Day 1 Report

Welcome to Beijing and a quick Day 1 report for the Canadian Open Team. Many of the other Canadian captain's have given you a good feel for the playing site and location so will not dwell too much on the topics that were covered elsewhere. The Open Team is a truly national team with members from 4 of the major cities:

• Dan Jacob (Vancouver) playing with Robert Lebi (Toronto)


• Nic L'Ecuyer (Montreal) playing with Kamel Fergani (Montreal)


• Vince Demuy (Montreal) playing with Marc Andre Fourcaudot (Montreal)


• David Willis, the non-playing Captain (Ottawa)

It was an important day for the Open Team. With only 4 of 17 teams qualifying for the Knockout round it was important to get off to a good start. Day 1 saw Canada facing Albania, Italy (one of the favourites for championship, and Ireleand (a strong contender for a qualifying spot).



Everyone showed up early for the first match. Jacob/Lebi and Demuy/Fourcaudot were in. The team kicked off with a 69-18 win over Albania to secure the maximum 25 Victory Points from the first match.



The second match saw the first Vugraph opportunity for the Open Team with Lebi/Jacob facing Fantoni/Nunes (currently ranked 1&2 in the World). The Open Room is shown on closed circuit TV in the local vugraph Theatre as well as on BBO. Fergani/L'Ecuyer faced Sementa/Duboin in the closed room. An exciting and low scoring match ensued with Italy heading out to a 22-10 lead when Board 30 was placed on the table:



L'Ecuyer and Fergani were +140 in the Closed Room in 2H when Fantoni and Nunes reached 4H in the Open Room so 11 imps (+5/-6) hung in the balance. With the favourable diamond and heart positions, the computer who can see all the hands knows that 5H can be made but it is not so easy at the table. Lebi lead the C4 to the K and A and Jacob returned the SQ. Fantoni won the SK in hand and ruffed a club to lead a diamond. Jacob quickly played the DK ! presenting Fantoni with a problem. Fantoni cashed the HA seeing the 9 fall and ruffed another club in dummy with the HJ. Reluctant to see the DQ ruffed, the SA was now followed by another S. Fantoni eventually tried cashing the HK hoping for the opponent hearts to be 3-2 and had to go down 1, 5 imps to Canada instead of 6 away on the way to a 25-22 victory.

Round 3 saw Demuy/Fourcaudot with L'Ecuyer/Fergani against a dangerous Irish squad. Another good match saw a 53-30 victory (pending a positive score correction to 54-30) and 20 (21) more victory points to Canada.

Bridgemates are in use at the Championship to capture all contracts, scores and leads in real time. It is taking some time for all players to get used to this. A note to all who may be watching the results stream in on Swan Games or BBO that we have yet to see an Open Team match with no score corrections. Please check back shortly after the match if you want to reconfirm the accuracy of the scores. We are hoping for error free scoring to start on Day 2.

Day 2 sees the Open Team facing China Macau, Romania and the always-comptetitive Brazilian team.