[paulg]

When major championships get to the knock-out stage you don't really expect an easy draw. One of our own, mfa1010, also known as Michael Askgaard, knows this only too well as he looks at the draw for the round of 32 in the European Open Teams this evening.

Tomorrow morning he and the others in the DENMARK OPEN team take on SHANURIN, a team containing Gromov and Dubinin. Then, hopefully, he will play against Meckwell and the MAHAFFEY team in the afternoon. Things should get easier on Tuesday morning when they would expect to play the LAVAZZA team.

Good luck Michael!

[1eyedjack]

Wow. Winning those three matches will give them something to dine out on for a while. Looking forward to the reports.

BTW, when he makes a jump cue of the opponent's suit, does has partner describe it as the "Askgaard" convention?
[EDIT] Actually now that I think about it he is probably a bit tired of hearing that one.

[paulg]

First job done although their 32 imps half-time had disappeared before they got +1400 (vs non-vul game) to seal victory by 8 imps. Now it is Mahaffey this afternoon.

[y66]

Kibbing now. Thanks for the post.

[mgoetze]

Seems like Meckwell and Pepsi hate 'im.

[paulg]

Good to see such a tight match on vugraph, even if we did have from the unusual experience of a biased vugraph organiser on commentary

Luckily I was commentating on Joe Boo and finished six hands before all the other tables, so I got to see the last few boards.

[JLOGIC]

Wow the name Joe Boo has caught on? Didn't know people other than his friends called him that. It's such an awesome name it should be standard

How long are these matches?

[paulg]

JLOGIC, on 2011-June-27, 22:30, said:

How long are these matches?

Each KO match is 28 boards until the final, which is 48. The third place play off is 32 boards.

All far too short of course for a proper competition, which is just another reminder that the European Open Championship is far more about lining the EBL coffers than a serious competition. However my view does not seem to have diminished the standard of teams making the knock-out stages in the Open (nor the Mixed, naturally, Frances) as Michael's draw showed. I think he was in the toughest quarter, but there were not many easy matches to be seen.

Still I think we'd all like to see LAVAZZA and MAHAFFEY (including Meckwell) compete over more than 28 boards this morning.

[mfa1010]

Thanks for the cheering

Against the Russians we were very strong in the first half. Fortunately we could then afford to be bad in the second half.
They had a DONT disaster against our strong club. ♠-, ♥Axx, ♦AT98, ♣QJTxxx. He overcalled 2♣, ♣+higher vul vs not. Unfortunately his partner retreated to 2♦ with 3-2 in the minors and nothing at all after he heard a gameforce-bal double. X, trump lead and only three tricks to declarer (2 diamonds + 1 heart). 1400. We needed that one.

Against Mahaffey our team was soft. Mostly in the closed room by teammates in the first half and us in the second half. We handled Meckwell ok in open room throughout.
I didn't consider that matching a particularly unlucky draw for R16.

There were some curious boards in the match:

Us: "-400 in 3N", teammates: "passed out"! Small heart lead from KQxxx and we had no more chances when Pepsi played excellently for his contract. Still annoying because they had a misunderstanding getting to 3N in the first place with 11 bal opposite 11 bal.

Teammates: "+1240 in 2♥R. He made a barking mad lead directing double of the opening suit after we had gameforced and showed extras as well. And we have only 9(10) tricks in NTs so no slam." Us: "Lose 4, we went 1400 after a marginal overcall of 1NT and an unsuccesful escape attemp that cost 300p extra".

We blew the chances we had but we lost to a good team that deserved their win. Now on to the pairs.

[mgoetze]

mfa1010, on 2011-June-28, 15:15, said:

Teammates: "+1240 in 2♥R. He made a barking mad lead directing double of the opening suit after we had gameforced and showed extras as well. And we have only 9(10) tricks in NTs so no slam." Us: "Lose 4, we went 1400 after a marginal overcall of 1NT and an unsuccesful excape attemp that cost 300p extra".

Indeed, I remember thinking that was a remarkably small swing.

[JLOGIC]

double post

[JLOGIC]

In other news, I'd just like to say that not only is Thomas Bessis obv UNREAL good at bridge as his results have shown, but he is also one of the nicest and most genuine people I've ever been lucky enough to be friends with. Great showing by him and his team.

[mgoetze]

Speaking of unreal, 288 IMPs in 48 boards is exactly 6 IMPs per board.

[mgoetze]

Picture of mfa1010 on page 15 of the Wednesday bulletin.
http://eurobridge.or...etins/bul12.pdf