Age is beauty … and slowness

By Ib Lundby

Earlier Peter Schaltz was known as a very fast player. I remember a match in the European Championships in Elsinore back in 1977, where Peter and his cousin Knud-Aage Boesgaard played 16 hands against Kreijns in less than one hour!
Apparently things has changed. In Denmarks' match versus France I observed that Peter after a hand asked his wife to slow down a little: "I am not able to think in that tempo, dear!"
Against Poland it took Peter almost 20 minutes to get his nine tricks in a "very easy" 3NT:

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

West	North	East	South
	Dorthe		Peter
		Pass	1©
Pass	1ª	Pass	2§
Pass	2¨	Pass	2NT
Pass	3ª	Pass	3NT
All Pass

In the closed room the lead was the §K, and declarer had an easy task, but Peter got a diamond lead which creates communication problems. I think the best plan is to win in dummy and play the ©10, but after long thought Peter decided to go for the spades 3-3 or 4-2 thereby planning to take four spades, two hearts and three diamond tricks. He therefore won the first trick with the ¨Q and played a spade to the king. Next the ªQ went to the ace, and the hand looked to be over, but …
The Polish West presented a kind of a Greek gift by shifting to a low heart. In that way the number of heart tricks increased from two to three, but Peter could get only one of them as dummy otherwise would be squeezed.
Instead Peter had to go for a club trick, so he won with the ©J and played a club towards dummy. As West had both honours there were no more problems, and he could have succeeded with other club distributions, but we have to discuss that at another occasion because of time problems Peter has already put the next board on the table and closed the screen.

Versace 3NT Revisited

By Maureen Dennison

Against the Netherlands, Giancarlo Zucchini of Liechtenstein, sitting West, was also faced with the problem of garnering nine tricks on Board 8 from Round 10. With no interference he and his partner Piero Fornaro, bid the hand, 1¨ -1ª - 2NT- 3§ - 3© - 3ª - 3NT.

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

North, Gert-Jan Paulissen, also led a small diamond round to the jack. Declarer led a heart to the nine and the next trick was §J - four(!) five, ace. Now declarer has nine tricks but, when North exited with his second heart, Declarer could not unscramble the club blockage to reach them. He found an elegant solution. He took the heart on the table and led a low club to the queen and his king. He now cashed his last two hearts, which put North under pressure. Paulissen threw the six and then queen of spades and dummy a low spade. Next West led ª2 to ten and five. South overtook to lead a diamond through. However, Zucchini rose with the ace, overtook the club nine with the ten and threw North on lead with §8. North had to lead from ¨K8 into declarer's ¨Q4!

She just established her hearts!

By Svend Novrup

You think you have seen it all, and yet .... Even having directed for many years there will always be something new waiting for you. Take a look at this board from Denmark - Russia Ladies -Round 4:

Board 3. Dealer South. E/W Vul.
	ª 8 6 5 4 © K ¨ K Q 9 5 3 § K J 2
ª A K Q © 9 8 4 2 ¨ A 7 § Q 9 5 3		ª J 10 9 7 3 2 © 7 5 3 ¨ 10 8 6 § A
	ª - © A Q J 10 6 ¨ J 4 2 § 10 8 7 6 4

West	North	East	South
			2©
2NT	Pass	3©	Dble
3ª	All Pass

2xh showed five hearts and a minor suit. 3© was transfer. North led ©K, East tabled her hand - and South started to do the same, displaying her five hearts before she was stopped.
Director!!
This was really something for the directors so in a short time there were no less than four, discussing the problem.
West was told that she could nominate the card which South should play to trick one and that all the remaining hearts would be penalty cards. OK, she asked South to follow with ©Q, and North switched to a neutral club. West cashed her three top trumps, entered dummy with a club ruff to draw the last trump from North and in the meantime South had been forced to follow with her penalty cards establishing declarer's hearts! With six spades, three hearts, and two aces she made 11 tricks and 200. In addition she had a good story.
How did you make eleven tricks in spades on board 3?
Well, I just established my hearts!

Morton's Fork - A New Look

We tend to think of the well known Morton's Fork as a device used by declarer. This is the definition from the Official Encyclopaedia of Bridge:
The Morton's Fork Coup is a maneuver by which declarer presents a defender with a choice of taking a trick cheaply, or ducking to preserve an honor combination, either decision costing the defense a trick. If the defender wins the trick, he sets up an extra high card in the suit, while if he ducks, his winner disappears because declarer has a discard possibility. The name is derived from an episode in English history. Cardinal Morton, Chancellor under King Henry VII, habitually extracted taxes from wealthy London merchants for the royal treasury. His approach was that if the merchants lived ostentatiously, they obviously had sufficient income to spare for the king. Alternatively, if they lived frugally, they must have substantial savings and could therefore afford to contribute to the king's coffers. In either case they were impaled on "Morton's Fork".

However on this deal from the Women's match between Austria and Israel one of the players found herself impaled during the bidding:

Board 15. Dealer South. N/S Vul.
	ª Q 10 9 5 4 2 © K ¨ A Q 4 § 9 7 2
ª 8 7 6 © A 9 7 2 ¨ J 5 2 § A J 4		ª J 3 © Q J 10 8 5 4 3 ¨ - § Q 10 8 6
	ª A K © 6 ¨ K 10 9 8 7 6 3 § K 5 3

West	North	East	South
Smederevac	Levit-Porat	Erhart	Zur-Campanila
			1¨
Pass	1ª	3©	Pass
4©	4ª	Pass	4NT*
5§	Pass*	5¨	Dble
Pass	?

What could poor North do?
If she bid Five Spades the defenders would undoubtedly double and their brilliant defensive bidding would pinpoint the way to collect the maximum - club lead, diamond ruff, club, club, diamond ruff and heart for +800.
On the other hand North could pass and as actually happened at the table watch East collect +650 by avoiding a heart finesse.
At the other table a less revealing auction saw Austria record +650 when East led a heart against Five Spades and West did not find the diamond switch.