The Danish Mixed Championship with Ella

Svendborg, on 29-31 May

The Danish Mixed Team Championship is a highlight for many bridge players in Denmark. It’s often described as the coziest tournament of the year, and I agree.

Svendborg has long been known as a stronghold for bridge. In addition to the Mixed Team Championship, the Danish Bridge Festival is also held here every July. The town offers a beautiful setting by the harbour, with classic Danish architecture providing a charming backdrop for a week of bridge.

An unwritten rule says: you haven’t really been to Svendborg unless you’ve visited “Kahytten”—a local bar famous for its karaoke Thursdays and cheap drinks (a Danish favourite). So, it’s not unusual to find players discussing boards—or belting out pop songs—after a long day at the tables.

This year, I played with Niels Krøjgaard, a Danish first-division player. We teamed up with mother-and-son pair Camilla Bo Krefeld and Nikolaj « Pepe » Hammelev. Pepe is a talented young player, and Camilla is not only on the Danish mixed national team, but will also be captain of the Danish U26W team at this summer’s World Championships in Italy.

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Qualification Phase

The tournament started with a two-day qualifying round, where the top four teams advanced to the knockout stage. Each round consisted of 8 boards, and the race to the top four was a tight one—there’s really not much room for error. Qualifying for this tournament is quite tough because it is difficult to be in the top four.

Here is a board where we got a bit lucky:

When the bidding escalates quickly, it can be hard to keep up. I was sitting South. The auction went:

Many would have opened 1♦ on West’s hand, and I would also have done so 10 times out of 10. It is a good 10-count hand with 5/5 distribution. It might even simplify the auction. In that case, it might go:

Assuming X would be support. Now it is easier for East to double for penalties, when West opens.

In our auction, West made things harder for herself by not supporting hearts after 1♠. Niels’s 4♠ was a great space-eating bid. West tried to recover by bidding 5♥, which Niels doubled.

Yes, my 1♠ overcall wasn’t exactly textbook. But hey—live fearless or die trying!

I led the queen of spades, which declarer ruffed in dummy. She drew trumps and took a club finesse. Niels won the ace of diamonds and returned a spade. Declarer finessed clubs again, but we eventually cashed two spades for +300.

The play wasn’t perfect. A more accurate line would involve attacking diamonds earlier and using the long diamonds in dummy for discards. It’s a good example of how important timing and reading the defence can be.

More in debt, the declaring should be something like:

Declarer should play a diamond on trick 2, it would have worked out better for her. North would return a heart, after the ace of diamonds. Now declarer ruffs a spade, throws a spade on the king of diamonds, and ruffs a diamond in the hand. She should then cash 2 high hearts. Now dummy has a lot of good diamonds, since the jack fell on the third round. And there is no problem with North ruffing a club. After North finesses in clubs, she can cash two more diamonds and discard a spade and then a club. In total, North will now only get a heart trick and the ace of diamonds. 11 tricks for declarer.

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Another Board from Qualification

The lead was the 8 of spades.

Declarer won in hand and played a small heart, which I won with the queen. I returned a small club to Niels’s ten and declarer’s king. Declarer then cashed the ace of hearts and played another small heart, which I won with the seven.

I continued with a club to Niels’s queen, and he cashed the ace of clubs as well. Niels then switched to a diamond, which I won with the ace. I was now able to cash the 13^th club and the king of hearts. Down two, and a good score for us.

Our defence was solid, but declarer overlooked the possibility that one opponent could have started with 10x in hearts. That would have led to just one down in 2NT—not the biggest error in a team event, but still a small missed chance.

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Missed Qualification—but still learning

We didn’t qualify for the final four, which was disappointing as we had come expecting to make it. But that’s bridge. A drink at Kahytten helped soften the blow.

Other Team Funbridge members Andrea Nilsson and Christian Lahrmann made it to the final four.

Since I couldn’t play in the KO, I entered the Final B on Saturday. One board stood out—not for brilliance, but for the lesson it taught me.

6♦ showed an even number of aces and a void in diamonds.

West led the ace of clubs and quickly returned another. I made the mistake of taking a spade finesse and went down one.

The lesson? Everyone knew I was missing two key-cards. If West had only one, she would probably try to cash the other by leading a spade. Her club return meant that she had both. I ignored that inference—afraid of looking silly—and paid the price. This is where psychology in bridge matters.

Amalie Bune, a good friend of mine, was also declarer, and West returned a spade after some thought on trick 2. Now it is hard to find the correct play.

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A Sweet Ending

I wasn’t thrilled about Niels doubling 4♠. I had maybe two heart tricks and I was not expecting any club tricks. But I trusted his judgment and 5♣ might have been worse.

Niels led the 9 of hearts. I returned a diamond, he won with the ace, and we got a ruff. I cashed another heart for down one and +200. Our team-mates played in 3S only, so we gained 9 IMPs.

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Final Thought

We ended up 5^th in Final B—not our finest moment, but that’s life. You take the good with the bad.

The winners included my regular partner Julie Marina Sigsgaard, playing with her boyfriend Andreas Plejdrup and teaming up with her mother, Katrine Martensen Larsen, and Flemming Poulsen. I’ll be playing with Julie both at the Worlds in Herning and in Italy this summer. We’re really looking forward to it.

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