Many declarers were heartbroken on this deal from the final session of the Pairs Championships, but at least one took his chance - whilst another missed his.

Board 20. Dealer West. All Vul.
	ª Q 9 © A 10 6 4 3 ¨ A Q § K 9 7 2
ª 10 5 3 © 5 ¨ J 10 7 5 4 § Q 10 6 3		ª 4 2 © J 9 7 2 ¨ K 9 8 § A 8 5 4
	ª A K J 8 7 6 © K Q 8 ¨ 6 3 2 § J

West	North	East	South
	Gotard		Gotard
Pass	1©	Pass	2ª
Pass	2NT	Pass	3©
Pass	3ª	Pass	4§
Pass	4¨	Pass	4NT
Pass	5©	Pass	6©
Pass	6NT	All Pass

The German pair had a controlled auction to the excellent 6NT played by North. With a difficult lead, East decided to try the four of clubs, and suddenly declarer had a chance to overcome the bad heart break. Thomas Gotard won the first trick with the king of clubs and cashed the king and queen of hearts getting the bad news.

He now turned his attention to the spade suit and with everyone down to five cards this was the position:

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

When declarer played the last spade, discarding the six of hearts from hand, East had no good discard. Either red suit would allow declarer to score three tricks, and the ace of clubs would allow declarer the luxury of an end play in either red suit.

Surprisingly +1440 proved to be a top for North-South!

At another table one North/South pair did remarkably well to reach Six Spades from the short side - but Nevena Senior found the only lead to give the defence a chance by selecting a trump.

In practice declarer did not find a winning line, but one is available! It relies on the not unreasonable premise that the passive lead suggests that East was faced by an awkward choice at trick one. Suppose you take the simple view of drawing trumps and going after the hearts. When the bad break is revealed you set up a long heart and play some spade winners. Retaining one spade you go to dummy with the ace of diamonds and cash the long heart to get rid of your losing club. There are various variations depending on what East/West discard, but this is one possible ending:

	ª - © - ¨ Q § K 9
ª - © - ¨ J 10 § Q		ª - © - ¨ K § A 8
	ª 8 © - ¨ 6 3 § -

Declarer now plays the king of clubs, ruffs East's ace and exits with a diamond, forcing East to give the last trick to the nine of clubs.

If East keeps an extra diamond, at the point you play the fourth heart from dummy you simply discard your losing club from hand and East is endplayed, having to lead into the diamond tenace or away from the ace of clubs.

A Matter of Style

Israel's Hanna Shezifi is a former 800 metres champion, who showed on this deal that she is also pretty nifty at the bridge table:

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

West	North	East	South
Rand		Shezifi
		Pass	1ª
Dbl	4ª	5©	Dbl
All Pass

Only a club lead will defeat Five Hearts, but South had no reason to do anything other than lead a top spade. Declarer could win with the ace and run the eight of hearts. There was no way South could take more than one heart and one spade.

Should North have mentioned the clubs? There will always be time to raise spades later, and if the opponents go on to Five Hearts partner will have a better idea of what to do next.

TROUBLE WITH SLAMS

Catherine d'Ovidio and Paul Chemla finished at an honorable fifth place in the Pairs event they might have been on the podium for the third time-after winning the first edition in Bordeaux in 1990- had it been two unsuccessful slam hands on the last day

Right idea, Wrong contract

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

One can see that the slam in spade or no-trump is a 50 % proposition and wins. Very few pairs reached it. Catherine and Paul seemed on right track.

North opened Two Clubs - strong any distribution- Two Diamonds by South was a relay.

Two Spades by North showed five cards and 20 HCP .South bid Two No-Trumps , ambiguous but forcing .North bid Three No-Trumps .Now South came in with an advanced cue-bid , in her sense , of Four Diamonds .Chemla had an another view and passed.

This was not a great success , minus 300 instead of plus 1430.

North thought that South good hold something has ª ---- © xxx ¨ Qxxxxx § xxxx

You will be the judge

Good technique does not earn dividends

Our star pair had another disappointing result on next board, hide East West hand before deciding how you play Six Clubs from South on the King of Spades lead

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

Not a good slam , at first glance it is a 25 % proposition finding either queen and jack iof heart on side or ace and queen of diamond.

Pure guess ? Catherine d'Ovidio knew better , unfortunately for her, she took one round of trump and played ace and king of heart , with the first chance to find somebody with queen , jack of heart bare or third before taking the right view in diamond …In fact, the best would have been to play, FIRST, a diamond to the jack and when West takes the ace , declarer can revert to the double finesse in heart .Of course , a competent declarer would have ducked smoothly the jack of diamond. Anyhow, the contract went down one and the French pair had to say farewell to any medal.

The Lighter Side

No-one has ever pretended that bridge is an easy game, but it sometimes happens that the players contrive to make it look impossible. Take a look at this deal from Round 2.

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

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

This was not exactly the optimum contract, but declarer did make all the tricks, as North, who could hardly credit East with ace of hearts as well as eight solid diamonds, discarded the king of hearts.

Facing an opening bid - although the West hand scarcely qualifies for that description - you might expect East to be in Six Diamonds rather than three. On the surface a club lead appears to leave declarer with no hope, but there is a solution. Recalling the edict of the late Harrison Gray, East should win at once and play out the long suit. At the end this sort of position will be reached:

	ª Q © K 8 ¨ - § Q J
ª A © Q 10 ¨ - § 7 6		ª 10 © A 2 ¨ 2 § 5
	ª K 7 © J 6 ¨ - § 8

When the two of diamonds is played South is the first to feel the pressure. A heart will allow declarer to pin his jack. A club will expose North to an endplay, so it must be a spade. A club goes from dummy and North can throw the queen of spades. Now a spade to the ace will finish North off.

Just for once we calculated this without the aid of Deep Finesse.