The fourth week of the Budapest Teams Championship is over. Now that we know more than 1/3 of the I/A round robin’s and more than half of the I/B qualifier’s results, we have a better idea about the shape of the teams in each group. In division I/A six teams’ average VPs are above 11, but the team with the highest average: GAMAX with 14.30 has only played 3 matches yet. In division I/B all the teams have played all their matches, in group A four, in group B 5 teams have greater than 10 VPs average.
In this board Gábor Winkler chose an unusual bid; he opened with 3♣. West bid 3NT and after North’s pass István Varga found himself in an uncomfortable situation. He couldn’t find an optimal bid to describe his hand, but if his partner has a gambling hand, they might even make 3NT or they only go down once and playing any major could end up in a catastrophe (imagine a double from South). Varga passed and lost 7 imps. Though his partner had two club tricks, he went down 5 times in 3NT but the opponents on the other table only twice in 4♠ after an uncontested auction.