European Youth Teams (Riga 2026) - Day 456

Day 4 

Matches 13-16 were losses against Netherlands, France, England and Netherlands again.

Wasn't all bad. In the board below we got a rare gain against England:

Anya sitting West decided that the five level belonged to here, and boldly bid on to 5S. I think this is good judgement, as you have a double fit for partner's suits of Spades and Diamonds, so it's exactly the right time to bid one extra.

North couldn't help doubling again, and if declarer gets trumps right she makes the contract. Anything except starting with the Ace works here, so well done Anya for 5Sx=.

At the other table we defended a more normal 4S after this auction

South's 2NT bid showed Clubs and a major, so if I was North I would be bidding 5C automatically as you also have a double fit (Clubs and whatever major your partner has).

At the end of the day we are still in 13th place:

Day 5

Match 17 was a respectably close loss to Czech Republic. We are so close to great bridge - take this deal:

 

Our North-South pair of Rachel and Niamh had a good auction to 5C:

East took her two Aces and had a trump trick to come, so off one. 

The other table featured an artificial bid: 

1D is a transfer response. Our defence is that Double shows the bid suit (Diamonds) and bidding the suit being transferred into (Hearts) is takeout. So in a parallel Universe West would have made a double, and East would lead Diamonds to beat 3NT (or the opponents would play a failing 4H or 5C).

On the day though didn't find a Diamond lead and the contract made.

Next up was a similar size loss to Poland, then Sweden. We are not getting whitewashed and are slowly gaining on Estonia, who have now become our great rivals:

Day 6

We started with a decent 17-3 VPs loss against Israel, before a respectable 19-1 VPs loss to Norway. Then came the big match against the Estonians.

At the halfway stage we were losing by 21-13 IMPs in a tense encounter, making me glad I wasn't the non-playing captain, or the pair sitting out and watching. But after that the IMPs came rolling in, with the Estonians getting caught out overbidding and being doubled several times. It happened twice to them on the last board, netting us 17 IMPs.

On one table East-West got to 4S, which Niamh sitting South doubled. 4S is close, but South's two trump tricks meant one off. 

On the other table the Estonian North-South tried 3NT, after North opened 2NT showing both minors. This time Artem found the double, leading to 3NTx-5!

We won 53-21 IMPs, this time getting the big win for ourselves. 

The final match of the day was an easy win against Bye, so another 12 VPs, and into 12th place.

Poland and Israel are close at the top, but the real battle is between the two at the bottom. Estonia just beat Latvia so it's close again - let's see what tomorrow brings!