Our KO match on Wednesday with the team of Manchester

Dear team mates,

This Wednesday, 26 of April, we are facing the team of Manchester. These guys are a very strong team. We faced them a couple of seasons ago, in the KO phase, and lost. In the past two matches in their group, they faced the teams of Bucharest Seniors (former winner of the ICL competition) and the team of Helsinki and defeated both of them.

They deployed roycea – jeffsmith – DaveB – Goldfolk against Bucharest Seniors and beat them by a margin of 45 IMPs. Roycea – jeffsmith are playing a 2/1 system, while DaveB – Goldfolk, seemingly, acol and/or 2/1 + some extra gadgets. They managed to capitalize on their opponents’ mistakes and failures to spot the proper bids after their successful pre-empting and sacrifice bids. Therefore, extra care is needed on the Manchester strategy to use competitive bidding as a weapon to really mess your bids. Check these results here.

On their match against Helsinki they deployed again roycea – jeffsmith and Minty1 – DaveB. The second pair seems to be playing 2/1, as well. They beat Helsinki by 15 IMPs, again capitalizing on playing mistakes and by making the proper bids without much fuss and choosing the declarer’s seat correctly. Check these results here.

Overall, these folks are hard to beat, but they are not unbeatable. In order to succeed, mistakes are not tolerated and economy (bidding sequence) is recommended, as well as extra care on their competitive bidding.

Their captain is Jeffsmith and he will be the host of Wednesday’s match. I don’t know if he chooses to play 1 match straight or 2 matches of 12 boards each (24 boards in the KO phase). In the past match, he was open to any format.

Please check with your partner carefully before joining in and, please let me know, by Tuesday evening the latest, about your availability, willingness and readiness to play on Wednesday. I intend to play for at least half of the match (unless serious unforeseen circumstances occur) , but I would happily give up my seat, if the other players are better prepared and willing to play the whole match.

Looking forward to your response. Happy week,

Jack (antepa on BBO)