November 2017 - 18

Gold Is Where You Find It
U.S. squads capture gold medals in Lyon - part 1

BY BRENT MANLEY
Photos by Francesca Canali

Part 1 wll focuses on the Open World Team Championships (the Bermuda Bowl). Part 2, in the December issue, will feature
the reports of the Junior and Senior teams.
It's a long way from Schaumberg IL,
site of the 2017 United States Bridge
Championships, to Lyon, but in August,
six teams from the U.S. made their
way to the third-largest city in France
in search of gold - medals, that is - at
the 43rd World Bridge Championships. Two teams
from Canada and
one from Mexico
finished out the
North American
contingent.
Two of the
teams got what
they sought in
Lyon. USA2, led by
Martin Fleisher
(Jan Martel, npc),
won the Bermuda
Bowl - the Open
Marty Fleisher
world team
championship - in dramatic fashion.
Playing with Fleisher were Chip
Martel, Jacek "Pepsi" Pszczola-
Michael Rosenberg and Joe Grue-
Brad Moss.
Another USA2 squad (Steve Garner,
npc) emerged victorious in the d'Orsi
Senior Trophy, the third straight win in
the event for an American team.
Additionally, a USA Junior squad
won the gold medal in the main Junior
event, the transnational Junior Teams,
as well as the Board-a-Match Teams.
The rest of the teams from this side
of the Atlantic left the championships
empty-handed.
In the Bermuda Bowl, USA1, one
of the pre-tournament favorites, was
led by Nick Nickell and featured two
of the top pairs in the world - Jeff
Meckstroth-Eric Rodwell and Bobby
Levin-Steve Weinstein. They qualified
easily in the round-robin, but were

18 Bridge Bulletin November 2017

defeated in the first match of the
knockout phase by a tough team from
Bulgaria.
Neither USA team in the Venice Cup
- the Women's team championship -
made it out of the round-robin qualifying stage, the same fate suffered by
Canadian teams in the Venice Cup
and d'Orsi Seniors Trophy.
Bermuda Bowl QF action
USA2 drew Sweden in the
quarterfinal round. After dropping
a close first set, the Americans
took the second 51-37 and added
another 32 IMPs in the third set to
lead 135-91 at the halfway point.
Two boards from the fourth set
showed that USA2 was in good
form. In the Open Room, Moss
and Grue played against Johan
Upmark and Fredrik Nystrom.
In the Closed Room, it was Pepsi
and Rosenberg for USA2 against the
Rimstedt twins, Ola and Mikael.
Dlr: East
Vul: N-S

♠AQ75
♥AJ987
♦J752
♣-
♠2
♠J94
♥Q4
♥ K 10 5 3
♦KQ83
♦A96
♣ A Q 10 6 5 3
♣K92
♠ K 10 8 6 3
♥62
♦ 10 4
♣J874
West
Moss
2♣
Pass
4NT
All Pass

North
East
Nystrom Grue
1♦
Dbl
Pass
4♠
Pass
Pass
5♣

South
Upmark
Pass
3♠
Pass
Dbl

Nystrom started with the ♠A,
continuing with a low spade. Moss
ruffed, cashed the ♣A and played a
club to dummy's king. Moss picked up
trumps via a third-round finesse, then
played the ♥Q from hand. Nystrom
won the ♥A and played the ♠Q, but
Moss ruffed and, having noted North's
discard of two diamonds on the clubs,
could cash two high diamonds and
claim. With the heart finesse available,
the diamond discards didn't matter.
That was plus 550 to East-West. At the
other table:
West North
Ola
Pepsi
2♠
3♣

Pass
Pass

East
Mikael
1♣
2NT
3NT

South
Rosenberg
Pass
Pass
All Pass

West's 2♠ showed a hand with six or
more clubs and game-forcing values. If
Ola's 3♣ was a warning about playing
in notrump, his brother didn't heed
it. Rosenberg led a low spade and it
was over quickly. Pepsi won the ♠A,
cashed the ♥A and continued spades.
Two down meant minus 100 and 12
IMPs to USA2.
Pepsi showed his cardplay skills on
this deal later in the set:
Dlr: West ♠ Q J 6
Vul: None ♥ A 9
♦AJ97
♣Q842
♠94
♠ A 10 7 5 3
♥ 10 8 2
♥KQ7
♦853
♦ Q 10 6 2
♣ J 10 7 5 3
♣9
♠K82
♥J6543
♦K4
♣AK6

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2017