A Switch in Time

Did you pass this difficult defensive problem from the second session of the Open?

Board 20. Dealer West. East/West Vul
	ª J 10 8 6 5 © 5 ¨ Q 10 7 4 § K 7 4
ª A Q 7 © K Q 7 3 ¨ 9 § A Q 6 5 3

West	North	East	South
	Smederevac		Wernle
1§	Pass	1¨	Pass
1©	Pass	2NT	Pass
3NT	All Pass

Your partner leads a low heart and declarer wins in hand with the ace and plays the ten of clubs for the jack, queen and your king. It is clearly right to switch to a diamond and most North's looked no further than the queen. Declarer is now faced with a problem but if you accept that it is unlikely that North would risk underleading the ace of diamonds at this point then the correct play is to duck, intending to cover the next card if it is an honour, or otherwise put in the eight. However, where East elected to cover the queen South won with the ace and being uncertain of the location of the ten of diamonds, switched with fatal consequences, as you can see from the full deal:

	ª J 10 8 6 5 © 5 ¨ Q 10 7 4 § K 7 4
ª A Q 7 © K Q 7 3 ¨ 9 § A Q 6 5 3		ª K 4 2 © A J 6 ¨ K 8 5 3 § 10 9 2
	ª 9 3 © 10 9 8 4 2 ¨ A J 6 2 § J 8

At our featured table, North switched to the ten of diamonds. When declarer made the greedy play of putting up the king, South took the ace and returned a low diamond to North's queen. A further diamond meant one down.

Patrick Grenthe , playing with Michel Duguet , for France led the field after the first qualifying session and you can see from his dummy play on next board that this was not due to luck but skill

Board 11 dealer South None .
ª AK104 © A64 ¨ KQJ § 842		ª QJ963 © 85 ¨ 876 § AQ7

West	North	East	South
1 NT	Pass	2 ©	3 ©* Pass
4 ©	Pass	Pass	4 ª
All Pass

The lead was the Jack of Hearts to the Ace, declarer drew three rounds of trumps -North showing three .Then a Diamond was played taken by South , who played the 10 of Hearts overtaken by North 's Queen:
Now came back the 10 of Clubs East took immediately with the Ace.Declarer cashed his two high Diamonds, North following.

As Patrick ,you have all the clues: North 's exact distribution is known to be 3-6-3-1. So declarer played confidently the third Heart and discarded a club waiting for the forecasted ruff and discard.

North had ª 872 © KQ9732 ¨ 954 §10

You may like or not the two hearts bid !

Someone tried to point out that North who have done much better by playing a third round of Hearts instead of the 10 of Clubs ! North good enough , East ruffs plays his Diamonds , gets the count and now plays a Club letting North's 10 hold .Defence has no good answer

Moyse Lives On

Alphonse Moyse was responsible for popularising the idea of playing in a 4-3 fit. He would have enjoyed this deal from the first session:

Board 17. Dealer North. None Vul
	ª J 4 © A K Q 10 7 ¨ J 3 2 § 9 8 4
ª K Q 7 5 © 3 2 ¨ 7 § A K J 10 7 3		ª A 9 2 © 9 6 5 4 ¨ A K 6 4 § Q 2
	ª 10 8 6 3 © J 8 ¨ Q 10 9 8 5 § 6 5

West	North	East	South
Wernle		Smederevac
	1©	Pass	Pass
Dbl	Pass	2¨	Pass
3§	Pass	3©	Pass
3ª	Pass	4ª	All Pass

Facing a protective double Jovi Smederevac was not about to get carried away but once her partner showed a decent hand she pressed on to game.
North attacked with three rounds of hearts and declarer ruffed and took two rounds of clubs followed by the ace and king of spades. Now he simply played on clubs. South could ruff but had no effective continuation.
With most of the field making only eleven tricks in clubs +420 produced a very handy score.

Par Contract

Few pairs reached the best spot of Six Notrumps by East on this deal from the first session. Unluckily for my partnership one of the successful pairs was Torelli (West) and Colletta of Italy, our opponents in the Senior Pairs:

Session 1 Board 25. Dealer North. East/West Vul.
	ª A 3 © J 10 7 2 ¨ Q 7 5 3 2 § Q 6
ª K 10 © 6 ¨ K 10 § A K 9 7 5 4 3 2		ª Q 9 2 © A Q 9 5 3 ¨ A 8 § J 10 8
	ª J 8 7 6 5 4 © K 8 4 ¨ J 9 6 4 § -

West	North	East	South
Torelli	Hirst	Colletta	Jourdain
	Pass	1©	2ª
3§	3ª	3NT	Pass
4§	Pass	4¨	Pass
4ª	Pass	4NT	Pass
6NT	All Pass

Four Clubs was a slam try setting the suit. 4¨ and 4ª were alerted as cue-bids showing first or second round control, and Four Notrumps was what might be called "Rolling". Torelli, confident the clubs were coming in, went for the big prize and collected virtually all the matchpoints for Six Notrumps despite the spade lead to the ace.
Note that Six Notrumps by West can be beaten by a heart lead from North.

Seniors can be Squeezed

Board 26. Dealer East. All Vul
	ª A 3 2 © K 4 3 ¨ J 10 8 7 4 § Q J
ª K 9 6 4 © 10 9 5 ¨ A K Q 3 § K 2		ª J 5 © J 6 ¨ 9 2 § 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
	ª Q 10 8 7 © A Q 8 7 2 ¨ 6 5 § A 10

West	North	East	South
	Rand		Romik
		Pass	1©
Dbl	4©	All Pass

West cashed two top diamonds and switched to a trump. Declarer took the ace and queen and crossed to dummy with the king of hearts. He now played the jack of diamonds discarding a spade from hand. West could not play a black suit so he exited with a diamond. Now declarer could cash two diamonds, pitching a spades and a club, cross to hand with the ace of clubs and play his remaining trumps, squeezing West in the black suits.

Patrick Jourdain reported this same deal in the Senior pairs.
Three Hearts was a popular contract and often made ten tricks with some help from the defence. However, Blasius Gyorffy of Germany managed the result despite accurate defence from Polec of Poland in the Senior Pairs:

West	North	East	South
Polec	Chmelik	Gyorffy	Sycz
		Pass	1©
Dble	Redble	2§	Pass
Pass	2¨	Pass	2©
Pass	3©	All Pass

West led a top diamond but at once switched to a trump. Declarer won in hand and played a second diamond. West won and played a second trump. Declarer won the third trump in dummy, and played the jack of diamonds, discarding a spade. West correctly exited passively with a diamond, but declarer cashed the two diamonds throwing a club and a spade, came to hand with the club, and played the remaining trumps to squeeze West.