Captain's Report

The First World Mind Spots Games in Beijing, China is now history. It was a wonderful experience for Canada's Youth Team (under 28). Members were Michael Yuen (NPC) Erin Anderson, David Grainger, Roy Yang Li, Matthew Mason, David Sabourin and Kai Zhou.

In preparation for the Championship, with thanks to Eric and Bev, all three pairs took part in Kokish-Kraft's training and worked very hard on their partnerships.

While in Beijing, we had a slow start for the first day. There after we played hard and were as high as 10th place. We were in it right up to the second last match on the last day for a qualifying spot. Our final standing after 17 Swiss matches was 24th out of 74 teams with 263 VP, that translated to 15.47 imps average per match. On the whole everybody played well. As you can see in the Butler rating all three pairs were on the plus side.

Our players were well behaved at and away from the table, positive and were supportive of each other. Everybody was happy with the amount of matches they were scheduled to play.

I noticed we lost all but one of our late afternoon matches to lesser teams, Jet lag may have played a part.

Bridge Mates were used to record the contracts, leads and results. However no records were kept for the play till the KO stage.

The conditions of contest to qualify 8 teams out of 74 after 17 Swiss matches for the KO stage was unreasonable. That also meant more then 80% of the teams were playing meaningless matches for the last 3 days out of 7.

After the Team Championship Granger and Sabourin registered to play the Open Pairs. They won the two day qualifying sessions and placed 58th in the final.

Housing on site was great, our suite had three bedrooms, sitting room and three bathrooms. We were happy with the rooming arrangement. The food, breakfast, lunch and dinner were served buffet style at the North Star Hotel, was good on the whole but not to everybody's taste as most of the time the food provided was Chinese.

Just a note to say Thank You for choosing me as the Captain for the Youth Team (Under 28) for Beijing. I enjoyed my time with The Team and glad to do my part for the good of Canadian bridge.

Did You See THAT!

At the Transnational Mixed Teams in Beijing. During Round 12 of the Swiss, Canada's Susan Culham (South) was playing with Bryan Maksymetz (North) against Team S. Rimstedt when board 24 arrived at the table.

		♠	KQ82
		♥	AK85
		♦	10754
		♣	8
♠	J963			♠	754
♥	J2			♥	1063
♦	6			♦	AQJ3
♣	A109543			♣	Q76
		♠	A10
		♥	Q974
		♦	K982
		♣	KJ2

Dealer West. None Vul. This was the auction.

West	North	East	South
pass	1◊	pass	1♥
DBL	3♥	pass	3♠
pass	4♣	pass	4◊
pass	4♥	pass	pass
pass

West led the diamond six, seven, ace and two. The diamond queen came back, king, ruffed by West with the heart two, four. He led back the Heart jack, ace, three and four. Susan played the Heart five, six, queen and West discarded the club three.

Susan can see she is a trick short for her contract even if she guessed the club position, came up with the fantastic play of the spade ten, three, two and four. After spade ace, six, eight and seven. Susan played heart nine, club five, king, ten. She was able to discard her diamond losers on the king and queen of spade. Led club eight, seven, finessed the jack and ace. The club king was her tenth trick. Four hearts made for plus 420. Keeping her teams' hope for making it to the KO stage alive.

It was not easy for West to cover the spade ten as the spade eight in dummy may then come into play.

At this point the west player turned around to his friends that were watching and asked "Did you see THAT!"

What a great lead

Sabine Auken (North) and Daniela von Arnim of Germany was playing against China when this hand came up.

Holding S103 H109842 DQ10 C8762 on lead with the following auction. What would you lead?

Dealer East. all NV.

West	North	East	South
		1D	pass
2NT*	pass	3NT	all pass

Sabine found the queen of diamond lead!
The full deal is.

	North
	♠ 103
	♥ 10984
	◊ Q10
West	♣ 8762	East
♠ Q64		♠ 9875
♥ AQJ		♥ K5
◊ A43		◊ J652
♣ Q1093		♣ AKJ
	South
	♠ AKJ2
	♥ 763
	◊ K987
	♣ 54

The Chinese declarer (West) after checking the Germans' lead agreement (Queen from king, queen, ten, nine asking partner to unblock the jack) won the queen, two, seven with the ace. She can count to eight tricks and believing the lead, can see the ninth. Confidentially played the diamond three, ten, jack and king. Down one and Germany won 10 well earned imps.

At the other table Pony (West) also in three no trump. Got the ten of heart lead won by the king and led spade from dummy toward her hand twice to score the queen of spade for her contract.

Life Goes On

. Michael at the Art Zone .

It was the last day of the Swiss and our team needed a good day to have any chances of making into the KO stage.

Match 15th vs Austria we won 50 imp to 38 imp and with 18 vp we claimed to 14th position and gave us hope.

Match 16 vs Belgium we lost 22 imp to 51 imp and got only 8 vp.

Match 17 vs Portugal we lost 26 imp to 38 imp and got another 12 vp.

Our total of 263 vp was good for 24th position out of 74 teams.

Over all The Team played hard and got along well. We even made some new friends and had lots of fun. We had a shot up to the last day and that is all we can ask for.

So it is over for the Youth Team in this event. David and David will play the pairs for the next few days. Others will visit friends and sight see. I will play the Transnational Mixed Team and enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving Canada.

A Telephone Number

Match 13 against France, David Grainger (North) and David Sabourin (South) were in action on Board seven.

	North
	♠ QJ1098
	♥ KQ1052
	◊ 1064
West	♣ void	East
♠ 6432		♠ AK75
♥ A7		♥ 86
◊ QJ7		◊ 983
♣ A872	South	♣ KJ104
	♠ void
	♥ J943
	◊ AK52
	♣ Q9653

Dealer South All Vulnerable

West	North	East	South
			pass
pass	pass	1♣	pass
1♠	2♥	2♠	4♥
4♠	DBL	all pass

Holding five trumps David Grainger was more then happy to double four spade when the bidding tray came back to him.

Opening lead was the heart king, six, three, ace. Declarer played spade two, eight, ace and heart four. The club king was ruffed by north with the spade nine. Play of spade queen forced the spade king. The club jack was covered by queen, ace and north discarded the diamond four. Club eight, diamond four, ten and six. Declarer now out of winners played the diamond nine, ace, seven and ten. Sabourin led heart nine, seven, ten and eight. Grainger got in to draw trumps then played winning hearts to beat four spades doubled five down for 1400.

Peking Duck

There are only two matches to-day.
Match 13 vs France we lost 28 imp to 47 imp, that is 11 vp to us.
Match 14 vs Australia we lost 17 imp to 32 imp, added another 12 vp to our total.
Our total after 14 matches is 225 vp good for 21st position.
After the evening match, our team went out for Peking Duck and a nice evening.

Another Sunny Day At Home Away From Home

It was a nice day in Beijing. The Team is playing well and having fun.



Match 10 vs Germany we won 70 imp to 10 imp, that is 25 vp.

Match 11 vs Estonia we won 52 imp to 16 imp, 23 vp more.

Match 12 vs Italy it was a tie 41 imp to 42 imp, that means another 15 vp to us.

For the day we won 63 vp and now total of 202 vp. Ranked 11th.