2011

IBPA Awards

The IBPA Personality of the Year

Pierre Zimmermann

Our Personality of the Year is the man that many bridge players are talking about and one that journalists have been writing about. As a bridge player, he has recorded two wins in the World Transnationals (in Shanghai and São Paulo), the Vanderbilt last year, and this year the Spingold in Toronto and the European Mixed Teams in Poznan.

You will know to whom I refer when I mention the more controversial matter of his formation of a team made up of four different nationalities which is seeking to represent Monaco in future World and/or European Championships.

This year our Personality has launched the Prince Albert Cup in Monaco with eight invited teams (his team lost on the final deal to a Russian team). He is planning a European equivalent of the Cavendish in Monaco and the equivalent of American majors such as the Reisinger in France. He is in discussions with the WBF that might be of assistance to that organisation.

Pierre Zimmermann is 56; he has five children aged from 10 to 21; his second marriage, to Christine, was 15 years ago. Pierre learned bridge at the École in Lausanne and founded the bridge club there; he persuaded the company Philip Morris to sponsor the students with bridge tuition. Zimmermann’s father was a lawyer, but not wealthy, so he needed to find a job to finance his studies – thus he became assistant to the Professors at the University. Upon leaving university, he worked for IBM in Zurich before moving to the PR company Hill & Knowlton (now part of WPP).

In 1990, Zimmermann founded his own real estate company, Régie Zimmermann, which buys property, mostly near Geneva or Lausanne, refurbishes it, and sells it, then often remains as manager of the property for the new owner.

Zimmermann enjoys golf (at which he professes to be avid, but terrible), opera, classical music and musicals such as Les Misérables.

Patrick Jourdain, IBPA President, 24^th October 2011

The Master Point Press Book of the Year Award

Winner: The Rodwell Files

Authors: Eric Rodwell and Mark Horton

This year’s candidates were of unusually-high quality in terms of originality of material. Nevertheless, one book was adjudged by the jury of Patrick Huang (Taiwan), Fernando Lema (Argentina), David Morgan (Australia), PO Sundelin (Sweden), Ron Tacchi (France) and Paul Thurston (Canada) to be superior to the others.

From the publisher’s blurb:

Eric Rodwell's contributions to bidding theory are well-known, but in this ground-breaking book he reveals for the first time his unique approach to the play of the cards.

First, he describes and explains the process for deciding on a line of play — using concepts such as +L positions, tightropes, trick packages and Control Units as well as exploring more standard themes such as counting winners, losers, and distribution. Included here too is a checklist of 'defogging questions' to get you back on track when your analysis gets bogged down. Then he moves on to a host of innovative ideas in card play, strategies and tactics that can be used by declarer or defenders, each one illustrated with real-life examples from top-level play. Many of these ideas will be new to anyone below the bridge stratosphere. Finally, under the heading 'DOs and DON'Ts', Rodwell talks about the mental side of the game: areas where players often go wrong in their approach to the problem at hand, areas that mark the key differences between an average player and a successful one.

The original 'Rodwell File', the collection of notes on which this book is based, has been in existence for more than twenty years, but it is only now that the author is prepared to allow his 'secrets' to become public knowledge.

The 2011 shortlist :

Wladyslaw Izdebski, Roman Krzemien and Ron Klinger, Deadly Defence

Krzsyztof Martens, Guide Dog, Part I & II

Victor Moillo, The Hog Takes to Precision

Barry Rigal, Breaking the Bridge Rules, First Hand Play

Eric Rodwell and Mark Horton, The Rodwell Files

Peter Winkler, Bridge at the Enigma Club

The Alan Truscott Award

The Alan Truscott Memorial Award is presented periodically to that person whose contribution to bridge, in the opinion of the IBPA Executive, would be most appreciated by Alan.

Alan Truscott circa 1964, The New York Times

This year the award goes to Roland Wald from London (ex-Copenhagen) who, in his spare time from teaching and playing, arranges for and organizes the commentators for Fred Gitelman’s BBO transmissions.

Roland Wald

The Keri Klinger Award for Pressure Play

Michelle Brunner John Holland

This is a new IBPA award in 2011 sponsored by Ron and Suzy Klinger in memory of their daughter Keri. It is awarded to an individual, pair or team who performs in admirable fashion under pressure. This past year, no one did that better than Michelle Brunner and John Holland from England. Despite being diagnosed with terminal cancer, Michelle, with John as a partner, continued to play bridge at the highest level, winning a cap to represent England in the Camrose home internationals and reaching the final of the Gold Coast Teams in Australia against an elite Australian and international field. Additionally, in the past 24 months, John won two World Championships, the 2009 and 2010 Senior Teams for the d’Orsi Cup, in São Paulo and Philadelphia respectively.

Michelle won a Venice Cup and was twice a winner of the Gidwani Family Trust Defence of the Year Award. Any bridge player would be happy to claim either defence as the best deal of his/her career. Michelle had both of them.

The IBPA Auction of the Year

Winners: Venkatrao Koneru and Ira Chorush, USA

Journalist: Brent Manley, USA

From the Bobby Nail Life Master Open Pairs, Fall NABC, Orlando, FL, Nov. 26-Dec Dec. 5, 2010 Daily Bulletins

Dealer South. EW Vul.

♠ A

♥ A Q J 8

♦ 8 7 5 4

♣ A J 9 2

♠ 8 5 4 3 ♠ K Q J 10 2

♥ 10 5 4 3 ♥ 9 7

♦ 10 6 3 ♦ J 9 2

♣ 7 3 ♣ K 10 8

♠ 9 7 6

♥ K 6 2

♦ A K Q

♣ Q 6 5 4

West North East South

Koneru Chorush

— — — 1♣

Pass 1♥ 1♠ Double¹

Pass 2♠² Pass 3♦³

Pass 4♣⁴ Pass 4♦⁵

Pass 4♠⁵ Pass 4NT⁶

Pass 6♣ Pass Pass

Pass

1. Support Double: three-card heart support

2. Strong hand; could be agreeing either hearts or clubs, or looking for a stopper for 3NT

3. Values in diamonds

4. Confirms clubs; slam try

5. Cue bids

6. More encouraging than five clubs

The candidates:

Diamond/Platnick, IBPA Bulletin 550.19, Mark Horton (ENG)

Zia/Gold, IBPA Bulletin 552.2, Paul Lamford (ENG)

Zia/Gold, IBPA Bulletin 552.3, Paul Lamford (ENG)

Hackett/Holland, IBPA Bulletin 553.12, John Carruthers (CAN)

Koneru/Chorush, IBPA Bulletin 553.12, Brent Manley (USA)

The Gidwani Family Trust Defence of the Year

Winners: Mike Kamil/Marty Fleisher (USA)

Journalist: Brent Manley (USA)

From the Edgar Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs, Fall NABC, Orlando, FL, Nov. 26-Dec Dec. 5, 2010 Daily Bulletins

Dealer North. NS Vul.

♠ K 8 5 2

♥ 7 3 2

♦ A Q 9 6

♣ K 10

♠ J 10 7 4 ♠ Q 6

♥ K Q 10 4 ♥ 9 8 6

♦ K 5 ♦ J 8 7 4

♣ Q 9 5 ♣ J 8 6 2

♠ A 9 3

♥ A J 5

♦ 10 3 2

♣ A 7 4 3

West North East South

Fleisher Hand Kamil Greenberg

— 1♦ Pass 2♥

Pass 3♠ Pass 3NT

Pass Pass Pass

Fleisher led the heart queen, Rusinow. When that held, he shifted to the spade jack. Declarer won dummy’s king, played a spade to her ace and led a third round. West won the ten and exited with his last spade. Kamil discarded his two remaining hearts and South threw a club.

Greenberg led a low diamond from the dummy to her ten and West’s king. When West returned a diamond to dummy’s ace, declarer cashed dummy’s club king. This was the position:

♠ —

♥ 7 3

♦ Q 9

♣ 10

♠ — ♠ —

♥ K 10 4 ♥ —

♦ — ♦ J 8

♣ Q 9 ♣ J 8 6

♠ —

♥ A J

♦ 2

♣ A 7

When South played a club to her ace unblocked his queen to avoid the endplay. Then South cashed her heart ace. East unblocked his club jack. South led her last club, but West took the final three tricks for down two.

Both defenders had unblocked in the same suit.

The candidates:

Willenken/Rosenberg, IBPA Bulletin 550.9, John Carruthers (CAN)

Kamil/Fleisher, IBPA Bulletin 553.4, Brent Manley (USA)

Hoeyland, IBPA Bulletin 554.5, Jon Sveindal (NOR)

Alfrey/Robson, IBPA Bulletin 556.12, Roland Wald (DEN)

Krogsgaard/Kruse, IBPA Bulletin 556.15, Jens Otto Pedersen (DEN)

The RoseCliff Declarer Play of the Year

Winner: Geir Helgemo (NOR)

Journalist: GeO Tislevoll (NZ)

This board occurred in a knockout match in Norway’s Teams Championship.

Dealer South. Both Vul.

♠ A 9 7 4 3

♥ K 8 7 6 3

♦ A 6

♣ 7

♠ K J 10 6 5

♥ A

♦ K 7

♣ A 6 5 4 3

West North East South

Skjetnes Lund Forfot Helgemo

— — — 1♠

2♠ 2NT Pass 3♣

Pass 4♣ Pass 4NT

Pass 5♠ Pass 7♠

Pass Pass Pass

West’s two spades showed at least 5-5 in hearts and clubs, and two no trump from North was a game force with spade support. The three-club bid from South was natural, and North’s four clubs showed shortage in their system, even in his partner’s second suit, this time certainly a fine message for South. Over the four-no-trump key-card ask, Lund continued with valuable information about the trump queen and two key cards. The reason he showed the trump queen was because of his fifth trump opposite a five-card spade opening.

West led the club king, taken by South’s ace after East followed with the jack. The contract is laydown if the trumps are 2-1. If the trumps are 3-0 declarer will be able to pick up East’s trump holding, but there is no obvious line to thirteen tricks after three rounds of trumps, as there will not be enough ruffs. So why bother thinking of the 3-0 trump break anyway? Because it is quite a likely layout! Helgemo’s first analysis was about the distribution, and after his conclusion he backed his judgement to play in a way that is difficult for most of us to spot even seeing the full diagram.

Helgemo’s reasoning: West is likely to have six clubs unless East has played the jack from a doubleton, but why would he? West has also shown five hearts, so the 3-0 break in trumps is becoming more and more likely. West’s distribution is quite likely to be 1=5=1=6 or 0=5=2=6.

What about the diamonds? If West has only one diamond, it gives East an eight-card suit, which most players would have announced over North’s two no trump. And if West has the 1=5=1=6 distribution, he could have led his trump. After all, trump leads against grand slams are de rigeur according to the classic rule. So the 0=5=2=6 distribution with West is definitely the most likely one.

But we just agreed there will be no way to thirteen tricks by picking up East’s trump holding anyway, didn’t we? Well, there is a way. Look at the full diagram, and follow Helgemo’s brilliant play, based on a technical analysis of the hand which proves he is some sort of a human GIB:

♠ A 9 7 4 3

♥ K 8 7 6 3

♦ A 6

♣ 7

♠ — ♠ Q 8 2

♥ Q J 9 5 2 ♥ 10 4

♦ 10 9 ♦ Q J 8 5 4 3 2

♣ K Q 10 9 8 2 ♣ J

♠ K J 10 6 5

♥ A

♦ K 7

♣ A 6 5 4 3

At trick two, Helgemo played ace of hearts followed by the diamond king. (There is a case for playing a low diamond to the ace and proceeding in a similar way to Helgemo, but see below for Helgemo’s explanation of the reason he did not). Backing his assumption about the distribution, he continued with a diamond to the ace. Then he cashed the king of hearts before he played the spade nine from dummy, and ran it!

What is the difference between the direct finesse and playing the ace first? You will soon see that both cashing the two diamond tricks and not touching the ace of spades are essential to success. When the spade nine held, he continued with a spade to the jack leaving this position:

♠ A 7 4

♥ 8 7 6

♦ —

♣ —

♠ — ♠ Q

♠ Q J 9 ♥ —

♦ — ♦ Q J 8 5 4

♣ Q 10 9 ♣ —

♠ K 10 6

♥ —

♦ —

♣ 6 5 4

West had to discard on the first two trump rounds, and on both of them he had to pitch clubs as he could not let go a heart which would have enabled declarer to set up the fifth heart. Now the spade king was played when West was down to three hearts and three clubs. If West discards another club on the spade king, declarer plays a low spade from dummy, and simply establishes the fifth club with two ruffs. He still has two trumps as entries to his hand. If West instead throws a heart, declarer is able to overtake the trump king with the ace and work on the heart suit, and still have enough entries to set up the fifth heart and collect it.

To produce this elegant trump squeeze situation, declarer must cash the two diamond tricks before the third round of trumps, but more importantly he must also take a first-round finesse in trumps by playing the nine and running it. The key is to be able to play a third round of trumps from South in the situation where West is trump squeezed, and be able to decide in which hand the third trump is to be taken, according to what card West plays to that trick.

This hand not only contains a spectacular squeeze that occurs after declarer has manœuvred trumps in such a way as to enable him to choose which hand he wants to be in on the third trump round of the suit, but also a first-round finesse for the trump queen in a grand slam, with ten trumps between declarer and dummy! That trump finesse is based on perfect visualisation of the distribution, and also foreseeing the complex and unusual squeeze coming up. The grand slam was reached at the other table too, but declarer was not able to duplicate Helgemo’s play and went one down.

Some analysts would claim that declarer should play a low diamond to dummy at trick two, then run the spade nine followed by spade to the jack. If the trumps prove to be 3-0, declarer can proceed as Helgemo did by cashing the diamond honour from his hand before the third trump round. This will save declarer from going down when West – against what is the most likely distribution – has 1=5=1=6 anyway, and does not hold the bare trump queen. Playing only one round of diamonds first, then running the spade nine where West follows with the small one, declarer could have pulled a second round of trumps and claimed, and been very happy West did not have the bare trump queen.

Helgemo told me he was perfectly aware of that line, but chose to play the diamond king first so he did not have to commit himself to the 3-0 break in trumps at trick two. Playing the diamond king first allowed declarer to see West’s card before committing himself. If West followed with the jack or queen, there was a greater chance that East still could have eight diamonds, but holding a much weaker suit, which would not be as tempting to bid, than if West followed with a small card, giving East – assuming west has the 1=5=1=6 distribution – an eight-card suit headed by the queen-jack.

If West had followed to the diamond king with, for example, the diamond queen, Helgemo could have changed his mind and played for the 2-1 trump break as all us other normal human beings would have done. So the hand is a combination of research, table feel, and an amazing technique that makes the play unusual.

Helgemo said to me:” I played the percentages.” Wow! Well, he is right in a way. But if we awestruck spectators say: “He JUST played the percentage”, it would be the biggest understatement for years, maybe even for decades.

The candidates:

Rehder, IBPA Bulletin 551.11, Tim Verbeek (NED)

Sharon Gerstman, IBPA Bulletin 553.13, Dan Gerstman (USA)

Nakamura, IBPA Bulletin 554.6, Ron Klinger (AUS)

Helgemo, IBPA Bulletin 555.9, GeO Tislevoll (NZ)

Duboin, IBPA Bulletin 558.2, Jos Jacobs (NED)

The Richard Freeman Junior Deal of the Year Award

Winners: Cédric Lorenzini/Christophe Grosset (FRA)

Journalist: Patrick Gogacki (FRA)

Located south of the Tropic of Cancer, Kaohsiung is a tropical city with temperatures largely in excess of 30°C ; humidity is around 80%. The port of Kaohsiung is one of the biggest in the world, and is important particularly in container transport. The city is home to the National Sun Yat-sen University, host of the 5^th World University Bridge Championships, organised by FISU (Fédération Internationale des Sports Universitaire). The French delegation comprised three pairs, Cédric Lorenzini-Christophe Grosset, Alexandre Kilani-Simon Poulat, Thibault Coudert-Aymeric Lebatteux, and a non-playing captain, the author of this article.

Here’s a superb example of how to make the declarer stumble in three no trump:

♠ K 9 5 4

♥ Q 7 3 2

♦ 10 5

♣ J 5 3

♠ A 6 2 ♠ J 10 7

♥ J 6 ♥ A K 10 8 5

♦ A K Q 4 ♦ 6 3 2

♣ Q 7 6 2 ♣ 9 8

♠ Q 8 3

♥ 9 4

♦ J 9 8 7

♣ A K 10 4

West North East South

Grosset Lorenzini

1NT Pass 2♦ Pass

2♥ Pass 3NT Pass

Pass Pass

Christophe Grosset led the four of spades and declarer played the ten from dummy. Cédric Lorenzini did not cover - he wanted to deny declarer a later entry to the hearts. In dummy with the ten of spades, declarer played a small heart to the jack, ducked in tempo by Grosset! And that was the end. Not able to imagine such a Machiavellian scheme, declarer next cashed the ace and king of hearts and was not able to recover.

Chiu, IBPA Bulletin 550.17, Brian Senior (ENG)

Grosset-Lorenzini, IBPA Bulletin 552.6, Patrick Bogacki (FRA)

Fisher, IBPA Bulletin 555.13, Roland Wald (DEN)

Johansen, IBPA Bulletin 559.3, Brian Senior (ENG)

Birman, IBPA Bulletin 559.5, Ram Soffer (ISR)

Lorenzini, IBPA Bulletin 559, Brian Senior (ENG)