DAILY BULLETIN 6 - h
Friday, February 13, 1998	Editors: Eric Kokish, Richard Colker Special thanks for Internet edition: Mr. N. W. Pedersen

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Bd: 40 North Dlr: West A874 Vul: None 62 A86 AK102 West East QJ10532 - AQ43 J875 93 K1054 3 QJ654 South K96 K109 QJ72 987 OPEN ROOM WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Karl S Justin Bjorn E Jason 1 1NT Pass 3NT Pass Pass Dbl. All Pass CLOSED ROOM WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Armstrong Thorlakur J Paul Saevar T 1 Pass 1NT Pass 2 Pass 3 All Pass Paul Hackett and John Armstrong bid their way merrily (and unimpeded) to 3. Jonsson led the A and shifted to the 2, five, nine, queen. Armstrong led the Q, passing it to Thorbjornsson's king (pitching a diamond from dummy), who played a diamond to Jonsson's ace. A second diamond was won by dummy's king, followed by a club ruff and another ruffing finesse in spades (Armstrong pitching a club from dummy when Jonsson played low). A low spade was then ruffed, followed by a club ruff, and the 10 was covered by the ace, 8 and 10. When South exited with his K, Armstrong had nine tricks in the bag; plus 140. Eysteinsson led the 5 against 3NT doubled, and he couldn't have been happy when the seven held in dummy. He won the Q at trick two, and persevered in clubs with the queen. Justin won this with the ace, cashed the K, and played a spade to dummy's nine and Sigurhjartarson's ten (Eysteinsson pitching a heart). Sigurhjartarson's 9 was won by Justin's ace, and the 8 passed. When that held the trick, Justin played a spade to dummy's king, cashed his J, played a spade back to his ace, and exited a spade, endplaying Sigurhjartarson for the K. That was plus 550 for the Brits, and another 12 IMPs to the queen's coffers. GREAT BRITAIN now led, 112- 83. Board 41 was a partscore push. Then came Board 42.

Bd: 42 North Dlr: East AKJ102 Vul: Both 3 Q84 J432 West East Q9843 6 A109 KQ8542 J6 73 A85 KQ96 South 75 J76 AK10952 107 OPEN ROOM WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Karl S Justin Bjorn E Jason 1 Pass 1 Pass 2 Pass 4 All Pass CLOSED ROOM WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Armstrong Thorlakur J Paul Saevar T 2 Pass 3 3 All Pass The Icemen were tired of getting pushed around, so Sigurhjartarson-Eysteinsson bid an aggressive 4. Jason led the AK at tricks one and two, and then exited with the 10 to Eysteinsson's king. He drew trumps in three rounds, and then led a spade to dummy's queen and Justin's king. When Justin returned a low club, all the guesswork was taken out of that suit; plus 620 for ICELAND. Against 3, the defense started with the K and a heart to the ace. Jonsson ruffed, played a diamond to dummy's ace, and finessed the J successfully. The Q was overtaken with dummy's ace, and the spade finessee repeated with mixed reaction. Jonsson conceded down two, plus 200 for GREAT BRITAIN. Although minus 200 is usually a poor result, ICELAND gained 9 IMPs on the board. That reduced GREAT BRITAIN's lead to 112-92. GREAT BRITAIN struck back on the next board with a game swing of their own - albeit a non-vulnerable one.

Bd: 43 North Dlr: South 875 Vul: None 8 AKQ74 Q853 West East AKJ6 Q3 AK2 J97653 J106 82 AJ9 642 South 10942 Q104 953 K107 OPEN ROOM WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Karl S Justin Bjorn E Jason Pass 1 (1) 1 Pass 2 Pass Pass 2 All Pass CLOSED ROOM WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Armstrong Thorlakur J Paul Saevar T Pass 2NT Pass 3 Pass 3 Pass 4 All Pass Papa and John Armstrong reached the highly aggressive heart game in the Closed Room, while Sigurhjartarson-Eysteinsson settled two levels lower in the Open Room. When both declarers made ten tricks, GREAT BRITAIN had another 6 IMPs in their pockets. That made the score 118-92. The next three boards saw a series of overtrick/undertrick swings, with GREAT BRITAIN picking up 2 IMPs on Board 44, while losing 3 IMPs and 2 IMPs on Boards 45 and 46, respectively. When Boards 47 and 48 ended up being pushed, the third quarter had drawn to a close with GREAT BRITAIN leading ICELAND by a score of 120-97. GREAT BRITAIN had picked up a useful 10 IMPs in the third quarter, to increase thier lead from 13 to 23 IMPs. But the match was still within reach of a world-class team like ICELAND, and they prepared to mount an assault on the British Isles. The fourth quarter figured to be a raucous affair - especially with the the revoke on Board 39 sticking in the Icemen's craws.

FOURTH QUARTER (Boards 49-64): With sixteen deals remaining, GREAT BRITAIN was in good shape, leading by 31(+) IMPs, but ICELAND is a dangerous team and this one had the potential to go down to the wire. On Board 49, both Norths declared a normal 1NT contract and got the most damaging lead. Both Jonsson and Papa Hackett, with K76 in dummy and 102 in hand, ducked to the jack. With J8 and 10642 in dummy, Jason switched to a diamond from KJ53 while Sigurhjartarson switched to a spade from 9542. Youth lost out this time and Jonsson made 1NT while Papa more-or-less had to go down so the Icemen started with a 4- IMP gain, 101-128. Bd: 50 North Dlr: East AQ Vul: N/S 953 KJ5 108642 West East 972 J1064 8762 J104 A74 Q10862 KQ7 3 South K853 AKQ 93 AJ95 OPEN ROOM WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Jason H Thor J Justin H Saevar T Pass Pass 1 Pass 1NT Pass 2 Pass 2 Pass 3NT All Pass CLOSED ROOM WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Karl S Paul H Bjorn John A Pass Pass 1 Pass 1NT Pass 2NT Pass 3NT All Pass Board 50, however, was a blow. Justin, who knew that Jonsson had no major, led the J around to the queen. Jonsson played ace and another club, and got a low diamond switch from Jason, which he elected to duck. That looks wrong, since West would normally lead the ten with the nine in dummy, and here it left him with a nasty guess when Justin won the 10 and reverted to spades. Jonsson won and cleared clubs and the inevitable low diamond came back. Jonsson got it wrong, putting in the jack, and lost two more diamonds to go one down, minus 50. Strangely, the more threatening diamond lead at the other table turned the deal into a no-brainer for Papa, who won the third diamond and simply played clubs to avoid East. West was toothless on this layout and GREAT BRITAIN banked 12 warm IMPs to extend their lead to 39, 140-101.

Bd: 56 North Dlr: West A3 Vul: None QJ109874 32 72 West East 6 KQ1095 6 A53 AKJ9874 Q105 K1084 Q6 South J8742 K2 6 AJ953 OPEN ROOM WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Jason H Thor J Justin H Saevar T 1 3 3 4 Pass Pass Dbl. All Pass CLOSED ROOM WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Karl S Paul H Bjorn John A 1 3 3 Pass 4 Pass 5 All Pass We think that Jason took a deep position on Board 56, but he might have been right. Justin led a thoughtful trump but chose a low one. The king won for a diamond play. Jason did not duck so Jonsson got his diamond ruff after all. He lost a trick in each suit and so went one down; minus 100. The 5 reached by Sigurhjartarson-Eysteinsson at the other table was cold for 400. 7 IMPs to ICELAND, which cut their deficit to 31 IMPs, 110-141.