OF PAIRS QUALIFIERS (Page 2 of 3)

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FINAL RESULTS OF PAIRS QUALIFIERS (Page 3 of 3)

“NO FEAR PAIRS” FINAL RESULTS

Position Partnership Round 1 Round 2 Combined

1 Marilyn Markus & Bernice Kaye x x 59.75%

2 Pamela Murinik & Marcia Randell x x 57.26%

3 Geraldine Jacobs & Maureen Lander x x 57.16%

4= Colleen Frost & Mary Smith x x 52.99%

4= Twiggi Curitz & Andrea Reidy x x 52.99%

No fewer than twenty “fearless” pairs participated in the inaugural NO FEAR PAIRS contest in this

year’s SABF National Congress. Many congratulations to the winners Marilyn and Bernice and to the

runners-up Pamela and Marcia. Commiserations to the third placed partnership of Geraldine and

Maureen who finished a hair’s breadth (0.1%) behind second.