Contract Bridge
Occasionally there are enormous swings in world team championship competition.
For example, consider this deal played in 1974 in the match between Italy and Indonesia.
The bidding at the first table went as shown when Benito Garozzo and Giorgio Belladonna were North-South for Italy.
Garozzo made a fine decision when he elected to bid six spades over six hearts, and Belladonna had no trouble making the slam.
He ruffed the heart lead in dummy, drew trumps and cashed the obvious 12 tricks to score 1,430 points for Italy.
At the second table, the Indonesian North-South pair doubled six hearts when the Italian East-West pair reached that contract. The heart slam proved to be unbeatable, and, in fact, declarer made the contract with an overtrick when South elected to lead his singleton diamond.
So the Italians scored another 1,310 points — making a slam with the East-West cards after their North-South teammates had also made a slam — to give them a total gain of 2,740 points on this one deal.
Six spades could have been defeated at the first table had West been smart enough to lead a diamond at trick one and had East then been smart enough to win the trick and return a club at trick two.
On a more practical basis, though, East would have been well-advised to bid seven hearts over six spades, following the general principle that it pays to take another bid in a tight competitive situation where you stand to lose very little by bidding, but potentially a great deal by passing.