Hi all
Last Thursday at Dombo Sjoerd and I agreed to play something Fantunes-ish. For those who are not familiar with the (surprisingly natural) Italian system: all 1-level openings are 13+ hcp and forcing for 1 round, all 2-level openings are natural, 5+ card suit with 9-12 hcp. Constructive all the way. There were some gadgets and tricks involved, but 20 minutes of system talk is hardly enough to discuss every implication of a forcing NT, let alone all the inversions and transfers that Fantoni and Nunes play together.
Here’s a 3NT:
Sjoerd (North) opened 2
showing a 5+ card suit, 9-12 hcp. I looked for a 
fit and ended up in 3NT. I liked my King a lot, otherwise an invite on a not so special 12 count is frivolous at best. I was spared a 
lead, West led a small . Plan the play!
Source of tricks: . Three can be developed there, but the defence will surely shift to when they see the massive NS holding. Put some smoke up, try to obscure things.
Let the lead run to your Queen, now play a small to the 8. East takes it and will try to clear partner’s suit. Now play a from dummy and you will probably have enough information to do the right thing. I think tackling the suit this way obscures things best for EW. But you have to hope West doesn’t (or can’t) rise on the small , because West can see there is no future in .
So the plan above will probably work out. My plan was a shade different, but along the line I took a wrong guess and went off.
What about the system? I like it a lot, a very natural touch, but with a robust relaying engine and enough gadgets to keep my convention hunger satisfied. Feel free to drop me a line (see the “About me..” page) if you have any suggestions, or if you are just interested in developing/following something fun and working.