It must have felt like New Year’s Eve

On July 18, more than 6,000 chess enthusiasts packed into London’s Trafalgar Square. There were two highlights: Human pieces on a giant board played the 1851 game between Adolf Andressen and Lionel Kieseritsky, and a game between 12-year-old Shreyas Royal from England and 10-year-old Tani Adewumi from America was displayed on a huge screen. It was won by the American, and a film is being made about him. At the same time, make sure you catch John McAlister’s movie “Double Dummy,” which is primarily about the 2012 World Youth Teams Championships in Taicang, China. Today’s deal was the last board of the junior final. At the time, Israel led the Netherlands by 1.33 international match points. In the closed room, the Dutch reached two no-trump as shown. North’s response was an inverted minorsuit raise, promising at least game-invitational values with no four-card major. Over South’s rebid showing a balanced 12-14 points, North opted to pass. West played three rounds of spades. The declarer cashed the club king, crossed to his club ace, took the spade jack and continued the clubs, throwing a heart from his hand. West, in order to keep four diamonds, was forced down to the bare heart ace. Reading the position, South cashed the diamond king, played a diamond to his ace and led the diamond 10, West bizarrely not covering with his jack. South ran the 10 and exited with a heart to the ace. West had to concede the final trick to the diamond queen. That was 10 tricks, plus 180. More tomorrow.