Bulletin
Nine never Jari Bäckström style (in English) author kaapo, 2.11.2008 at 09.46.
Summary: Board 25.
Jari Bäckström and Arttu Karhulahti were defending 2NT on board 25:
25 ♠A43
North ♥Q8
E-W ♦J65
♣KT864
♠986 ♠KQ7
♥9654 ♥T732
♦A7 ♦T932
♣A532 ♣J9
♠JT52
♥AKJ
♦KQ84
♣Q7.
2NT was played by North, and Jari led a heart. Declarer took it with dummy's ace, and ordered the queen of clubs. Arttu won with the ace - and Jari followed with the jack!
Arttu shifted to a spade, declarer had to play low, and Jari won with the ♠Q. He shifted back to hearts. Declarer then established some diamond tricks, while defence established a heart trick when in with ♦A. Now declarer cashed his two winning diamonds and the ace of spades. This was left:
25 ♠
North ♥
E-W ♦
♣KT86
♠9 ♠K
♥9 ♥T
♦ ♦T
♣53 ♣9
♠J10
♥
♦8
♣7.
Declarer had scored 3♥s, 2♦s and the ace of spades, but so far no club tricks. He played the seven of clubs to take the marked finesse - only to see Jari win the trick with the well preserved nine and claim the rest with the good ♠K and the red tens! 2NT down two was worth 33 matchpoints out of 34 for Karhulahti - Bäckström.