It's only one trick partner

By Roland Wald

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

On this deal from the last match on Wednesday afternoon, a few declarers reached the grand slam in hearts. As you can see, the contract fails unless West leads a spade. Declarer has 12 tricks, so he needs the 13th from either clubs or spades.

Both key cards are wrong, so you must accept down one as happened to all declarers but one.

The incident happened in the Seniors' event, and that is all I am going to reveal, when a player managed to land his grand slam on a trump lead. For some reason the declarer had a feeling that the club finesse wouldn't work, so he turned his attention to spades.

He cashed a few rounds of trumps and diamonds and eventually decided to take the spade finesse by leading a low one from dummy. When he opened his eyes, his jack had held the trick!

Poor West had been caught by surprise and pulled the wrong card. The grand rolled in.

How are going to react after this. Well, you could be devastated of course, which would no doubt be most people's reaction, but you can also do what that particular West player did.

"It's only1 trick partner".

The Not So Pitiful Crutch

When this deal appeared on the VuGraph screen during Round 29 it appeared that a plus score was impossible to achieve on the North/South. However, in the match between England and Austria the defenders found a way to give their opponents a wining option.

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

West	North	East	South
Hackett	Smederevac	Hackett	Wernle
	1¨*	Pass	1ª
Pass	2§*	Pass	2©*
Dble	All Pass

In this Blue Club auction, North showed at least nine cards in the minors and South used fourth suit forcing, what Terence Reese once described as 'the pitiful crutch'.
Knowing his side had lots of values South decided to take his chance at a low level. You can even speculate what might have happened had he ventured a redouble, although that might have been misinterpreted.

West led a top heart but declarer was able to use his two entries to dummy to ruff two diamonds in hand. +670 went well with the plus score from 3NT-1 in the other room.

Child's Play or the View from www

The reporting error that occurred on this deal might have been avoided.

Board 16. Dealer West. E/W Vul.
	ª A 10 5 2 © 6 ¨ K J 3 § K 9 8 5 2
ª 7 6 © K J 4 ¨ 9 5 § A Q J 10 4 3		ª J 8 4 3 © A Q 9 7 3 ¨ 10 6 § 7 6
	ª K Q 9 © 10 8 5 2 ¨ A Q 8 7 4 2 § -

The contract is Five Diamonds, played by South.

West leads a trump, declarer wins in dummy and ducks a heart. The defenders win and play a second trump. Declarer wins in dummy, ruffs a club and should easily be able to see the advantage of ducking a round of hearts, just in case.

The defence win, but declarer can win any return, ruff a heart, ruff a club and finish the trumps to affect a squeeze on East.

The many people to spot this included Marek Stankiewicz, now working in Moscow, and following the Championships via the Internet, who played for Malta in 1999.

Senior among Seniors

By Alex Montwill

This is the 70th anniversary of the European Bridge Championships. It is also the 50th year of international bridge for Joe MacHale of Ireland, who first participated in the 1953 championships in Helsinki. Here he is in action in the 16th round of the Seniors match against Italy.

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

West	North	East	South
Latessa	Montwill	Gigli	MacHale
			1ª
Dble	Pass	2§	Dble
Pass	3ª	Pass	4ª
All Pass

Having avoided the heart game, which has no chance on a top club lead, Joe had to use his 50 yrs experience to make the tricky 4ª.

He ducked the lead of the club king. The defence them continued with the diamond ace and another diamond, which gave declarer the chance he needed.

Joe realised that the point of the deal was to make two heart tricks without losing two hearts. On the queen and jack of diamonds he discarded two hearts, and then played heart ace and a small heart.

West was now end/played. His best exit is a trump, but even that cannot beat the contract. On the lead of spade nine declarer covers with the ten, and establishes two entries to dummy, to ruff a heart, and later reach the established last heart. A small spade covered by the eight leads to the same result, plus 620 and a gain of 12 IMPs to Ireland.

'Please, do not tell me'

By Krzysztof Martens

In the bulletin no 10 Mr Marco Catelloni presented a hand where a declarer played a 4ª contract. The hand is interesting but his analysis seems to be not too deep.
Here is the hand:

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

Mr Catelloni decides the winning line depends on finding who has the spade QJ. Actually, you do not have guess it. Moreover, you can win the contract even if the spades are 4-2.

You ruff the second diamond, guess the clubs properly as suggested, playing the jack. Next you play the club to the king and the 3rd club. East ruffs. If East ruffs from 4 spades it is OK, if the spades are 3-3 it is even better. The defence now is irrelevant. Let assume East returns a heart. You take with the ace, cash the spade ace and the king, you ruff a diamond and discard the last diamond on the club.

(That is absolutely right, but if West started life with four spades then cashing both high spades will lead to defeat. However, declarer can prevail by cashing the queen of hearts and playing a winning club. Editors)
There is no difference if East refuses to ruff the 3rd. club. The play is practically the same. I can tell you.

The Skill of the Irish

By Seamus Dowling

Ireland's Seniors surprised Poland 20-10 in Round 13. This deal helped

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

West	North	East	South
Fitzgerald	Wilcosz	Olubaigh	Wala
	Pass	1NT	Pass
3NT	All Pass

The lead of the five of spades went to the seven ten and ace. Declarer, Sean Olubaigh, ran the eight of clubs and continued the suit, discarding two hearts from hand. North, with few options, threw one spade and two hearts. Olubaigh next played the ace of hearts followed by the ten of hearts and North was helpless. North played three rounds of diamonds but declarer ducked each time. In the end North had to play a spade to dummy's KJ. If South overtakes the third diamond declarer can throw dummy's ªJ and claim the last two tricks.

At the other table play followed similar lines, but North, Alex Montwill, bared his queen of spades on the run of the clubs and declarer took the spade finesse to go down.