ORBIS WORLD BRIDGE CHAMPIONSHIPS DAILY NEWS JANUARY 7-21 BERMUDA 2000 JEAN PAUL MEYER, CO-ORDINATOR / MARK HORTON, EDITOR BRENT MANLEY & BRIAN SENIOR, ASSISTANT EDITORS JUDE GOODWIN-HANSON, TEXT LAYOUT EDITOR ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Issue: 12 Wednesday, 19 January 2000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Usual Suspects Orbis Bermuda Bowl Brazil gained revenge for their defeat by Norway in the semifinal of the 1993 Bermuda Bowl in Santiago when they staged a dramatic comeback in the final session of their semifinal encounter against the Scandinavians. They bounced back from a 30 IMP loss in the penultimate session to win by 12.3 IMPs. There are instances in many sports of great competitors never winning the ultimate prize. Ken Rosewall never won at Wimbledon, Colin Montgomerie has never won a Major, and for the moment, Zia Mahmood must put on hold his hopes of a World title. USA 2 could not stay with USA I, losing by 91 IMPs. In the last four sessions, USA I conceded only 50 IMPs in 64 boards. The final sees USA I holding a 24 IMP advantage, the maximum carry-over allowed, by virtue of their huge win over Brazil in the Round-Robin. Norway start the bronze medal match with an 8 IMP advantage over USA 2. Orbis Venice Cup The United States have appeared in every Venice Cup Final since the competition started in 1974 and they maintained that record when Denmark could make no impression on USA I in the last two sessions. USA I will meet The Netherlands in the final, the Dutch team resisting everything that Austria could do. When they defeated China in the quarterfinals, the Dutch team celebrated with a trip to a Chinese restaurant. Last night they had Wiener Schnitzel. They are planning a trip to McDonalds on Thursday night! USA I start the final with a lead of 3 IMPs, and in the play-off for third place Denmark have an 8 IMP advantage. Orbis World Transnational Teams Championship After ten rounds of the Orbis World Transnational Teams Championship, the leaders are the team from Bulgaria that narrowly failed to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Orbis Bermuda Bowl. With four rounds to go before the top four teams qualify for the knockout stages, they are 14VP clear of the fifth placed team. The chasing teams are closely grouped, with 11VP covering the next ten teams. Five of the chasing pack are from the United States of America, and two from Great Britain. Orbis World Computer Bridge Championship After a seven-round, ten board per match Round-Robin, the field has been reduced to four 'teams': GIB (US, 100 VPs), WBridge5 (France, 99 VPs), MicroBridge9 (Japan, 91 VPs) and Bridge Buff (Canada, 70 VPs). The semi-final match-ups will be GIB vs Bridge Buff, with GIB having a 21-IMP carry-over, and WBridge vs MicroBridge9. These will be 38-board matches with a full carry-over. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A gigantic contest - it's worldwide! By Henry Francis * Top on a board -- 10,000 (or more)! * Average -- 1,200,000 (or more)! * Worldwide frequency charts! * Real comparisons against every contestant in the world! * Up-to-date standings available every hour of the day! This is what you can expect when you play in the Mind Sports Organization (www.msoworld.com) Worldwide Simultaneous Pairs organised by the World Bridge Federation on August 22 and 23, 2000. There will be two separate competitions with completely different hands for each day. This will be a contest like nothing you've ever seen before. In the past such events as the Epson Pairs produced a worldwide winner, but the results taken from each club never were integrated with results from all the other clubs around the world. Your final score was whatever your percentage was at your own club. This time your scores will be compared with every score at every other club in the world. Anna Gudge and Mark Newton of Great Britain have devised a program that will make this possible. Another major change -- this time there will be no arbitrary matchpoints. The number of matchpoints you receive on a board will be the result of matchpointing against the entire field. How is all this going to work? It starts with you playing with your partner at your club. The hands will be supplied to every club director. These will be the hands you play. The director will then matchpoint the results to determine the club winners, the same as usual. Then the director will use special software to transmit the results directly to headquarters in Great Britain, where they will be added to the results already received. The computer will immediately rescore the event to this point, and a new set of results will be produced. These results will be changed every time a new club reports. When all the clubs have reported, the computer will have all the results from all the games all over the world. It will matchpoint them and produce the winner almost instantaneously. After the process is complete, every player in the world will be able to access the tournament on his own computer. He will be able to get his personal scorecard, the overall results, all the board frequencies, all the hands - even the individual scorecards of some of the experts in whom he may be interested. Incidentally any unusual results that appear to be possible mistakes will be checked. Your percentage at the local club most likely will be different from your percentage worldwide. At the club you are matchpointed only against others in your field at the club. Worldwide you will be matchpointed against everyone everywhere. You will be able to see the results on www.msoworld.com. To get an idea of what this is going to be like, you can access http://bridge.ecats.co.uk where the results of a British tournament are being compiled at this moment. There will be a special MSO heat at the Alexandra Palace in London on those days, and the organizers are hoping that some of those players headed for the World Team Olympiad in Maastricht, the Netherlands, will stop in on their way and play in the London games. The Olympiad gets under way on Aug. 26. This will be a charity event -- a large proportion of the entry fees will be donated to charity. The games are in addition to the Simultaneous Pairs sponsored by the World Bridge Federation that will take place on June 2 and 3. That event also will be scored on the Internet. MSO also is planning a rubber bridge competition. Details concerning this event will appear on their website when they are ready. The winners of this event will be invited, with expenses paid, to the Mind Sports Olympiad in London where they will have the opportunity to win cash prizes. The bridge portion of the Mind Sports Olympiad will take place August 22-28. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WBF creates Zone 8 Bermuda, 8th January 2000 Presidents of African NCBOs of: Botswana, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Reunion, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia and Zimbabwe Dear President, Re:African Federation and creation of Zone 8 I am pleased to advise you that following deliberation on the proposal of the Management Committee, the Executive Council decided to approve the creation of a new Zone, to be numbered and known as Zone 8, for Africa. Pursuant to stipulations of the WBF Constitution and By-Laws, the boundaries of Zone 8 are defined as extending from the Atlantic Ocean to Egypt (inclusive) and also including the Indian Ocean islands of Madagascar, Mauritius and the Reunion. The Zone will be administered by a Zonal Conference (ZC), to be known as the African Bridge Federation and its Constitution and By-Laws must be presented for approval by the Executive Council before its meetings in Maastricht, The Netherlands, in August 2000. Further, Zone 8 will be entitled to one delegate to the Executive Council, whose appointment or election must be notified to the WBF before the Executive Council meetings in Maastricht. The Zone will also be eligible to one representative team for participation in each of the Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup, starting from 2001. Finally, while the WBF hopes that Zone 8 and the African Bridge Federation will prove to be a major breakthrough in the promotion and development of bridge on the African continent in the new century, under the umbrella of the WBF, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you for all the efforts made to attain this goal and to welcome your Zone into the WBF family. Yours sincerely, Josè Damiani President of WBF ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer Whereas there may be no valid excuse for litrary mishaps in previous issues of the Daily Bulletin, let it be known that any errorors and/or omissions you might spot in this issue is stronhgly correlated with last night's Journalist Cocktail party being more than an outstanding success. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Orbis Bermuda Bowl SF - Session 4 USA 1 v USA 2 USA 2 had led after two sets of their Orbis Bermuda Bowl semi-final against their compatriots, USA1, but a big third set saw USA1 take a 26 IMP lead at the half. And it was USA1 who started Set Four the better. Board 1. None vul. Dealer North. S A K 4 2 H 9 7 6 4 D A 4 C 6 4 2 S Q 5 S J 6 3 H J 5 H K Q T D K Q 9 6 3 2 D J 8 7 C A J 9 C K Q 5 3 S T 9 8 7 H A 8 3 2 D T 5 C T 8 7 West North East South Rodwell Rosenberg Meckstroth Zia - 1NT Pass 2C 2D Pass 2NT Pass 3NT All Pass Rosenberg/Zia's style is to run from One No Trump with any hand of less than 5 HCP before the opposition's double. Hence, Two Clubs promised neither points nor a major. When Eric Rodwell overcalled Two Diamonds, Michael Rosenberg therefore took the opportunity to pass, knowing that Zia Mahmood would bid again if they had a contract their way. Jeff Meckstroth bid a natural and invitational Two No Trump, and Rodwell raised him to game. The opening lead was all important. On a spade lead, the defense can establish five winners immediately to defeat the contract. However, Zia followed the old rule by leading fourth highest of his longest and strongest. The heart lead allowed Meckstroth to win and knock out the ace of diamonds. He took ten tricks for +430. West North East South Stansby Hamman Martel Soloway - 1S Pass 2S 3D All Pass Bob Hamman opened his strong four-card major and Paul Soloway raised. When Lew Stansby overcalled, Chip Martel did not try for game -- a good decision. There were four top losers but that was all; +110 but 8 IMPs to USA1. Board 3. E/W vul. Dealer South. S 7 3 H 5 3 2 D Q 4 3 2 C A K Q S J S A Q T 9 6 5 4 2 H A K Q 9 8 6 H - - D 7 6 D A K J 9 5 C J T 8 3 C - - S K 8 H T 7 4 D T 8 C 9 7 6 5 4 2 West North East South Rodwell Rosenberg Meckstroth Zia - - - Pass 1H Pass 1S Pass 2H Pass 3D Pass 3H Pass 3S Pass 3NT Pass 4D Pass 4S All Pass West North East South Stansby Hamman Martel Soloway - - - Pass 1H Pass 1S Pass 2H Pass 3D Pass 3H Pass 3S Pass 3NT Pass 4S All Pass There is no way to defeat Six Spades on this freak deal but it is impossible for anyone to know how good or bad the contract will be until dummy comes down. Both teams showed great discipline in stopping at the four level -- can you imagine putting this deal into your local club drive? On vugraph, Meckstroth received a club lead, which he ruffed. He cashed the ace of diamonds and the eight fell. Now the contract could be defeated if he played the other top diamond and it was ruffed and the king of spades played. However, his diamond spots were all equals against the ten and queen. Meckstroth played ace then queen of spades, planning to give up one or two diamonds to establish the suit, as necessary. The super safety play had held him to 11 tricks, but when Zia won the spade he switched to a heart, so all the small diamonds could be discarded; back to 12 tricks and a flat board. Board 7. Both vul. Dealer South. S K 5 3 2 H J 8 5 D K 7 5 4 C 7 2 S - - S A Q T 9 8 7 6 H K Q 7 3 H T 9 4 D A Q J T 9 3 D 6 2 C Q T 6 C K S J 4 H A 6 2 D 8 C A J 9 8 5 4 3 West North East South Rodwell Rosenberg Meckstroth Zia - - - 1C 1D 1S Pass 2C Dble Pass 4S All Pass When Rodwell showed his extra values by doubling Two Clubs, Meckstroth leaped to Four Spades, treating Rosenberg's spade call with contempt. Zia led his stiff diamond. There is a winning line -- go up with the ace of diamonds and lead a club. That establishes a discard for the losing diamond and there is a heart entry to cash it. With North lacking a quick entry, the defense is powerless. However, all that seemed to be a lot to hope for, and it was Zia who had led the diamond, so there was no guarantee that the finesse would lose. Meckstroth stuck in the queen and Rosenberg won his king. He could have given his partner a diamond ruff now, but thought it safer to lead a club. Zia won and cashed his other ace before exiting with a second heart. Meckstroth won and ruffed a club to hand then played ace and queen of spades; one down for -100. West North East South Stansby Hamman Martel Soloway - - - 2C 2D Pass 2S Pass 3D Pass 3S Pass 3NT All Pass The natural Two Club opening led to a quite different auction in the other room. Three NoTrump looks to be an awkward contract but it played very well. Hamman led the seven of clubs to the ace and Soloway switched to a low heart to declarer's king. Stansby played ace then queen of diamonds to Hamman's king. The heart continuation did not exactly paralyze declarer, who now had nine tricks; +600 and 12 IMPs to USA2. Board 9. E/W vul. Dealer North. S 6 2 H Q 9 8 7 D A 8 2 C K T 4 2 S Q 5 S A K T 9 8 3 H 5 4 H T 6 3 D K Q J T 6 5 4 D - - C A 7 C J 9 5 3 S J 7 4 H A K J 2 D 9 7 3 C Q 8 6 West North East South Rodwell Rosenberg Meckstroth Zia - Pass 3H Pass 4S All Pass West North East South Stansby Hamman Martel Soloway - Pass 2S Pass 3S All Pass Martel opened a weak two bid and Stansby contented himself with a pre-emptive raise. The defense started out by cashing two hearts, but declarer took the remainder for +200. Meckstroth liked his 6-4 distribution enough to open at the three level, despite the vulnerability. The transfer pre-empt convinced Rodwell that he was worth a shot at game. Rosenberg led a low club to the nine, queen and ace. Rodwell took a while to think it through then led the king of diamonds, to the ace and ruff. Then he played ace of spades and a spade to the queen. He continued with the diamond queen then the ten, hoping to slip that past a sleeping North if he held only a doubleton diamond plus the last trump. But diamonds were 3-3 so that small deception was not necessary. A club towards the jack completed Rodwell's plan and saw him to ten tricks; +620 and 9 IMPs to USA1. Board 10. Both vul. Dealer East. S J 8 3 H 8 4 2 D 7 5 4 2 C A J 4 S A 5 4 S Q 9 H K Q T 5 H 7 D T 9 8 6 D K Q 3 C Q 3 C K T 9 7 6 5 2 S K T 7 6 2 H A J 9 6 3 D A J C 8 West North East South Rodwell Rosenberg Meckstroth Zia - - 2C 3C Dble 3S Pass Pass 3NT All Pass West North East South Stansby Hamman Martel Soloway - - 1C 2C Pass 2H Pass Pass Dble Pass 3C Pass 3NT All Pass When the Closed Room result came through to the vugraph theatre, Stansby's three down for -300 looked to be a good position for his opponents. However, Rosenberg's decision to bid Three Spades rather than leave it back round to his partner worked very well. Rodwell was not comfortable to double with only ace to three trumps, not knowing that declarer also had three little hearts so that he would not see his heart winners ruffed out. He tried Three NoTrump but the first trick settled his fate. There were those in the audience who suggested that, having bid spades, Rosenberg would lead hearts. However, he had bid his stronger major and he duly led his stronger major -- which looks right in theory as well as practice. The spade queen was covered by the king and ducked. Rodwell won the third spade and played a diamond to the king and ace. Zia cashed his spade winners then played a low club. Rosenberg thought about that for some time (but then he thinks about most things for some time) before coming to the correct conclusion, winning the ace and switching to a diamond through the queen, three. Rodwell finessed, and that was four down; -400 and 3 IMPs to USA2. Board 12. N/S vul. Dealer West. S Q J 4 H K 9 5 4 3 D 8 C A J 8 2 S A 9 6 S 5 H J T 8 7 H A Q 6 D K 4 3 D A J T 9 7 6 2 C K Q 9 C 4 3 S K T 8 7 3 2 H 2 D Q 5 C T 7 6 5 West North East South Rodwell Rosenberg Meckstroth Zia 1D 1H 2D Pass 2NT Pass 3NT All Pass West North East South Stansby Hamman Martel Soloway 1NT Pass 3C Pass 3D Dble Rdbl 3S Pass Pass 3NT Pass 4D Pass 5D All Pass Six Diamonds is good if North has overcalled and mediocre otherwise. Stansby shut out the overcall by opening One No Trump, and Martel responded Three Clubs, transfer. They had a look, but when neither felt able to cuebid they stopped in the safe game; +420. Rodwell opened a loose diamond and that did attract an overcall. Two Diamonds was forcing and Rodwell described his hand by bidding Two No Trump. Meckstroth simply raised to game. Rosenberg led the queen of spades and continued the suit when it was ducked. Rodwell won the second spade and played a diamond to the ace then a diamond back to the king. He led the heart jack and Rosenberg played low smoothly. That brought a serious huddle from Rodwell. You always feel very foolish if you go down in a game contract by going for an overtrick, but these 2 IMP swings add up over the course of a match and North was a big favourite to hold the king. Eventually, Rodwell finessed and came home with 11 tricks; +460 and 1 IMP to USA1. Board 15. N/S vul. Dealer South. S Q 9 H K Q J 8 5 3 D T 6 5 2 C K S A T S J 7 4 2 H A T 9 4 2 H 7 6 D K 4 D A 9 3 C Q 6 5 2 C T 9 7 3 S K 8 6 5 3 H - - D Q J 8 7 C A J 8 4 West North East South Rodwell Rosenberg Meckstroth Zia - - - 1S Dble Rdbl Pass 2D Pass 2H Pass 2S All Pass Rosenberg's redouble gave Zia an awkward problem. He could see a continuation in which Rosenberg would double Two Hearts, and he didn't fancy defending that contract. Yet if he passed now and then pulled the double, he would be showing a sound hand. Zia decided to bid now to show his weakness and guessed well to show his diamonds. Now Two Hearts was forcing and Zia repeated his weak spade suit. Now Rosenberg went into a long huddle before eventually passing. Rodwell led a low club to the king and ten. Whatever route declarer follows seems to get to only seven tricks. Zia tried the ruffing heart finesse, pitching a club. Rodwell won and played king and another diamond -- the instant gratification defense -- and Meckstroth won and gave him a ruff. Rodwell cashed the ace of trumps and had to decide how to get off play. If he exits with a heart, it looks as though declarer can win, throwing the club jack, ruff a heart and cross to the queen of spades to lead hearts through West to trump-coup him. However, Rodwell accurately exited with a club and Zia had no entry to dummy to shorten himself to allow the coup to work. Meckstroth took the setting trick with a spade for -100. West North East South Stansby Hamman Martel Soloway - - - 1S 2H Pass Pass 3C Pass 3S All Pass Soloway also opened One Spade but Stansby preferred the heart overcall to a take-out double. When that came back to Soloway he knew that his partner would pass a reopening double and didn't like the notion. He bid Three Clubs instead and Hamman gave preference to Three Spades, no doubt cursing under his breath. Three Spades looks to be hopeless but Stansby made the disastrous opening lead of the ace of hearts. Soloway ruffed and played a club to the king. He cashed a heart, pitching a diamond, then played another heart winner, ruffed with the seven and over-ruffed. Ace of clubs and a club ruff was followed by another winning heart. Again the heart was ruffed and over-ruffed. Soloway ruffed his last club and took a fourth heart ruff and that was nine tricks; +140 and 6 IMPs to USA1. USA1 gained 3 IMPs on the set and ended the day up by 29. There were 32 deals to play. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- OrbisVenice Cup - QF Session 5 Austria v The Netherlands Inch by Inch After averaging more than 75 IMPs per set between them in the first four rounds in their OrbisVenice Cup seminfinal match,Austria and the Netherlands seemed a good bet for some swinging bridge when they played on VuGraph Tuesday in set five. There were no fireworks, but it was an entertaining set as the Netherlands strung together a series of small gains to prevail in the set, 16-6, and increase their lead to 174-154 with 16 deals to play. Both pairs did well to get to game -- and make it -- on the North-South cards on the following deal. Board 2. N/S vul. Dealer East. S 6 2 H 7 6 D J 9 8 7 2 C K 8 4 2 S J 9 5 S Q T 7 4 H 8 5 3 2 H K J 9 4 D Q T 4 3 D A C 7 3 C Q J T 5 S A K 8 3 H A Q T D K 6 5 C A 9 6 West North East South Weigkricht Pasman Fischer Simons - - 1H Dble Pass 2D Pass 2NT Pass 3NT All Pass Terry Weigkricht led the H5, and Anneke Simons duly took nine tricks for plus 600. West North East South Van der Pas Erhart Vriend Terraneo - - 1C Dble Pass 1D Pass 2C Pass 2D Pass 2NT Pass 3NT All Pass Sylvia Terraneo got the lead of the C7. Bep Vriend put in the 10 and declarer won the ace. Next came the DK, taken by Vriend, who attacked hearts by leading the 4. Terraneo inserted the HQ and resumed her campaign for diamond tricks. She played the D6 from hand and put in dummy's 7 when Marijke van der Pas played the 3. Back to hand with the SA,Terraneo played a third diamond, taken by by West with the queen. A heart return set up the suit for the defenders, but declarer had nine tricks via three diamonds, two hearts, two spades and two clubs. Plus 600 and no swing. Was there a better line for the defense -- perhaps a continuation of clubs by East to knock out dummy's entry to the diamonds? In order to do so, East would have had to sacrifice a trick in clubs, giving declarer three, assuming South unblocks the C9 from hand on the second round of the suit. Declarer would then have three clubs tricks and, if she took the right view in hearts, three tricks in that suit (she finesses the 10 while in dummy with the club -- and she gets back another time with a diamond) to go with one diamond and two spades. The Netherlands stole the deal from Austria on the following board, but they lost an IMP anyway. Board 4. Both vul. Dealer West. S A 2 H Q T 9 8 7 D Q T 9 C K 6 2 S T 3 S K Q J 8 6 H 6 2 H A 3 D J 8 7 6 4 3 2 D - - C A 9 C Q T 8 7 4 3 S 9 7 5 4 H K J 5 4 D A K 5 C J 5 West North East South Van der Pas Erhart Vriend Terraneo 2C (1) Pass 2S All Pass (1) Weak hand with long diamonds or natural and game-forcing. Looking at the North-South cards, one would be happy to be in 4H. The Austrians went quietly, however, and Vriend was not tested by the defense. Terraneo led a low spade to the ace, and Maria Erhart won and returned the suit. Vriend now played a club to the ace and the C9 from dummy. Erhart hopped up with the CK and played the H10, Vriend won the ace, pulled trumps and claimed, conceding a heart. Plus 170 to the Dutch. West North East South Weigkricht Pasman Fischer Simons Pass 1H 2H (1) 4H Pass Pass Dble All Pass (1) Spades and a minor. Doris Fischer led the SK, taken by Jet Pasman with the ace. When Fischer came in with the trump ace, she cashed a high spade, led a club to partner's ace and took the setting trick by ruffing a diamond. Plus 200 and 1 IMP to Austria. Austria gained another 5 IMPs when Weigkricht and Fischer stopped in 2C, just making, on Board 6, while van der Pas and Vriend played in 3C, down one. Both teams missed an opportunity on this deal. Board 7. Both vul. Dealer South. S 5 H K Q 9 8 7 3 2 D K T 3 C J 3 S A K T 9 8 6 S Q J 7 3 H A 4 H - - D A 5 D J 9 6 4 C A K 7 C Q T 9 8 2 S 4 2 H J T 6 5 D Q 8 7 2 C 6 5 4 West North East South Weigkricht Pasman Fischer Simons - - - Pass 1C (1) 2H Dble Pass 2S Pass 4S Pass 5C Pass 5H Pass 6S All Pass (1) Strong. Fischer's double indicated some useful values, but the partnership could not work out that Fischer had a source of tricks in the five-card club holding. There was nothing to the play and Weigkricht easily scored up a disappointing plus 1460. West North East South Van der Pas Erhart Vriend Terraneo - - - Pass 2C 3H Pass Pass 3S Pass 4H Pass 6S All Pass Perhaps Vriend's pass of 3H convinced van der Pas that a grand slam was not likely, hence her leap to 6S. In fairness, the grand slam was not bid by anyone in the Orbis Venice Cup or the Orbis Bermuda Bowl, although Norway did earn a swing when Brazil sacrificed in 7H on the North-South cards and were beaten six tricks for minus 1700, a 6-IMP loss. After 10 boards in the Austria-Netherlands match, Austria led, 6-0. It was all Netherlands from there as they outscored their adversaries 16-0 over the final six boards. This deal featured a fine play by van der Pas to land a game contract. Board 12. N/S vul. Dealer West. S 8 5 4 3 2 H 9 8 2 D A J 3 C Q T S A J 6 S K 9 H T 6 H A K Q 3 D Q 8 7 6 2 D 9 4 C 7 4 2 C A J 9 8 6 S Q T 7 H J 7 5 4 D K T 5 C K 5 3 West North East South Weigkricht Pasman Fischer Simons Pass Pass 1NT All Pass Fischer came home with 11 tricks after Simons led a low heart. Plus 210 to Austria. West North East South Van der Pas Erhart Vriend Terraneo Pass Pass 1C Pass 1D Pass 1H Pass 1NT Pass 3NT All Pass Erhart led the S5, which went to the 9, queen and ace. When Van der Pas played the C2, Erhart put up the queen. Van der Pas won with the ace and considered her play for a few moments before calling for the jack, which drew cheers from the Netherlands supporters in the VuGraph audience. Terraneo won with the CK and, hoping partner had more substantial holding in diamonds -- perhaps A J 8 x -- put the D10 on the table. Van der Pas covered with the queen. Erhart won the ace and played back the DJ, overtaken by Terraneo with the king, surrendering the overtrick and 1 IMP in the process. That was 6 IMPs to the Netherlands. Another 4 IMPs went to the Netherlands on this deal. Board 14. None vul. Dealer East. S A 7 4 H A 4 2 D 9 7 6 C J 9 5 4 S Q 6 3 S K T 8 H K 9 7 6 H Q J T 8 3 D 8 5 4 D 2 C A 8 7 C Q T 6 3 S J 9 5 2 H 5 D A K Q J T 3 C K 2 West North East South Van der Pas Erhart Vriend Terraneo - - Pass 1S (1) Pass 1NT Pass 3D Pass 3NT All Pass (1) Canape. Vriend had a natural heart lead, and Erhart could do nothing but run the diamonds and hope for a discarding error from the Dutch. That didn't happen, and Erhart finished down one. West North East South Weigkricht Pasman Fischer Simons - - Pass 1D Pass 1NT 2H 3D 3H All Pass Simons started with the DA and DK, ruffed by Fischer. She played the HQ, ducked all around, and another heart. Pasman won with the HA and got out with a trump. Fischer then played a club to the ace and another back to her queen and Simons' king. Fischer still had a club and two spade tricks to lose, so she was minus 100 on the board -- 4 more IMPs to the Netherlands. The Netherlands gained 1 IMP in unusual fashion on the next-to-last deal. Board 15. N/S vul. Dealer South. S A Q T 9 5 H - - D Q 8 7 5 C K Q 9 5 S K J 7 4 S 6 2 H A Q J T 4 2 H 9 7 6 D 9 D A K J T 3 C T 6 C 8 7 3 S 8 3 H K 8 5 3 D 6 4 2 C A J 4 2 West North East South Van der Pas Erhart Vriend Terraneo - - - Pass 1H 1S 2H Pass 2S Dble 3D Pass 3H Pass 4H All Pass Erhart led the CK and continued with a club to Terraneo's ace. The spade switch went to the jack and queen. Erhart followed with the SA and the S10, ruffed with the 9 and overruffed with the king. Plus 100 to Austria. West North East South Weigkricht Pasman Fischer Simons - - - Pass 1S (1) Pass 1NT Pass 2H Dble Pass 2S All Pass (1) Canape. The meaning of the 2S bid is unclear, but South made the most of a defensive error to bring the contract home with an overtrick. Weigkricht led the D9, which was ducked all around! Had Fischer overtaken with the 10, she could have cashed two more rounds of diamonds, allowing Weigkricht to discard both her clubs. She could then ruff a club and play the HA. If declarer ruffed in dummy, she would have no way to return to hand to take a spade finesse, although she could make the contract by ruffing the DQ. West could overruff but would be forced to put South on lead with a heart or give declarer a free finesse in trumps. Another spade finesse would nail down eight tricks for declarer. If declarer refused to ruff the HA, she would go down. West could exit with the HQ to South's king and insert the SJ on the subsequent spade play to assure another trick. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Checkmate! The Orbis World Transnational Teams Championship is littered with stars, especially as many of the players eliminated in the Orbis Bermuda Bowl and Orbis Venice Cup have stayed on to take part. One of them is Canada's John Carruthers, who will be representing Canada in the Maastricht Olympiad later this year. Here he is in action, a well-judged auction being matched by an excellent piece of declarer play that, just as in a good game of chess, led to a neat endgame. Orbis World Transnational Teams Championship Round 4 Board 11. None vul. Dealer South. S K Q 8 6 2 H 3 D T 4 2 C A J 6 4 S J 9 7 S A T 4 3 H J T 9 2 H 7 6 5 4 D K J 8 5 D 9 3 C 9 3 C Q T 8 S 5 H A K Q 8 D A Q 7 6 C K 7 5 2 West North East South - Deaves - Carruthers - - - 1D Pass 1S Pass 2C Pass 3C Pass 3H Pass 4C Pass 5C All Pass West led the jack of hearts, taken by declarer's ace. A spade went to the queen and ace, and East switched to the nine of diamonds. Declarer went up with the ace and cashed the top hearts to get rid of the losing diamonds. The next move was to ruff the eight of hearts and cash the queen of spades, discarding a diamond from hand. A spade was ruffed with the five of clubs, and a diamond ruffed in dummy. A spade was ruffed with the king of clubs, and declarer played the queen of diamonds, discarding a spade from dummy. Like a good chess player, East resigned as he was forced to ruff and lead into the club tenace. John Carruthers thought a trump lead might beat Five Clubs, but there is a winning line. Declarer lets it run to the king and plays a spade. East wins and switches to a diamond. Declarer wins with the ace and cashes the hearts, discarding the losing diamonds. He can now get home on a crossruff, cashing the ace of clubs along the way, eventually, and neatly preserving the chess theme, scoring the seven of clubs en passant. At the other table, North-South failed in 3NT, so the swing was 10 IMPs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- OrbisVenice Cup - SF Session 6 Brazil v Norway Norway led by 10 IMPs going into the final set of their Orbis Bermuda Bowl semi-final against Brazil. The margin was unchanged seven boards into the set, but Chagas/Branco had to do well to flatten this board: Board 2. N/S vul. Dealer East. S 5 H K T 8 3 D 8 5 3 2 C A J 5 3 S 4 3 S 9 8 7 6 2 H A 6 4 2 H Q J 9 5 D K 7 6 4 D A T C Q 7 2 C 9 8 S A K Q J T H 7 D Q J 9 C K T 6 4 West North East South Campos Austberg Villas-Boas Helgemo - - Pass 1S Pass 1NT Pass 2C Pass 3C Pass 3D Pass 3NT All Pass West North East South Furunes Chagas Helness Branco - - 2D Pass 2H Pass Pass 2S Pass 2NT Pass 3NT All Pass As you can see, Helgemo/Austberg had a free run to Three No Trump. When East showed up with five spades, it was not too taxing to pick up the clubs without loss; +630. In the other room, the Two Diamond opening, weak with at least 4-4 in the majors, created a very different scenario for Chagas/Branco. Their agreements included a Two Spade overcall being take-out for the minors, so Marcelo Branco had to pass on the first round. When he bid Two Spades at his next turn, Gabriel Chagas did well to go on. Branco raised, of course, ending the auction. Board 8. None vul. Dealer West. S T 9 5 2 H A D J 6 C K Q J 9 8 6 S 3 S K Q J 8 7 6 H K J T 9 6 4 H 8 D A 9 7 D 5 4 3 C 5 3 2 C A T 4 S A 4 H Q 7 5 3 2 D K Q T 8 2 C 7 West North East South Campos Austberg Villas-Boas Helgemo 2H Dble Pass 3H Pass 3NT Dble 4D Dble All Pass West North East South Furunes Chagas Helness Branco 2H 3C Pass 3D Pass 3S Pass 3NT All Pass I much prefer Chagas's overcall to Erik Austberg's take-out double. Four Diamonds Doubled was not a pleasant experience for Geir Helgemo. He won the spade lead and played a club. Miguel Villas-Boas won and played two top spades. Helgemo ruffed high, while Joao Paolo Campos pitched two clubs. Helgemo played a diamond to the jack and another diamond to the queen and ace. Campos played a heart to dummy's bare ace and Helgemo tried to cash a club. Campos ruffed that and played king and another heart for Villas-Boas to ruff. When the smoke had cleared, Helgemo was three down for -500. Three No Trump was an interesting contract in the other room. John-Egil Furunes led the king of hearts, hoping to pick up a singleton queen in either dummy or his partner's hand. Dummy was no doubt a disappointment to him. Branco led a club to the king, ducked, and the jack of clubs to East's ace. Helness switched to a low spade, correct if someone had a bare ace. Fearing that West might win a spade honour and clear the hearts while still holding the ace of diamonds as a further entry, Branco rose with the ace of spades. Now he led a low diamond towards dummy. This was the key point of the hand. In practice, Furunes ducked and the jack scored. Branco could cash the clubs and play a diamond back; +400 and 14 IMPs to Brazil, who had taken the lead. Suppose, however, that Furunes rises with the ace of diamonds and returns a diamond. Declarer can win in either hand but has only eight tricks and will then be stranded in a hand full of losers. That would be down one. A couple of boards later, Helgemo/ Austberg had a bidding disaster when someone was clearly reading from the wrong page of the system file. They missed a vulnerable game and Brazil picked up a further 11 IMPs. Board 11. None vul. Dealer South. S 7 6 5 H K J 4 3 D K Q T 3 C Q 9 S Q J T 4 3 2 S A K H Q T H A 8 5 2 D J D 9 6 C K T 8 5 C J 7 6 4 3 S 9 8 H 9 7 6 D A 8 7 5 4 2 C A 2 West North East South Campos Austberg Villas-Boas Helgemo - - - Pass 2S Pass 2NT Pass 3C Pass 3D Pass 3S All Pass The weak two bid kept North/South out of the auction and Campos played a comfortable partscore. After a diamond lead and continuation, he picked the clubs correctly and made 11 tricks; +200. West North East South Furunes Chagas Helness Branco - - - Pass Pass 1D Pass 2D 2S Pass Pass 3D All Pass Furunes did not think the West hand fitted any of his options. Personally, I like Three Spades with that shape, but that's me. When he passed and then overcalled the inverted raise, he had not shown sufficient playing strength to encourage Helness to compete. Three Diamonds came down to a heart guess which was not really a guess. Helness cashed the top spades and switched to a low club. Chagas rose with the ace and played a trump to hand, ruffed his last spade and drew the missing trump. Then he exited with a club. Furunes won the king and switched to the queen of hearts. That was covered by the king and ace and Helness played back a heart. Chagas played low, of course, and made his contract; +110 and 7 IMPs to Brazil. The point is that had Helness held the ace, ten of hearts, he would just have ducked the king. The good news for Norway was that there were some big boards to come. The bad news was that they were far enough behind to need at least two big swings to turn the match around. Board 12. N/S vul. Dealer West. S 9 5 H K Q 8 6 3 D Q 3 C K 8 7 2 S Q T 8 7 S A K J 6 4 3 2 H J 7 4 2 H - - D T 9 7 4 D A J 5 2 C 5 C A 9 S - - H A T 9 5 D K 8 6 C Q J T 6 4 3 West North East South Campos Austberg Villas-Boas Helgemo Pass Pass 1S 2C 3S Dble 4C Pass 4S 5C 5S Pass Pass Dble All Pass Austberg seems to have made a pointcount double. How could his opponents make 11 tricks after South had overcalled? He was right; they couldn't make 11 tricks, they were cold for 12. That was +750 for Brazil. West North East South Furunes Chagas Helness Branco Pass Pass 2C Dble Pass 4C 4S 5C 5S Pass 6S All Pass Helness decided that he should open his side's big bid. When Furunes could compete to Five Spades, he bid the slam; +980 and 6 IMPs to Norway. Board 13. Both vul. Dealer North. S 9 6 3 2 H T 5 3 D K T 8 5 C J 8 S K Q 5 S A J T H K Q 7 H A 9 6 4 2 D J 4 3 2 D - - C T 7 6 C A K 4 3 2 S 8 7 4 H J 8 D A Q 9 7 6 C Q 9 5 West North East South Campos Austberg Villas-Boas Helgemo - Pass 1H Pass 1S Pass 3C Pass 3H Pass 3S Pass 4C Pass 4D Dble Pass Pass Rdbl Pass 4H All Pass West North East South Furunes Chagas Helness Branco - Pass 1H Pass 2D Pass 3C Pass 4H All Pass Both East/Wests missed a great chance. Slam is little better than two 3-2 breaks, but once you start on a slam hunt it looks quite attractive to bid it. Consider the Brazilian auction. Villas-Boas had shown a game-force opposite a forcing no trump response. He had then shown short diamonds. Does the West hand not look pretty good now, with two honours in partner's first suit and only one wasted jack? Meanwhile, Furunes made a two-over-one response and Helness also forced to game. Furunes thought that he had a minimum and so jumped to Four Hearts. Helness was not close to bidding on. After the hand, he appeared to be suggesting to Furunes that he might have bid the West hand differently. No swing at +680. Board 14. None vul. Dealer East. S A Q 9 H 4 2 D K Q 7 6 5 3 2 C 6 S 8 6 4 S K 5 3 H K T 8 H A Q 7 6 D J T D 9 4 C A K Q J 7 C 9 8 4 3 S J T 7 2 H J 9 5 3 D A 8 C T 5 2 West North East South Campos Austberg Villas-Boas Helgemo - - Pass Pass 1C 3D Dble Pass 3H All Pass The defense took two diamonds and switched to spades. Campos did not guess the hearts so was one down; -50. West North East South Furunes Chagas Helness Branco - - Pass Pass 1NT 3D Dble Pass 4C All Pass The Norwegians were probably on their way toThree NoTrump after Furunes' opening bid, but the Three Diamond overcall saved them. Double was for take-out and Furunes bid his solid suit rather than dabble with a three-card heart bid, which would have at least kept Three No Trump in the picture. Chagas led the diamond king and Branco overtook and returned the suit. Chagas exited passively with his trump. Furunes won and cashed a second trump. Then he led a spade to the king, cashed the ace of hearts, and played a heart to the ten. He drew the last trump, unblocked the heart, and crossed to the nine of clubs to take a pitch on the heart queen; +130 and 5 IMPs to Norway. Brazil led by 12.5 IMPs but the last two deals both featured possible slams. Board 15. N/S vul. Dealer South. S J 7 2 H 7 4 3 D 9 6 4 2 C A 7 6 S K 8 5 3 S A Q 9 6 4 H A J T 9 H 6 D 7 D A K 8 C Q J 4 3 C K 9 8 2 S T H K Q 8 5 2 D Q J T 5 3 C T 5 West North East South Campos Austberg Villas-Boas Helgemo - - - Pass 1C Pass 1S Pass 2S Pass 3C Pass 3H Pass 4D Pass 4S Pass 4NT Pass 5H Pass 6S All Pass West North East South Furunes Chagas Helness Branco - - - Pass 1C Pass 1S Pass 2S Pass 3H (1) Pass 4D Pass 4NT Pass 5H Pass 6S All Pass (1) Short-suit try Both pairs bid smoothly to the slam for a push at 980. Board 16. E/W vul. Dealer West. S 9 4 H K Q T 5 3 D J 8 2 C J 6 4 S Q 6 3 S A K T 8 7 5 H A J 8 H 9 2 D K 9 4 D A Q 3 C A K 7 5 C T 8 S J 2 H 7 6 4 D T 7 6 5 C Q 9 3 2 And both East/West pairs got to slam on this one as well. Furunes must have aged ten years as he attempted to remember his system. He opened a strong no trump and Helness bid Stayman then followed up with Three Clubs, a shape enquiry. Furunes bid Three NoTrump, showing 4-3-3-3 with a four-card minor, and Helness bid Four Spades. Helness was very confident that this showed a slam try in spades, but Furunes put his head in his hands, sat up and thought, put his head back in his hands, and repeated this procedure for about 15 minutes. Finally he bid Five Clubs. When the tray reached Helness, he took about half a second to jump to the cold slam, saving his partner from any more torture. Campos/Villas-Boas got there without any of the agony suffered by Furunes to flatten the board. Brazil had won the match by 137.5-125 IMPs. Not only were they in the final, but they had exorcised the ghosts of 1993 in Santiago, when they had lost the Bermuda Bowl semifinal on the very last board against Norway. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- L'équipe de France Open AXA Philippe Cronier Capitaine non joueur Champion d'Europe, journaliste, écrivain, directeur pédagogique de l'Université du bridge, le capitaine de l'équipe Open conjugue le bridge à tous les modes. Albert Britran Professeur de mathématiques dans un collège de Ouistreham, ce normand de 48 ans, végétarien, a la réputation de déstabiliser ses adversaires avec le sourire... Marc Bompis Les championnats du monde lui vont bien: le titre aux Olympiades en 1996 et une médaille d'argent en mixte par paires avec Claude Blouquit en 1998. Très connu des bridgeurs parisiens, il anime l'un des clubs les plus prestigieux de la capitale. Christian Mari Il partage son temps entre ses recherches sur le bridge, plus particulièrement sur les enchères, et de longues balades avec ses chiens dans la campagne picarde. Côté palmarès, il fait partie des joueurs français les plus titrés: deux Olympiades (1980 et 1996) et une Bermuda Bowl (1997). Franck Multon A 35 ans compte déjà une Olympiade et une Bermuda Bowl a son palmarès. Animateur dans un club de bridge à Nice, il partage avec Catherine, vice-championne d'Europe par paires dames, sa partenaire à la ville comme à la table, la même passion du bridge, ensemble ils ont gagné de nombreuses compétitions. Thierry de Sainte Marie Plusieurs sélections en équipe de France (1977, 1979), de nombreux titres nationaux à son actif, et un retour chez les Tricolores marqué par une qualification pour la Bermuda Bowl. Jean-Michel Voldoire Première apparition chez les Bleus à Malte. La plus grande qualité de ce consultant en informatique a été de s'adapter au "style" de son partenaire. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- L'équipe de France Féminine-Louis Vuitton Alain Lévy Capitaine non joueur. Golf et bowling sont les loisirs préférés du capitaine français. Enseignant de bridge, il est aussi l'un des entraîneurs les plus demandés: la Tunisie a déjà fait appel à lui pour son équipe nationale. Côté palmarès: deux Olympiades et une Bermuda Bowl ! Bénédicte Cronier Double championne d'Europe, vice-championne du Monde, cette nantaise est "montée à Paris" pour devenir l'une des meilleures joueuses française. Christine Lustin Enseignante de bridge, la benjamine de l'équipe a déjà gagné l'argent et le bronze aux deux derniers championnats d'Europe par équipes, tentera de compléter sa collection aux Bermudes... Danièle Avon Elle a découvert le bridge à l'âge de 8 ans. De nombreuses sélections en équipe nationale ne l'ont pas empêché de mener une carrière d'ingénieur chez IBM. Aujourd'hui en préretraite, elle préside toujours le club de bridge de son entreprise. Elle a récolté des médailles de bronze aux Olympiades 1992 et à l'Euro par équipes en 1999. Véronique Bessis Première joueuse française quadruple championne d'Europe, un mari, Michel, champion de... bridge et deux fils, Thomas et Olivier, membres de l'équipe de France des moins de 20 ans: c'est de famille ! Catherine d'Ovidio Elle s'est initié au bridge au club "Le Raincy" à Villemonble, club qui a vu également débuter un certain Michel Perron. Voilà de quoi donner de l'inspiration à cette double championne d'Europe considérée comme l'une des jouerses les plus douées de sa génération. Sylvie Willard Fille de qui vous savez, (Iréné de Hérédia, le père de l'arbitrage en France), femme de qui vous savez (François Willard, arbitre international) elle a su se faire un prénom... avec quatre titres européens à la clé. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Golden Anniversary Dinner One of the highlights of any World Bridge Championship is the President's Dinner. That was especially true of the one hosted by José Damiani, the President of the World Bridge Federation at these Orbis World Bridge Championships. A presentation to past winners of the Bermuda Bowl was one of many highlights. There were other presentations to some of the distinguished guests. This was José Damiani's speech: This time the traditional President's dinner has fallen on the occasion of the 2000 Orbis World Championships, which is the first event to be held under our new status of International Sports Federation. Thanks to the marvellous hospitality of the Bermuda Government and the Bermuda Bridge Federation, we have been able to offer you a magnificent tournament here in Bermuda. We would like to acknowledge our gratitude to both of them, and I am absolutely delighted to call: - The Honourable Alex Scott,Acting Minister of Tourism, to receive the gold medal of the WBF. - The President of the Bermuda Bridge Federation, Sheena Rayner, to receive the plaque of the WBF. - And Edna Clay, who really has done a great job in liaison between the BBF and Orbis, together with their Tournament Committee: John Hoskins, Jack Rhind, Barbara Huntington and Tony Saunders. Indeed, quite clearly there is another partner who has given our sport enormous support, and that is Orbis Investment Management Limited group. I am very happy to ask Mrs. Allan Gray, wife of the Chief Executive Officer of Orbis Investment Management Limited to come up and receive our plaque, which is presented with our sincere gratitude. In celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Bermuda Bowl, which in the course of this time has actually been held on 33 occasions (this one is the 34th), we recall that after the first win in 1950 the U.S. retained the Bowl 14 times and Italy 13 -- a truly formidable record. Despite the domination of these two countries, there are other Federations whose names appear on the Roll of Honour -- France has won twice, Great Britain, Brazil, Iceland and The Netherlands once each. Among the players, the undoubted record belongs to Giorgio Belladonna, who played for the Italian team on all 13 occasions and was also runner-up on many other occasions. Pietro Forquet won 12 times, Benito Garozzo 10, and other members of the famous Blue Team also won many times. Our current number-one ranked player, Bob Hamman, together with our Past-President Bobby Wolff, won the event seven times. We are lucky enough to have them both with us tonight as well as many past winners: Chip Marte, Lew Stansby and Eric Rodwell, who each won twice, Marcelo Branco, Gabriel Chagas, Dano de Falco, Dick Freeman, Ricardo Janz, Bobby Levin, Alain Lévy, Michael Becker, Roberto de Mello, Franck Multon -- they all deserve a big hand -- please stand up. We have in the Championships some other past winners who are playing but unfortunately not here -- Paul Soloway, who won three times, Jeff Meckstroth twice and Christian Mari and Nick Nickell once. Many other winners will be competing in the Orbis World Transnational Teams Championship. Paul Chemla, Michel Perron, Hervé Mouiel, Malcolm Brachman, Mike Passell, Peter Weichsel, Alan Sontag, Fred Hamilton, Enri Leufkens and in pride of place, five-time winner, Billy Eisenberg. And we will have some thoughts for all the former winners who make this game so attractive. Champions, thi s is clearly your dinner and I would like to thank your leader, Bob Hamman, for saying a few words. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- INVESTING IS OUR STRONG SUIT A daily column on investing by Orbis Investment Management Limited You may meet a senior representative from Orbis Investment Management Limited at the hotel. To make an appointment please contact the hospitality desk or call the Churchill Suite, room phone: 7554. Building a portfolio This article will discuss the structured approach investors take when building a portfolio of securities. Before we start however, it is important to explain why the topic "building a portfolio" deserves any attention. A simple approach to building a portfolio is to select those securities that are expected to offer attractive returns and invest in each based on the size of the expected returns. Unfortunately portfolio construction is not this simple. T he simple approach largely ignores potential risk when constructing the portfolio. It turns out that if both risk and return are considered at the same time, a portfolio can be produced that will offer a much higher expected return for a given level of risk than could have been achieved by simply concentrating on returns. To manage the consideration of risk and return, portfolio construction is frequently broken down into two steps. Asset allocation The first step, known as asset allocation, considers the risks and returns of potential asset classes and selects appropriate weights for each asset class. For example, a very conservative investor might distribute his portfolio 20% in cash, 50% in bonds and 30% in equities. In contrast, an investor who is prepared to take much more risk might have an asset allocation that placed more weight in equities for example 5% cash, 25% bonds, and 70% equities. The appropriate allocation between asset classes depends on the given investor's risk tolerance, his return requirement, the expected returns of each asset class, the risk or volatility of each asset class and a measure of how much the different asset classes move together. The portfolio manager takes all this information and uses it to construct an optimal asset allocation for that investor. This would be a huge amount of data if not reduced to asset classes first. For a portfolio of 50 securities there are 1,225 correlations between the individual securities. Sophisticated computing techniques help to calculate the best asset allocation. Usually, the portfolio manager combines the results of quadratic optimization with data that reflect additional investor constraints, the liquidity requirements of the portfolio and the status of the current portfolio if this already exists. Security Selection Once capital has been allocated to each asset class, the portfolio manager then takes the second step of selecting individual investments from within each asset class. Again the manager needs to allow for return, risk, liquidity, and investor constraints when making this selection. The aim of this process is the same as that in the first step, namely to generate the maximum return for the portfolio for a given level of risk. Alternative Portfolio Construction Methods It is entirely valid to construct a portfolio without going through the asset allocation step. A manager could simply take a wide range of different investments and select weights for those investments that produced an optimal portfolio. This has the advantage of allowing all risk and return information to be considered at once which, in theory, should produce a portfolio that is superior to that resulting from the two step construction process. In practice, however, this approach requires very high quality data that is not normally available. Diversification-when and how far to spread your risk So we have seen that diversification can be used to improve the returns of a portfolio for a specific level of risk. However there are limits to the benefits of diversification. The most significant is that the risk reduction gained by diversification declines as the number of investments in the portfolio increases. For example, a portfolio that increases its number of holdings from 10 to 20 investments experiences a significant decline in risk (assuming the investments have the same volatility and are uncorrelated). Not only does the impact of each incremental holding diminish, it also becomes difficult to find new investments that do not share some similarity of returns with the ones already held. A portfolio that increases the number of its holdings from 90 to 100 should not expect its market risk to decline by very much at all. ======================================================================