Spingold excitement in today’s game of bridge

The Spingold Teams, the main event at the ACBL Summer NABC, underscored the deluge of professionalism in top-level bridge as well as the transition of the League’s “North American” tournaments to international events. Many “sponsored” teams with U.S. pros were ousted early, and in the semifinals, only two of 22 players were from the U.S.

The impact of players from overseas may be due to the support of youth bridge in European countries and especially in China. The U.S. is striving to keep up; many excellent programs to attract young players have begun. At the NABC, the ACBL staged a three-day Youth NABC, and scores of kids competed for trophies and scholarships. Moreover, bridge is coming back on campus: At the NABC, Georgia Tech won the Collegiate Bridge Bowl competition.

As for the Spingold, the team in the semifinals with U.S. players won it all. Marty Fleisher’s team prevailed in the final against a (mostly) Swedish squad led by newcomer Leif Bremark. The match was close, and better dummy play in today’s deal could have flipped the result.

At one table, North-South for FLEISHER halted at 3NT. A heart opening lead might have troubled that contract, but West led the queen of diamonds. Declarer made an overtrick.

In the replay, North-South for BREMARK conducted an artificial auction to six diamonds by South. When West led a spade — deuce, jack, king — the hundreds of kibitzers watching on the internet expected South to make his slam. He took the K-A of clubs, but then came to his ace of spades(!), cashed A-K of diamonds and led the queen of clubs. East hastily ruffed with his high trump and cashed the queen of spades.