Monica Cuzzi, playing in the Lavazza team, Catherine d'Ovidio, playing in Zimmerman's team, and perhaps few others won brilliantly Three No-Trumps on this deal in Round 10.

Board 13. Dealer North. All Vul.
	ª 6 2 © K Q J 8 3 ¨ 10 9 8 § K J 6
ª 10 7 3 © 9 7 5 2 ¨ Q 3 § 10 9 8 5		ª A Q J 5 4 © A 6 ¨ 7 6 5 4 2 § 2
	ª K 9 8 © 10 4 ¨ A K J § A Q 7 4 3

East opened the bidding with One Spade, and South finished in 3NT, West led the three of spades showing three cards and the jack was taken by the king.

With eight top tricks, simple minds would just take the diamond finesse and go two down Monica and Catherine knew better.

If the queen of diamond would be on side what could East do on five rounds of clubs?

She had to keep the ace of hearts, four spades - otherwise declarer can play a heart - and only two diamonds.
To put it in other words East could not discard a spade nor the ace of diamonds, so she had to hold only two diamonds.

The finesse has no merit, and having seen no interesting discard our declarers played the ace and king of diamonds and down came West's queen of diamonds.

The chance to find the queen of diamonds second in the hand who has only three spades is nothing more than 3% at most. But that was the case. Well done girls to foresee the situation so clearly.

Of course Four Hearts makes with no skill needed but is difficult to bid.

PATRICK GRENTHE SHINES

Patrick Grenthe is not only a player in the highest ranking in France - première série nationale- but Chairman of the International trials committee.

Some communications problems

It should be no surprise that Grenthe's team from France is doing well when you see him as declarer on round seven of the Mixed Teams event.

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

The contract was 3 NT by West, on the queen of spades lead. Apparently easy with two spade tricks, three club tricks, and five diamond available. But not quite, look at the communication problems.

Patrick took the first spade in hand played a club to the dummy and a diamond to his hand but South, wide awake, played brilliantly the ace, making things awkward for the declarer.

West threw his king under the ace and South played back a spade taken in the dummy. Now five high diamonds were cashed leaving a four card ending.

North had an inescapable choice:
He could bare the queen of hearts in which case, the king is played from the dummy, or keep two spades and two hearts, as was the case. A spade was played and now North must lead away from the queen of hearts at trick 12.

They are many other ways to win the contract but that was a spectacular choice.

A Little Play Problem 2

How would you have tackled this problem from Round 9 of the Team Championships?

You have the South cards (the hands have been rotated for convenience) and Open One Club. The player on your left overcalls One Diamond and leads the king of spades against the final contract of Five Clubs.

ª 9 6 4 © K 10 ¨ J 8 6 § A Q J 8 3

ª A 7 3 © A Q J 8 ¨ A 3 § 10 9 7 4

There appear to be three possibilities:

Win the ace of spades and simply take the club finesse.
Win the ace of spades, cash the ace of clubs and then play on hearts.
Win the ace of spades and play on hearts at once, intending to view the trump suit later.

Without attempting an exhaustive analysis, we suspect that the last line is best. This was the full deal:

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