This season’s Malta Union Club open teams tournament was again won by Marie Farrugia, Albert Sacco, Nathalie Marlin and Anna Vella.

In this format, this team won the Open three times in the last six years.

This year they had a clear win with 353vps from Wendy Busuttil, Marielle Salomone, Celia Portelli and Alice Portelli who placed second with a score of 306vps.

Mario Dix, Margaret Parnis England, Svetlana Roukhliada and Bjarni Kristjannson did well to recover to third position with 294vps after a lacklustre performance in the first three rounds of the five-round tournament.

Stanko Grammatikov and Stefano Gualeni were this year’s winners of the Malta Bridge Club open pairs tournament with a score of 169.64. Grammatikov and Gualeni took pole position in round one and held on to top spot throughout the tournament.

But the battle for the runner-up spot was much fiercer and eventually Yvonne Muscat Inglott and Anna Vella were second with 164.88 and Irene Naudi and Joan Consiglio third – 162.53.

Twenty-one pairs are contesting this year’s Malta Union Club championship, as usual sponsored by Sigma.

After the first five rounds, the leaders are May Sultana and Albert Ganado with an average score of 53.89%, followed by Kathy Williams and Brigita Krohn, 53.49%, and Marie Farrugia and Albert Sacco in third place with 53.24%.

The leading contenders for the performance prize are Richard McGonigle and Guy Chamberlain with an average score of 53.06%.

Meanwhile, the national pairs championships, sponsored by Marsovin, were again won by Henri Gosset and David Olliver with an average score of 55%.

Nathalie Marlin and Graham Penney were second with 53.54% and Yvonne Muscat Inglott and Anna Vella third on 52.71%.

The Performance Prize was won by Guy Chamberlain and Richard McGonigle. The pair are clearly sharpening their game this year.

The Freddie Triccas tournament, also held at the Union Club, was won by Eileen Valenzia and Ben Mamo who led the North-South side with a score of 60.03% and Helena Denaro and Maria Colombo on the East-West side with a top score of 68.13%.

Generally speaking, on partner’s lead, most pairs prefer to show attitude rather than count. However, many leading players nowadays argue that in such situations, it is better to abandon attitude signals altogether when following suit and always show count. Attitude signals can still be used when discarding.

Here is an interesting defensive problem from one of the rounds of the pairs tournament which strongly supports this point of view.

Imagine you are sitting South and as dealer, you open 1Diamond.

West on your left bids 2 Diamonds showing Hearts and Spades. Partner passes and East jumps to 4 Hearts. How would you defend?

Clearly you start off with the Ace of Clubs, on which partner plays the 3 showing an odd number of cards. Is there a chance of defeating this Contract?

Let us survey the situation.

For his jump bid to 4 Hearts, East must have some points somewhere and they are surely not in Clubs. Since East follows to the Ace and King of Clubs and partner has shown an odd number of Clubs, the suit must break 4-3-3-3. So we have three tricks in Clubs. We need one more trick to defeat the contract. Where does our best chance lie?

If partner has a Spade trick to make, it is never going to run away. Looks like our only other chance is that partner has the Queen of Hearts. But hold on... surely we must credit East with at least 4 cards in Hearts for his jump to game in the suit. So even if partner has the Queen of Hearts, it is probably a doubleton and therefore doomed unless...

Well, if you find the correct line of play, you can promote partner’s Queen of trumps. Cash your 3 top Clubs and continue with the 6 of Clubs. If partner does have a doubleton Queen of Hearts, he must now win a trump trick. Either dummy ruffs high and the Queen is promoted or partner over ruffs.

This type of play is known as the “upper cut”. Look out for it, it occurs more often than you may think.

Here is the full deal.

The Malta Bridge Association is currently carrying out a survey to try and increase the number of participants in these national events.

If you may be interested in playing and wish to take part in the survey, please visit the MBA website or contact any member of the Council.