The 1998 NEC Bridge Festival began yesterday with the OUCHI CUP, a two-day qualifying Swiss Team Event with 59 teams entered. The field was divided into six sections. The top three finishers in each group, plus the highest fourth place finisher, qualified for today's A Final. In addition, the Iceland team (consisting of T. Jonsson, B. Eysteinsson, K. Sigurhjartarson, and S. Thorbjornsson) was given a bye into the A Final because of travel difficulties. The teams finishing fourth through sixth qualified for the Group B Final and the remaining teams from yesterday's qualifying round are eligible to compete in the C Final. Qualifiers for Today's Group A OUCHI CUP Section A 1st: M. Polowan, S. Lev, P. Gawrys, M. Lesniewski 2nd: H. Hisatomi, T. Teramoto, M. Ino, T. Imakura, T. Hirata, S. Shimizu 3rd: K. Fujimoto, H. Miyauchi, N. Hayashi, M. Hirata Section B 1st: K. Yamada, K. Takahashi, P. Newman, T. Yoshida 2nd: Y. Umezu, E. Naito, C. Ichikawa, T. Suzuki 3rd: N-J Shen, W-M Chang, D-M Yen, J-F Lee, D-M Yen, M-H Wu Section C 1st: S. Naito, S. Moriyama, H. Ohta, N. Setoguchi 2nd: K. Sasaki, M. Iwahashi, K. Wakatsuki, S. Kazama 3rd: C. Yu, Z. Chen, H. Shi, J. Dai, H. Xu, Z. Zhuang Section D 1st: D. Sacul, F. Waluyan, S. Panelewen, F. Karwur, B. T. Polii, T. Asbi 2nd: T. Onodera, K. Suzuki, R. Okuno, T. Yakura 3rd: R. Geller, S. Ogiwara, H. Narita, Y. Ito 4th: K. Furuta, M. Takayama, M. Kohno, K. Akama, E. Kokish, R. Colker Section E 1st: B. Mavromichalis, P. Hackett, Jason Hackett, Justin Hackett, J. Armstrong 2nd: K. Yamada, Y. Yamada, A. Morozumi, H. Janssen 3rd: K. Toyoba, Y. Eto, H. Kodama, N. Abe Section F 1st: Y. Agata, S. Murano, K. Miyauchi, H. Yamaguchi 2nd: T. Jomura, K. Shimamura, K. Ito, Y. Shimizu 3rd: T. Nose, G. Schuett, A. Amano, M. Sekizawa

RECEPTION FOR NEC CUP PARTICIPANTS NEC is hosting a reception for all the players tonight at the Yokohama Grand Inter-Continental Hotel, at 7 pm. Dress is casual. NOTICE TO NEC CUP TEAM CAPTAINS: Please be advised that an informal Captains' Meeting will be held in conjunction with tonight's reception, beginning at 8:15 pm, after the conclusion of formal festivities. Times 10:00   MATCH ONE 12:20   LUNCH BREAK 13:20   MATCH TWO 15:40   BREAK 16:00   MATCH THREE 18:20   DINNER BREAK 19:40   MATCH FOUR TOMORROW'S SCHEDULE Play will be held tomorrow on the fourth floor Pacifico, Rooms 401 and 402. Two-hours and twenty-minutes are allotted for each 16-board match, with a one-hour lunch break, a twenty-minute break between matches two and three, and a one-hour twenty-minute dinner break.

THE 3RD NEC CUP: CONDITIONS OF CONTEST General Regulations: Unless otherwise stated, the regulations for the NEC Cup will be those as promulgated for the 1997 Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup as held in Hammamet, Tunisia. A Vugraph will be held during the Semifinals and Finals. Systems up to and including Brown Sticker conventions will be permitted at the table, providing they are authorized by the Chief Director. The Round Robin: The first numbered team is the home team and sits North/South in the Open Room (Room 401), East/West in the Closed Room (Room 402). Line Ups: Each team will submit their lineup independently at least 15 minutes before the scheduled starting time of the session. Corrections and Appeals: Law 79C will be regulated as follows:    For MATCH ONE, up until 16:00.    For MATCHES TWO and THREE, up until 19:40.    For MATCH FOUR, up until 10:00 am the next day, except match 11, when 18:50. Tie Breaking: As per the 1997 Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup. Changes to Systems: Only as authorized by the Chief Director. In general, simple additions will be permitted. Major changes may be authorized, but a waiting period of two matches may apply. Late Arrival, Late Finish, Late Lineups: As per Law 81. The Finals: Carryover: 20% of the margin between the teams concerned. Choice of Opponents in Semis: 1st ion Round Robin to choose the 3rd or 4th place team. Seating Rights: Winner of the toss may select to sit first in the 1st - 3rd or 2nd 4thsegment. Length of Matches: 2 hours 20 minutes for 16 boards.

ROSTERS OF NEC CUP TEAMS GREAT BRITAIN Paul HACKETT, Jason HACKETT, Justin HACKETT, John ARMSTRONG, Brigitte MAVROMICHALIS CHINESE TAIPEI YEN Yung-Nan, LEE Jung-Fu, SHEN Nai-Jeng, CHANG Wei-Ming, YEN Ding-Ming, WU Ming-Hsuan CHINA YU Chengzhong, CHEN Xuebin, SHI Haojun, DAI Jianming, XU Hongjun, ZHUANG Zejun INDONESIA Denny SACUL, Ferdinand WALUYAN, Santje PANELEWEN, Franky KARWUR, Bert Toar POLII, Taufik ASBI USA I Richard BRUNO J, eff SCHUETT, Tom FOX, Walter SCHAFFER , Ralph KATZ, Howard WEINSTEIN USA II Michael POLOWAN , Sam LEV , Piotr GAWRYS, Martin LESNIEWSKI ICELAND Thorlakur JONSSON, Bjorn EYSTEINSSON , Karl SIGURHJARTARSON, Saevar THORBJORNSSON JAPAN - - HISATOMI HISATOMI Hiroshi, TERAMOTO Tadashi , INO Masayuki, IMAKURA Tadashi, SHIMIZU Seiya, HIRATA Takahiko JAPAN - - WOMEN OHTA Hiroko, SETOGUCHI Nobuko, ETOH Yumiko, TOYOBA Keimi , NAITO Sakiko, MORIYAMA Setsuko JAPAN YOUTH FURUTA Kazuo T, AKAYAMA Masaaki, HARADA Tomoyuki, KOHNO Makoto, Eric KOKISH , Richard COLKER JAPAN - - YAMADA YAMADA Akihiko , OHNO Kyoko, YAMADA Kazuhiko, TAKAHASHI Katsumi, YOSHIDA Tadashi, Peter NEWMAN JAPAN - - NEC JOMURA Tadashi, MIYAUCHI Hiroshi, FUJIMOTO Kohji, SHIMAMURA Kyoko , HAYASHI Nobuyuki, MAEDA Takashi

NO FEAR: PART ONE Your Editors are delighted to be playing in the NEC CUP this year on a team with the Japanese juniors. Session I of the OUCHI CUP went well for them but there were a few boards on which they lost quite heavily. This was the most striking . . . Bd: OUCHI-I-28 North Dlr: W K107643 Vul: N/S K94 6 J87 West East AQJ2 9 62 A53 AJ102 87543 K103 AQ52 South 85 QJ1087 KQ9 964 WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Kumano Colker Fukuyama Kokish 1NT Pass 2 (1) Pass 3 Pass 3 (2) Pass 4 Pass 4NT (3) Pass 5 (4) Pass 6 All Pass   (1) Minors or diamond signoff (2) Splinter (3) RKCB- (4) 2 Key Cards, no Q Over Momoko Kumano's strong notrump, Youko Fukuyama had to decide whether it was worth getting involved in a delicate exploratory auction. She decided that it was, and soon located the diamond fit and followed up by showing her singleton spade. Momoko had a lot of wasted strength in spades and might have continued with 3NT, but she had reason to believe that hearts might be a problem in notrump (as indeed they were). She tried 4 and Youko took this seriously enough to drive to slam. Even in the big city, that's some serious bidding, but our heroines demonstrated in this three-board set that they are not shy in the auction. Six diamonds is not a very good contract and would have failed on a heart lead as long as South remembered to split his trump honors. North, however, led a reasonable spade, expecting West to hold rather less in the suit on the auction. When dummy's nine held, declarer suspected that South might be short in the suit, but when she led a trump from dummy, she did the right thing on this layout, covering South's nine with the ten. There was still a low hurdle to overcome, since she needed to pitch either a heart from hand or a second heart from dummy, but the only losing line was to lead a low club to the ten on the second round, and this Momoko did not do. As far as we could see, bidding and making 6 with the East/West cards was a solo achievement for our fearless opponents. After the session, we asked Nakatani-san for their phone numbers, but he smiled and told us that their dance cards were filled for this year's festival. Our loss. P.S.: Our teammates, Kazuo Furuta-Masaaki Takayama did very well to reach 5 with the East/West cards, holding our loss to 11 IMPs.

THEY DID IT IN DIAMONDS Team Indonesia, last year's winner, is back to defend with a strong(er) lineup. Board 27 from the first session of the OUCHI CUP was a pretty effort at both tables. Bd: OUCHI-I-27 North Dlr: S J1087 Vul: None J64 J832 K3 West East AQ9643 K 9 A1083 107 AQ965 AJ62 854 South 52 KQ752 K4 Q1097 TABLE ONE WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Polii Asbi 1 Pass 2 Pass 2 Pass 3 Pass 3NT AllPass TABLE TWO WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Sacul Waluyan 1 Pass 2 Pass 2 Pass 3 Pass 3 Pass 4 AllPass Bert Toar Polii played in 3NT as West at TABLE ONE. North got off to the lead of the king of clubs, choosing the unbid suit. Both South and West encouraged, so North led a second club to the nine and jack. ``Berce'' crossed to the K and called for a low diamond from dummy. South would have done well to play low, but he went in with the king. Berce unblocked the 10, won the club continuation, cashed his spade winners, and led the 7 to dummy's nine to pick up the rest of the suit. Ten interesting tricks. Plus 430. At TABLE TWO, West played in 4 , and got a low heart lead from Denny Sacul. Declarer won the ace, cashed the K, ruffed a heart, and played ace-queen of trumps. When South showed out, declarer was in trouble. He led the 10 and passed it when North followed low. South, the rejuvenated Ferdy Waluyan (who is again playing serious competitive bridge after a long hiatus), allowed the ten to hold. Declarer led a second diamond, and Denny might have followed with the jack to create the impression that he held king-jack-deuce. When he played the three instead, declarer might have put on the ace, but he called for dummy's queen. Ferdy won the king and switched to the 10, preserving his partner's heart exit. Declarer lost three clubs and so went two down, minus 100. 11 IMPs to TEAM INDONESIA, who led their qualifying group.

THE NEC BRIDGE FESTIVAL IS ON THE INTERNET We are happy to announce that our Daily Bulletins are available on the Internet. Call your family and friends and tell them to follow the adventures of some of the best players in the world (including yourself) by surfing the net to the following address: http://bridge.cplaza.ne.jp/necfest.html