Bridge is an easy game by Sven-Olov Flodqvist (Sweden)

I noticed in the Bulletin report from the match between Poland and the Netherlands that Lasocki tried his best to go down in a lay down game contract of four hearts doubled, on this board.

N/S Vul. Dealer East.

                            S KT
                            H 73
                            D K98
                            C Q87632
                   S J8752            S 93
                   H KQ965            H -
                   D 765              D QJ42
                   C -                C AKJT954
                            S AQ64
                            H AJT842
                            D AT3
                            C -

Played a heart to the ten and Queen. A trump return would have beaten the contract, but West shifted to a diamond and now declarer took the King, unblocked the spade King, played a diamond to the Ace, cashed his spades, throwing a diamond from dummy.  A diamond ruff gave him seven tricks and West could not prevent him from scoring three more trump tricks.

Madeleine Swanstrom demonstrated in the ladies match between Sweden and Finland that bridge sometimes really is simpler than it looks.

             West     North     East     South
                    Swanstrom          Flodqvist
                                          1C
              Dbl      1S       Pass      2C
              2H      Pass      2NT      Pass
              3H      Pass      4H     All Pass

The Finnish lady in the West seat, obviously knew something about the game that had eluded Barry Westra, and many others I suspect, when she did not double 4H.  She led a spade to the ten and at trick two, Madeleine played the H3 from dummy. When East showed out, she took the Ace, unblocked the spade King, cashed her King and Ace of diamonds, her high spades and pitched the diamond from dummy.
A diamond ruff gave her the first eight tricks and it did not help West very much that she could over ruff South at the next trick, since she now had to give away two more trump tricks.

 

The bulletin has already reported how Lasocki made 4H on a less than perfect defense against Netherlands; Osku Kiema
demonstrated that he needed no help.

         West        North       East       South
       I.Herbst    Koistinen   O.Herbst     Kiema
                                  1C         1H
         Pass        1NT          2C         2S
         Pass         3H         3NT         4H
         Dbl        All Pass

Kiema received a low diamond lead and decided to play for 5-0 trumps immediately. He won the DA, crossed to the DK and then took the three top spades in order to discard a diamond from dummy. Then he ruffed a diamond low, ruffed a club with the trump Ace, ruffed a spade low, and reached this ending:

                          S -
                          H -
                          D -
                          C Q8763
                S -                S -
                H KQ965            H -
                D -                D -
                C -                C AKJT9
                          S -
                          H JT842
                          D -
                          C -

A remarkable ending! Two players have only hearts left and two only clubs!  Kiema led a club from dummy and ruffed with the H10. West over ruffed to return the H5, but Kiema could win, and play back the H2 for the endplay at trick 12 to guarantee one more trump trick, and the contract.