Some players do improve with age

Press, 15 July 1986, Page 16

Some players do improve with age

The Epson World Championship, a one-ses-sion, simultaneous pairs event, was won by a French partnership of Francis Frainais and Yann Bouteille, with the amazing score of 78.8 per cent. Both computer engineers who are well known on the French tournament circuit, they played at a Paris suburban heat. The runners-up were Antony Pennington, a retired architect from Wiltshire, and Hugh Gerrad, a retired civil servant of Bradford-on-Avon. It was a fine performance from two players who use simple Acol, and who had first met less than eight weeks before this event.

Their score of 77.8 per cent would normally have won in some comfort.

Another French pair was third on 77.7 then came two Brazilian partnerships. Valerion Joffe, a former professional soccer goal-keeper now aged 54, and Fabio Forjaz, 69, a retired engineer, scored 77.3 per cent while two other residents of Sao Paulo, housewives aged 58 and 60, took fifth place.

A total of more 70,000 entrants took part, with nearly half playing in

North America. The New Zealand entry was a slightly disappointing 800, though the 10 a.m. start on a cold Sunday morning had a depressing effect. Indeed, some games had to be cancelled because of snow.

To those of us who may be, let us say, a little past the first bloom of youth, the over-all results will prove that, at the bridge table at least, age is unimportant. This impression was for me strongly reinforced by the news that Edgar Kaplan, Norman Kay, Richard Pavlicek and Bill Root had again won the Vanderbilt Trophy, one of the major American Championships.

All have been around for more years than they care to remember, but as a team of four they have an outstanding record during the past few years. To hold together so well with only four players in slx-day events in which most team use six contestants speaks very highly for their stamina and temperament. American card play is top class, but the bidding of even the experts leaves a lot to be desired. Much of the Kaplan team’s success stems from their espousement of essentially

British methods. This deal comes from the semi-finals of the Vanderbilt, and was played at four tables by top U.S. partnerships. South was the dealer, with neither jide vulnerable:

Though six clubs is not a bad contract on the North-South cards, depending more or less entirely on the position of the king of hearts, most of us would be pleased to settle for three no trumps with its nine top tricks and plenty of chances for more..

Well, two out of four pairs actually got there. One might have thought this sort of sequence would be more or less standard.

One top partnership, however, produced this amazing sequence:

Whatever it all meant, the final contract had no chance at all and finally was down two. But at least they reached game. Look at what happened at another table:

South was lucky — he might have missed a slam. Three clubs came home with two over tricks. Even those pairs who reached the correct' game contract did so unconvinc-

Why North should bid his four card suit before his five carder is not all at clear. Sometimes when one watches the experts at work one realises that bridge is a game for all.