27th European Youth Team Championships – Days 1 & 2

Follow the European Youth Team Championships taking place in Oslo, Norway, with Milan Macura from 4 to 11 July! Milan Macura is the captain of the Czech team sponsored by Funbridge. He is familiar with Funbridge. You can watch the weekly videos of his challenges against Argine in our Videos section. Throughout the Championships, Milan will share the highlights of the event as well as interesting deals. His summary of Days 1 & 2 is already available.

DAY 1: THE EUROPEAN YOUTH TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS KICK OFF

Report #1

Deal analysis: the first of many to come

DAY 2: BULGARIA FACES AUSTRIA

Report #2

Deal analysis: Bulgaria plays against Austria

This board comes from the second match of day 2, round 5 of the Championship. You get this beautiful hand:

A K Q 8 2

A K Q J 9 8

8 5

How do you plan the bidding?

This is a goulash hand 65 with 2 solid suits and only 2 losers. But how to figure out if your partner is covering both of them? If you are using a very natural system with 2♦ GF, it can be very easy since after the opening 2♦, partner is responding with an Ace:

2♠ = Major Ace
2NT = 2 Aces
3♣/♦ = minor Ace

In this board, you will get the response of 3♣ which shows the ♣ Ace. Now, you show the diamond suit, partner raises to 4♦ and you can bid 4NT to ask for the kings or you can bid 4♥ to hear partner cuebid in ♠ or ♣. After 4NT, you will hear 5♥ which shows 2 Kings so you know about AK in ♣. Now, you have to hope that ♥ split if partner has 3♥ and only 2♦ or that partner has 2♥ and ♦10 to ruff the 3^rd round. There are many more options how you can solve the issue of losing the heart trick. So, you finally bid 7♦. Here is how the bidding might go:

South	West	North	East
PASS		PASS
PASS		PASS
PASS		PASS
PASS		PASS	PASS

If you are playing a 2♣ strong only where you do not have the Ace responses, I suggest you to open 1 level and then try to solve it later, showing a two-suiter hand. Since you have a void, you have to anticipate a spade overcall or 1♠ response. If you open 1♦, you might have troubles to show heart suit, because the contract can come to you in 4♠. So, I prefer to open 1♥ and show GF hand with diamonds later.

Here is how the bidding will go in reality after 1♥ opening:

West	North	East	South

	PASS		PASS
	PASS	PASS	PASS

2♠ = INV+ with heart fit
5♠ = showing void and is slam forcing, grand slam try
6♣ = showing values

If you Open 1♦, here is how the bidding might proceed:

West	North	East	South

	PASS		PASS
	PASS	PASS	PASS

X = negative double to show 8+ HCP and 4♥
4NT = RKCB for ♥
5♦ = 1 key card out of 5
7♥ = you hope partner has a club Ace and that you will discard clubs on diamonds and ruff the second club in dummy.

In reality, this board is really about the bidding since the whole deal looks like this:

A Q J 9 7

10 6 4 3

7 9 3

A K Q 8 2

A K Q J 9 8

8 5

K 6 3

10 6 5 4

7 2

A K 10 7

10 8 5 4 2

J 7 3

Q 6 4 2

At the European Youth Team Championships, only pairs reached 7♥ and 3 pairs reached 7♦. 3 pairs found good sacrifice in 6♠x for only -800. The rest bid only a small slam.