Let’s see the declarer play first. Csaba Konkoly should have gone down in 4♠, losing a club, a spade and two diamond tricks. After North took the trick with the jack of spades, he could have played his last spade and then declarer has no chance to make the contract, but he rather played his club in hopes of a ruff. Little did he know that Konkoly also had a singleton. Ruffing the next club in his hand, declarer took the king of hearts, ruffed his small heart and played the last two spades from dummy.

He then took his high club and played a small one. East now only had to guess the spades right to make the contract. László Szilágyi knew this as well and he overruffed dummies eight with his king(!). He deceived declarer to think South has the jack of spades and alas, he tried to finesse it.

Minor group:

• Group A:
  • IZOBAU
  • LEÓ
  • IGAZI DUROSTONE
  • ELTE
• Group B:
  • LOWEL
  • BALÁSY
  • ARTEMIX
  • LAPSZÁMOSOK

László Harangozó had only one shot to make enough tricks in this board after the club lead. He realized he had to get rid of his club loser as soon as possible, so after taking the first trick he immediately made the spade finesse. He earned 12 IMPs with his bravery, because the opponents in the other room tried to draw trumps first and had to lose a club trick.

Róbert Zoller (Elastron) played 5♦ from South in this board and he was the only one in the field who could score points as NS. Double dummy, to defeat the contract West should have attack the long suit of the declarer, clubs, and later East should have helped continuing the suit and promote the trump 7. Obviously this has not happened. After drawing the trumps from the opponents Zoller ruffed a spade with his last diamond and with this move, he nicely squeezed East between hearts and clubs.

Péter Marjai played this board well, he tried to catch South with Hx in hearts. This wasn’t the case but he still managed to put Ödön Dienes in a difficult situation. Dienes saw that if he let him alone, declarer will have nine tricks: three spades, three hearts, the Ace of diamonds and two clubs. So after taking the trick with his ace of clubs he envisioned the ten of diamonds into his partner’s hand and dully played the king and queen of diamonds. Declarer had no chance to make enough tricks in time.

Here you can see a watchful declarer play from Csaba Konkoly. Holding the last three cards he knew that West was left with a diamond and a heart, so playing his club must be safe but gives him some extra chance. If West had the king he was going to surrender a trick to dummy, but had East the king, he had to lead a spade giving an always valuable overtrick to the declarer.

Already 5 matches has been played in the Round Robins of the Budapest Teams Championships. The qualifier in division I/B is getting closer to the end, while division I/A is almost at the halftime. After the last round the rankings in I/B did not change, but the teams here still have a chance to improve in the following two weeks. In division I/A team GAMAX had a great victory thus taking over their opponent. Interestingly GAMAX still have not played all of their matches they should have, that is why they are standing on the fifth place, while they have the second highest VP average in the division.

It is probably a once-in-a-lifetime event that opponents bid four spades and you find yourself with the AKQJT9 of trumps. János Gellér doubled the contract easy heartedly which went down 5 times. In the other room Mihály Kovács was holding the strong spades and with no spade support from his partner he played 3NT. Csaba Konkoly led the ace and king of diamonds but did not continue the suit to prevent declarer getting an extra trick there. He continued with the king of hearts and declarer didn’t guess right which finesse works, the double heart or the “simple” club, so 3NT went down as well.

György Kuttner had better luck in the same contract: after the ace and king of diamonds South played his third diamond and now declarer not only could make the contract, but he managed to squeeze South for the overtrick.

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.

This time, the board of the week is about bidding. András Budinszky and András Talyigás reached the grand slam on this board using 17 bids, which is quite a lot, considering there are only 35 possible bids in the bidding box. Opening with a precision 1♣ East started a relay sequence and he had enough space to learn almost every card West held. First, he discovered the 4-5-3-1 distribution, the 11+ points and the 0 aces (4♦). Later West showed the queen of hearts and the king of spades and denied the king of diamonds. East still wanted to know West’s remaining honors to see if there are 13 easy tricks in 7NT or should they play the safer 7♥. West promised the queen of spades, the jack of hearts and denied the queen of diamonds and the jack of spades so he had to have the king of clubs to have 11 points. Knowing all this, East decided to bid 7♥ and claimed right after drawing the trumps.

Here is another interesting situation, after the seven of diamonds lead, how do you plan to make 3NT, which card would you play from dummy?