St. Vincent, Italy, hosted the 1966 World Teams Championship. It was the
heyday of the legendary Blue Team and the
native sons won big. Three of the five teams
(Netherlands, Venezuela, and Thailand)
lacked the depth to challenge seriously, so
the real battle was between Italy (Giorgio
Belladonna-Walter Avarelli. Pietro Forquet-Benito
Garozzo, Camillo Pabis Ticci-Massimo
D'Alelio) and North America (Bob Hamman-Lew
Mathe, Ira Rubin-Phil Feldesman, Sami Kehela-Eric
Murray) The press voted Canadians Kehela-Murray
the best non-Italian pair (Pabis Ticci-D'Alelio
played only one disastrous session) in the
field.
The match featured a series of North American gambits that prompted the
Blues to consider revising some of their
methods.
Neither side vulnerable West deals
West |
North |
East |
South |
Mathe |
Belladonna |
Hamman |
Avarelli |
1 |
Dble |
1 |
1NT |
Pass |
2 |
Pass |
2 |
Pass |
2NT |
Pass |
Pass |
Pass |
|
|
|
Rubin-Feldesman bid the North/South cards unobstructed to 4;
plus 450. Hamman's psychic bid of 1
over North's double hit a seam in the
Italian methods. Belladonna favoured an
esoteric idea known as "exclusion" advances
to takeout doubles. With third hand silent,
a new suit bid by advancer showed shortage
in that suit; if third hand volunteered a
suit bid, a double would show shortage. Not
that this explains Avarelli's 1NT or his
pass of 2NT. Italy lost 7 IMPs. The other
Italians tried unsuccessfully to convince
Belladonna to drop the exclusion idea. "If
Walter had bid spades at his second turn we
would have reached game," roared Giorgio.
Earlier in the match, Eric Murray had made his presence felt with mixed
results. First, a third seat 1# opening at
favourable vulnerability on
98
Q10832
6
J10753,
backfired.
Kehela's
strength-showing redouble warned Belladonna-Avarelli
that the missing high cards were likely to
be badly placed for them. They gained 12
IMPs by stopping in game while Hamman-Mathe
failed in a reasonable slam.
Later, at the same vulnerability, Murray again tried 1# in third seat with:
93
Q876542
96
106,
catching
Avarelli with only:
AK7
AJ
KQ107
AKQ8.
Avarelli
jumped to 3NT, and Belladonna, holding:
$QJ42
K1093
A
7532,
conservatively
passed.
It
was embarrassing for the Italians to play in
game with 36 combined points and a sound
play for a grand slam, but they were
fortunate that Hamman-Mathe stopped in 6NT;
the cost was only 13 IMPs. Avarelli was too
strong for an Italian-style takeout double
and a 2
"cue-bid" would have been natural and
forcing! Poor Avarelli was stuck with 3NT,
which might have been either a balanced high-card
hand or a hand with a long strong suit and
some stoppers.
You can be sure that Murray enjoyed this deal more than the fruits of his
first psychic. This time, the Blue Team
could not ignore the problem, and
adjustments were made. Italy, irritated but
not fatally wounded, would win the next
three World Championships before bowing to
their traditional rivals in 1970.