Defending Champions Take Lead After Day 1 After four matches, the standings in the NEC Cup 2000 are:

Rank Team VPs 1 Defending Champion 84 2 CHINA 81 3 POLAND 76 4 INDONESIA-Pattimura 75 5 IRELAND 72 6 JAPAN GOING 71 7 CANADA Olympiad 71 8 USA 69 9 INDONESIA 68 10 CANADA Litvack 66 11 AUSTRALIA Newman 62 12 GREAT BRITAIN 61 13 JAPAN Queen & Knights 61 14 SPAIN 59 15 JAPAN OKAY 59

Rank Team VPs 16 JAPAN Olympiad Ladies 58 17 CHINESE TAIPEI-Don Fun 57 18 JAPAN Youth 56 19 JAPAN Olympiad Open 55 20 JAPAN DARUMA 55 21 JAPAN HIRATA 54 22 AUSTRALIA Chua 54 23 JAPAN Pensee 52 24 CHINESE TAIPEI-San Hai 50 25 JAPAN Merry Queens 50 26 JAPAN Yokohama 6 Senses 50 27 JAPAN Esperanza 49 28 JAPAN Hanagumi 49 29 JAPAN Gotanda B. F. 31 30 JAPAN DREAM 24

"We'd better play fast. I saw that slave-driving alpaca rancher
Grenside polishing a nasty-looking whip just before game time."

And Now, for Something Completely Different

You, South, hold: A107 J2 Q32 AK864. West, on your left, opens 1. Your partner doubles for takeout, which sets the wheels turning. Are you going to shoot out 3NT or adopt a delicate sequence that brings 5 into the picture? Before you can resolve this issue East bids 1, which shows spades.

Quick, before reading on, ask yourself whether your partnership is on firm ground about which bids are natural and which bids are cue bids. Not to mention the nuances relating to a direct double of the artificial 1 and a later (possible) double of 1.

So here's the scoop. 1 would becnatural. Just because East has four spades there is no reason that your side should not have an eight-or nine-card spade fit. 2 would also be natural, even though West has at least a few of those. Double would show some hearts, typically four, and some values. 2 would show a fifth heart and enough strength to bid at the two-level. Oh, my. This is getting complicated. Is there no cue bid available to us? Well, yes, 2 should be interpreted that way. With enough spades to commit to 2, just pass and bid spades voluntarily later.

Perhaps that's logical. Or not. Is it worth testing partner in the first match of a long event? Nah. But what else can you do? Should you just blast into 3NT?

That seems too strong a statement with this diamond holding. Why not pass and see how the auction develops? 1 is forcing, after all. Good plan, Tonto. Honto. So you do that and West rebids 2. You expect this to come around to you, after which you will cue-bid 3, then convert 3 or 3 to 3NT, suggesting a thin diamond stopper and doubt about strain. Perhaps that would get you to 5 rather than an inferior 3NT.

Much to your surprise, East does not pass 2 or raise to 3; he introduces hearts. West informs you that this is forcing. Do you do anything important now? Perhaps you should, but it's possible that E/W will hang themselves if you give them enough rope. So you pass again and West retreats to 3, which is allowed to come around to you. You can wait no longer. Choose your poison.

Would it help you to know that East is the irrepressible Kenji Miyakuni? At least you know that if East has nothing it won't be a surprise. Well, okay. You close your eyes and bid 3NT, which is passed out. This is the complete auction, one that you will never see again in this lifetimecor the next.

West North East South Tanaka Mitt'man Miyakuni Kokish 1 DBL 1() Pass 2 Pass 2(F1) Pass 3 Pass Pass 3NT All Pass

West leads the K and partner produces a delightful dummy. You take ten tricks without breathing hard (K, ducked, Q, ducked, third heart, taken, cash winners, play a diamond). If this is what the bridge is like in the first round, it's going to be a long tournament for Team Canada.

Match 5: 10:00-12:20; Match 6: 12:40-15:00; Match 7: 16:00-18:20; Match 8: 18:40-21:00

You have 140 minutes (2 hours and 20 minutes) to complete 16 deals. The grace period has been included, so in the words of the immortal Nakatani-san, gPlay badly if you must, but play quickly.h

Round 1: "And They're Off!"

Bd: 1 Dlr: North Vul: None K104 J7652 K76 A5 Q975 -- Q8542 Q1074 A86 AKQ10 A103 KJ6 J32 9843 J9 9832

Most E/W pairs played in 3NT, taking between nine and eleven tricks, but "most" is not "all." Hiramori-Nakakawaji (MERRY QUEENS) ended up in 6NT against IRELAND and even with a heart lead could only manage eleven tricks. At the other table Walsh-Mesbur played in 2(!) on the E/W cards (plus 150) for what we rate as one of the stranger ways to win 5 imps. Shimamura-Fukada (JAPAN WOMEN) also reached slam-in this case 6 (minus 100)-only to lose 11 imps when HC Hu-YY Tsao (DON FUN) reached and made 3NT at the other table. Miyake-Yoshimi (Youth) stopped to double Ino-Imakura (DEFENDING CHAMPS) in 2 for plus 500, winning 3 imps when Chen-Hirata made 5 at the other table. Otvosi-Borewicz (POLAND) played 5 down one: 11 imps to DARUMA.

"Let's see. If he opened with 8 HCP
and is at least six-five in the minors
I can endplay himfor down threec"

With no suit longer than five cards in length, few would rate this as a swing board\but it was in almost every match. A spade game is N/S's best bet with the trump finesse seeing the contract home. The trouble is, N/S have only 20 HCP between them. But this is bridge, mister, and real men don't need HCP with a nine-card trump fit. Koshi-Osako (ESPERANZA) and Yamada-Yamada (QUEEN & KNIGHTS) failed to reach the 4 game on the N/S cards against INDONESIA and LITVACK, respectively, both losing 10 imps. Takano-Kobayashi (HIRATA) managed to steal the hand E/W at 3 to win 11 imps against Newman-Del'Monte (AUSTRALIA NEWMAN). Gawrys-Lasocki reached 4 on the N/S cards but failed to make it ("Eight ever, nine never?") while Naito-Morimura (DARUMA) made it at the other table: lose 12 imps.

Bd: 2 Dlr: East Vul: N/S AKJ65 5 K8763 106 Q108 J9832 109 Q87 2 AQ6 Q542 AK932 9743 K1074 AJ J54

The same fate befell Nishimura-Nishimura (MERRY QUEENS), Marston-Mayer (CHUA), Francs-Torres (SPAIN) and Setoguchi-Ota (OLYMPIAD WOMEN), all of whom lost 6 or 7 imps when their opponents failed to bid the game at the other table. A similar fate also befell GREAT BRITAIN's Hackett twins (aka "The Two-Headed Monster"), but Umezu-Naito (HANAGUMI) rubbed salt in the wound by doubling to collect plus 200 and 8 imps. Masamura-Sango (JAPAN YOUTH) were also doubled by Chen-Hirata (DEFENDING CHAMPS), but when the CHAMPS' Ino-Imakura went down in 4 at the other table YOUTH's won only 3 imps. Cheng-Cheng (SAN HAI) stole the hand E/W for 3 against Sakamoto-Chiba (BRIDGE FORUM) and made it(!), but gained only 7 imps when SAN HAI's Tsao-Chuang failed to reach game at the other table. Geroge-Gontha (PATTIMURA) scored a Pyrrhic victory by being the only pair to make eleven trick in spades\unfortunately they were only in 2. But amazingly that won them 3 imps when Kimura-Tanai (YOKOHAMA) only collected plus 100 against 1 by PATTIMURA's Bakti-Waradia. CHINA's Yalan Zhang-Gu also won 3 imps when they stopped in 2 (plus 140) while Wang-Yu Zhang went down a trick in 3 (minus 50) at the other table. PENSEE's Hiratsuka-Banno outbid USA's Freed-Itabishi by reaching 3 against the Americans' 2, but ended up losing 1 imp when USA outscored them plus 170 to plus 140. Hey, some days are like that.

Bd: 3 Dlr: South Vul: E/W K10653 2 AK75 1062 AQ87 KQ Q9642 QJ J4 A10653 J83 K98 92 J9874 10 A7543

With enough resources for game, most E/W pairs tried 3NT - with varying results. In CANADA OLYMPIAD versus JAPAN' OLYMPIAD OPEN both Lebi-Hanna and Miyakuni-Tanaka bid and made the popular contract for their respective squads, as did Shimamura-Fukuda and Hu-Tsao in JAPAN WOMEN versus DON FUN and Saito-Ichikawa and Wang-Yu Zhang in DREAM versus CHINA. SAN HUI won 13 imps when Cheng-Cheng scored up plus 600 while Sugawara-Nagumo (BRIDGE FORUM) failed by two tricks (minus 200), as did USA's Hayden-Robison (plus 630) against PENSEE's Asakoshi-Shida (minus 200). INDONESIA's Sacul-Karwur scored up plus 600 and won 9 imps when ESPERANZA's Janssen-Nakanishi played 1NT for plus 180.

LITVACK's Wolpert-Czyzowics also scored plus 600 in 3NT while QUEEN & KNIGHTS' Fukutsuka-Morozumi went down one in the same contract. JAPAN GOING's Abe-Narita gained 13 imps by making plus 630 while CHUA's Chua-Hinge failed by two tricks (minus 200) at the other table. Newman and Hirata both reached 3NT, but Newman went down three tricks to Hirata's two to gain 3 imps. SPAIN's Ventin-Lantaron made 3NT to pick up 10 imps when JAPAN OKAY's Takahashi-Yoshida stopped in 1NT and made two. IRELAND's Welch-Mesbur made 3NT for an 11-imp win when MERRY QUEENS' Hiramori-Nakakawaji only collected plus 100 against Hanlon-Mcgann's 2 doubled. When the Hackett twins beat HANAGUMI's Umezo-Naito's 3NT plus 100 they must have been disappointed to lose 3 imps: gPapa Bearh Hackett failed an extra trick in 4 at the other table. YOKOHAMA won 4 imps against PATTIMURA when they beat 3NT at one table and 3 at the other. A similar result (sort of) was obtained by JAPAN YOUTH when they beat 3NT two tricks (plus 200) and allowed 3 to make at the other. Finally, POLAND picked up 12 imps when DARUMA's Naito-Morimura went for minus 800 in 4 doubled while at the other table Qian-Nishida made a quiet nine tricks in 2NT (plus 150).