Susanna Gross

The Olympics may be over — but is another gold medal in the pipeline for Team GB? At the time of writing, the England Women are battling it out with Russia in the final of the 14th World Bridge Games, taking place in Lille. If they win, it will be their second triumph in as many months: in June they won the European championships. By the time you read this, will they have conquered the world (well, the women’s world)? Meanwhile, at the same venue in Lille, other bridge stars of the past 12 months were celebrated this week when the International Bridge Press Association presented its 2012 Awards.

Some players might feel a little inhibited to find themselves defending a contract against the great Michael Rosenberg, known throughout the bridge world as ‘the expert’s expert’ for his encyclopedic knowledge of cardplay techniques. Not a player of Jim Munday’s calibre, though. Quite the reverse, in fact. Munday is a top US player, and as far as he is concerned any opponent, whatever their stature, can be steered to defeat with the right sort of dastardly defence. In the recent semi-final of America’s most prestigious pairs event, Munday caught Rosenberg out with this beautiful piece of deception. South led the ◆5; declarer (Rosenberg) played dummy’s ◆7, North (Munday) played the ◆9 and declarer ducked.

Much as I love chit-chatting, there’s no space this week. The hand I want to describe, played by Frank Multon (Monaco) in the recent Europeans, requires not one but two diagrams. Multon worked out the answer in his head during a pressurised match. The rest of us get to view all four hands at leisure, and still we can’t visualise the ‘end position’ without seeing it in writing. At least, I can’t. If you can, I’m available for a game any time:  West led the ♣7, which Multon ducked to East’s ♣Q. East switched to a trump. Believe it or not, the contract is now unbeatable: East can be squeezed in three suits and West in two (although a spade or diamond switch by East would have broken it up).

The European bridge championships are over, and although all the England players did well, the real stars were the women’s team, who won gold. Congratulations to Sally Brock, Nevena Senior, Nicola Smith, Heather Dhondy, Susan Stockdale and Fiona Brown. In the Open series, there was never really any question who would win, although a few years ago it would have been unimaginable: Monaco. In 2010, Pierre Zimmermann, a Swiss real estate tycoon, hired five of the world’s best players to join him in forming a team to represent the mini state: Geir Helgemo and Tor Helness from Norway, Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes from Italy, and Franck Multon from France. They immigrated to Monaco in 2010 and this year gained citizenship.

The 2012 European championships are upon us. No, not football, I’m talking about the ones we actually stand a chance of winning: bridge. England has fielded three excellent teams in the Open, Womens and Seniors events, held in Dublin. I’ll be following the Seniors with particular interest because my friend Simon Cocheme is making his England debut as non-playing captain. Simon is well known in the bridge world for his hugely entertaining articles on the game. Recently, he’s been focusing on the language of bridge, and how it differs round the world. Thanks to him I now know, for instance, that the Poles call an 800 penalty a snowman, and in Thailand a 1,100 penalty is known as a Fiat.