Shangai hands

Shangai hands (8) - A subMoysian slam

Round 8 had many flat boards: for instance, in the derby between the leaders, USA I, and the hosts, China, 8 out of the 16 boards were flat and three or four had only overtrick swings; no wonder the final score was 21 to 16 for the Americans. Of those eight flat boards, seven were "flat as a pancake" i.e. same contract, same score. The eighth was a bit different, for it featured a sub-Moysian slam.

Brd 1    Q9432
South    J983
None     K83
         Q
         Sun
KT765               J8
Q           KT7654
965               QT
T872              954
Rosenberg        Zia
         A
         A2
         AJ742
         AKJ63
         Wang

 W   N   E   S
================
             1C
 P   1S  2H  P
 P   X   P   3C
 P   3NT P   4D
 P   4S  P   5NT
 P   6C  P   P
 P       
--------

1C was Precision, obviously, so Zia thought it expedient to take away some space. Now if South passes the takeout doublethey may collect more than the slam (1100 is possible) but obviously he showed his suits. Apparently his parent thought he was describing much longer clubs, for he preferred into clubs, so the Chinese played their slam in their 5-1 fit spurning the 5-3 one (real men don' t need eight trumps?).
Much ado about nothing, after all, because the strong suits and the docile distribution make all three slams (6NT is also on) laydown. So, flat board at 920, heralding a flat match.

Nikos Sarantakos

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