5 days ago
16 August 2025
I often see players at international events, playing with someone other than their usual partner (or a sponsor) and forming a superstar pair – even if it's only for one tournament. One of the most exciting pairs at the recent European Transnational Championships in Poland was Norwegian Geir Helgemo, the player widely regarded as the best in the world, playing with Zachary Grossack, at only 28, the youngest Grand Life Master in the American Contact Bridge League, and already the winner of several world titles. The two could hardly be more different: Geir a quiet introvert and Zach an exuberant extrovert. Together they worked magic.
Here's Zach at the helm in their round-of-64 knockout match.
When Geir doubled, Zach ignored a possible Heart fit and instead made the value bid of 3 NT, which was a good start as 6♥️ can suffer a direct Spade ruff. How would you plan the play when West leads the ♦️10?
Assuming we pick up the Hearts, we have 11 on top. We should be able to do business with West and his six Spades, but his hand has to be moulded into shape first.
Declarer won and cashed four Clubs, West throwing a couple of Spades. Next came the top two Hearts in dummy and he ran the ♥️10. West had to make two more discards which were a Spade and a Diamond.
The stage is set: when the fourth Heart is cashed, the West hand is squeezed. If he throws yet another Spade, we can just set those up, so he has to throw his penultimate Diamond. Now Zach cashed the remaining top Diamond and played a Spade to his King. West had only Spades left and had to give up.
A dynamic duo!
