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by Brian Senior
Every 18 months or so, The Young
Chelsea Bridge Club, just off the Earl's Court Road, London,
holds what is, at least in Britain, a unique form of bridge event.
The Marathon is exactly that,
a 24 hour long Matchpoint Pairs event, starting at 2 pm on Saturday
and going on right through the night to around 2 pm on Sunday. 56
pairs play a total of 165 boards, split into five sessions, each
of 33 boards and lasting nearly four-and-a-half hours, with perhaps
a 30-minute break between sessions. Sounds like Hell?
The organisers never have any difficulty
in filling the event, indeed, there is usually a waiting list of
disappointed pairs who did not enter soon enough. This year's field
included pairs from Denmark, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway,
Scotland, and USA, quite apart from London based players from all
over Europe.
Actually, though I say pairs, it
is allowed to play as either a pair or a threesome, taking
turns to sit out a session, and for one reason or another, there
are always several threesomes in the field including, on this occasion,
my own. The Marathon favours the young and those who are used to
staying up all night playing rubber bridge, poker, or whatever takes
your fancy. Everybody has a time during the night when they are
not quite at their best, and how you handle that problem and how
quickly you can come through it and find your second wind can make
a big difference to your prospects.
The night sessions are also the time
when a really big score can be posted if you and your partner are
still alert as opponents are more likely than normal to make careless
errors or lose their judgement completely. The club always has a
good selection of refreshments available for purchase but also the
Earl's Court Road is the ideal venue because it never closes. Even
at 4 am, you can walk out onto the main road and find plenty of
alternative refreshments if you want them.There is a tradition that,
around 8 pm, the Young Chelsea provides free cups of soup to the
competitors - it is always tomato, and it is always Heinz (don't
ask me why; a tradition doesn't need a reason, does it?)
The first prize is £3,000
and there are further prizes to the rest of the top ten, the winners
of each session, and to the pair who rise by the highest number
of places during the last two sessions. My favourites for the competition
were the top Irish pairing of Tom Hanlon and Hugh McGann.
They lay second after the first session but then moved into a commanding
lead. A poor fourth session saw their lead cut to a still useful
two tops over the next pair, but another poor set saw them finish
third. The winners were an unseeded pair, Paul Casselles and
Keith Loveys. Both very experienced players and Young Chelsea
regulars, making for a popular win. They just pipped Espen Erichsen
(Norway) and Unal Durmus by a couple of matchpoints.Erichsen/Durmus
were the Pairs winners at the 1999 Mindsports Olympiad.
I was slightly surprised at how
well Tom Townsend and I scored for reaching slam on this deal from
the first session:
| West |
East |
 A
K Q J 8 7 |
9 |
J 5 |
A 6 |
10 |
A
K J 8 7 5 3 |
Q 8 4 3 |
A 10 6 |
| West |
East |
| 1 |
3 |
| 3 |
3NT |
| 5 |
6 |
| 6 |
Pass |
A sizeable proportion of the field
failed to reach a slam. 3
was a good old-fashioned strong jump shift and Tom decided that
he was too good, with his 6-4 shape, to simply rebid 4,
showing solid spades but a minimum. When I tried 3NT, he jumped
to 5
to invite slam, showing very good spades but no outside control
which he could cuebid.
Now I had all the necessary controls
for slam and could see that, if partner could just deliver the queen
of diamonds, even 7NT might be on. 6
was a clear grand slam try, giving partner room to cuebid a diamond
honour if he held one.
In practice, of course,
Tom signed off in 6.
Though the Q
was doubleton onside, so that 13 tricks were available in spades,
no trump or diamonds, 6+1
scored well above average. Alas, our threesome had far too few such
successes and finished nowhere. Never mind, I can't wait for
the next Marathon.
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