Ciao :)
we reached the final of the Mixed Pairs Championship.
I'd like to tell you about a nice board played by Iolanda.

1 = Polish Club
1 = 0-7
X = we don't have agreements, but any interpretation can work here
3NT = being  4/3, playing NT is ok... besides Iolanda is playing the hand and I am sure she will make :)

So the contract is 3NT by Iolanda (South).
Lead: A.
After the A lead, West plays the Q, East discarding  and Iolanda taking with the K.
Now she can count: 3 tricks in , 2 tricks in , 1 trick in  (already made) and one more trick in  (in fact she has 9 and 10x).
She needs 2 more tricks, and so:
-  must be divided 3-3
-  have to be guessed.

Iolanda plays a , on which West follows with a low card and dummy with 8. East takes and plays a . Iolanda takes with the A, plays the A, then  to the K and discovers that  are 3-3. She cashes the fourth  and discards a  on it.
Now she plays  and when East follows with a low card she just counts: West showed 7 points in , 2 points in ... then he must have the A, too. So she plays the J.
Total: 3 tricks in , 3 tricks in , 2 tricks in , 1 trick in . Well done partner :)

Hi all :)
after few days in Italy and the lesson in Falconara we are now going to Ostende, in Belgium, where the European Open Championships will be held.

Claudio and I are participating these events:

Mixed Pairs tournament

I am going to play with my wife Iolanda, while Claudio is playing with his partner, Federica Sani.
This competition will be held on:
- Saturday, June 15th (qualifications)
- Sunday, June 16th (qualifications)
- Monday June 17th (final)
- Tuesday June 18th (final).

Mixed Teams tournament

We are participating the Mixed Teams tournament in this formation:
Monaco FN (FN stands for Fantunes :)): Katia Pignatti-Alessandro Puglia, Federica Sani-Claudio Nunes, Iolanda Riolo-Fulvio Fantoni.
A fierce team of friends coming from different towns: Monte-Carlo, Palermo, Roma and Bergamo! :)

The competition will be held on:
- Wednesday June 19th, 5 matches 10 boards each
- Thursday June 20th, 5 matches 10 boards each
- Friday June 21st, 5 matches 10 boards each

Open Teams tournament

We are playing this event with our usual team: Pierre Zimmermann-Franck Multon, Geir Helgemo-Tor Helness, Claudio Nunes-Fulvio Fantoni.

- Saturday June 22nd (qualifications)
- Sunday June 23rd (qualifications)
- Monday June 24th (Round of 16 and round of 8)
- Tuesday June 25th (Semifinal and Final)

-

What about all these events?
In this tournament being good players of course matters, but at the same time in every match few boards are played and consequently even good luck has its importance.

And what about the Open Pairs tournament? Not this time: June 26th is my son's Luca's birthday and we have to celebrate :)

See you soon for some updates from Ostenda
Fulvio

Hi all!
The Festival of Juan Les Pins finished with the victory of our team, Monaco (Zimmermann, Helgemo, Helness, Multon, Nunes, Fantoni). Team Hok (De Boer, Van Den Bos, Van Lankueld, Mme Snellers) placed second and team Chemla (Chemla, Bompis, Quantin, Reiplinger) placed third.

Here is a board from the Festival:

The final contract is 6 by South. 

Lead

A trump lead would be fatal to the declarer, because  are divided 4-1 and there are not enough transits between hand and dummy. Anyway the possession of an only  makes the trump lead impossible.
A  lead would be fatal as well, because it would immediately employ declarer's stopper. This means that once the defense takes with the Q they can cash their  winners. This lead turns out to be impossible, too, because during the auction declared named . Besides, leading from Jx is too dangerous.

The real lead was a normal one, J.

Plan of play

Declarer must try to realize:  1 trick in , 4 tricks in , 4 tricks in , 3 tricks in  (A and two ruffs).

To accomplish this mission he:
1) properly ruffed the lead (he can't employ the A otherwise he would lose the control of the suit, which is crucial once the opponents take with the Q)
2) cashed two trumps (on the A, Claudio's 10 dropped)
3) ruffed another 
4) played  to the Ace
5) cashed two  discarding a .

Then the situation was:

And now? Declarer must play another  conceding the Q. In this way he tries to promote his remaining  and to reach 12 tricks. If  were 3-2 his life would be easy. This was not the case, because  were 4-1.
If he plays low to the K and then the J he does not have enough entries to hand to cash the remaining .
So he is forced to play low  to the J.
If Nunes immediately takes with the Q, declarer makes the contract on any play by Claudio because he still has a low  at dummy and can cash his .

Without losing his concentration, Claudio correctly ducks. So he loses a  trick, but now declarer is condemned. Once he loses the Q he won't have  left to reach the hand and play the remaining .
Claudio so lost a  trick in order to gain two tricks.

The final result is: one trick for him which is the crucial down trick.

Fulvio