Russia Next! Venice Cup, Lyon, Day 8

The Venice Cup has reached the quarter-final stages and we have been drawn to play against Russia in a match which is due to last 96 boards.  

The round-robin came to its conclusion yesterday.   On the final board of each match, there was potential for a very large swing with East/West having to bid the following cards:

♠ K ♥ A K Q J 5 ♦ A J 5 3 ♣ Q 5 3		♠ A Q J 9 3 2 ♥ 4 3 ♦ Q 9 6 2 ♣ A

A grand slam was available in spades and the difficulty in the auction was to avoid the 4-4 diamond fit.   If England could produce a swing in against the Poles and USA I gain in their match, it was possible for the Americans to qualify.   When the dust settled, however, the necessary swings had not materialised.   As had been looking likely for some time, the two finalists from Chennai, 2015 (France and USA I) had failed to progress to the knock-out stages.

With the top eight teams qualifying, here is the final table:

1	SWEDEN	288.19
2	CHINA	279.51
3	RUSSIA	269.68
4	INDONESIA	263.50
5	ISRAEL	257.86
6	ENGLAND	256.46
7	NETHERLANDS	256.37
8	POLAND	245.05
9	USA1	233.91
10	ITALY	224.23
11	FRANCE	213.82
12	ARGENTINA	204.39
13	AUSTRALIA	202.07
14	BRAZIL	194.02
15	USA2	190.25
16	EGYPT	189.39
17	CHINESE TAIPEI	181.85
18	NEW ZEALAND	171.75
19	MOROCCO	161.54
20	CANADA	122.75
21	INDIA	114.35
22	JORDAN	94.56

For the quarter-finals, Sweden had choice of opponents from those finishing 5th - 8th, opting for Israel.   China selected the Netherlands and Russia chose us.   Then, the Swedes, as the first-placed team were invited to select their potential semi-final opponents and, by so doing, the draw was complete.  Here it is:

1)   Sweden    versus    Israel                                                    2)  Russia     versus   England

3)   China       versus    Netherlands                                          4) Indonesia  versus  Poland

In the semi-finals, the winners of (1) will play the winners of (2).

It will be possible to follow proceedings on BBO.