The Defence of the Millenium

By Michael Rosenblum

The Scottish team is not near the top of the table so the Russians were delighted/disappointed to meet a perfect defence produced by Harold Bergson and David McCrossan in our Round 15 encounter.

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

West	North	East	South
Bergson	Andreev	McCrossan	Romanovich
Pass	1§	Pass	1ª
Pass	1NT	Pass	2§
Pass	2¨	Pass	2©
Pass	2NT	Pass	3ª
Pass	3NT	All Pass

One Club was Polish, 2§ checkback, and 2¨ showed a minimum with only two spades.
McCrossan led the jack of clubs against 3NT and Andreev won the queen. Being afraid of a singleton spade honour with East, Andreev led the ª5 to the next trick and McCrossan produced the ten! If he instead plays the ª8, declarer will put in dummy's nine and make his contract easily. However, Andreev had to cover the ª10 with the queen. Bergson won the ace and switched to the queen of hearts. Declarer won with the ace and led a spade to his jack, East ducking. Now declarer was in trouble. Of course, he could make his contract by finding an endplay against East, but he decided to play instead for the ¨K to be in the right place. Andreev played a heart to the king then a spade to East's king, discarding a club from hand. Winning the heart return with his jack, he tried a diamond to the queen and the contract was one off.

The non-executed brilliancy

By Christer Andersson

I was sitting down behind the Danish player Boye Henriksen to watch the interesting match between Denmark and Italy in the Junior series. Before play started, Boye turned around and told me that his partner had nearly found a brilliant defence earlier that day in the match between Denmark and Germany. It was the third board in Round 13:

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

Open Room
West	North	East	South
			Pass
1ª	Pass	2¨	Pass
2ª	Pass	3§	Pass
3ª*	Pass	3ª*	Pass
3NT	All Pass

Boye Henriksen, North, led the ©10 for the queen and king. Declarer having only eight winners had to duck to break up the defenders' communications. Kjaere Gjaldbaek returned the ©J, declarer wrongly (in theory) putting up the ace, and Boye forgetting to discard his blocking nine. South now had an easy ride for ten tricks. The correct declarer play would be to withhold the ace until the third round of hearts. The defence still may prevail but South has to find the right continuation at trick three. And that is not very easy from his position.

It would, however, have been possible for North. With the bidding in mind, and seeing the dummy and the development of the play, he could foresee that there is no time for the defence both to dislodge the ©A from declarer and create an entry to partner's hand. The only way to beat the contract seems to be to find three tricks in another suit, which would be possible were South to hold the right cards in clubs. Thus, a switch to clubs after the second heart would make the day for the defence. But how should poor South know that a high card from §KJ8 would be the winning defence at trick three.

The problem would have been resolved had Gjaldbeak trusted in partner having the low heart sequence (©109x) and continued with the ©8 instead of the ©J at trick two. Of course, Boye Henriksen has to be awake and overtake the eight with the nine in case declarer ducks. Furthermore, he has to read the significance of the heart eight and switch to a low club and promote the setting trick.

If all this had happened, it truly would have been a brilliant defence. Getting rid of all those ifs is, after all, what the game is all about. But only seeing you were close to making the extraordinary play gives a warm feeling inside. Doesn't it?

Although the Danes allowed the contract to make with an overtrick, the board was not expensive for the team. The declarer in the other room was in the same contract and received the same lead. He chose to win won the first trick and succeeded to sneak a spade through. When the ªQ won, he took his nine tricks and ran for home.

Turkish Delight

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

West	North	East	South
Reshef	Suicmez	Ginossar	Sakrak
		Pass	4ª
Dble	All Pass

Israel's Ophir Reshef led ¨K, on which Turkey's Ozgur Sakrak made the expert false card of the queen. West's ©2 switch went to the ace, ruffed. A low spade lost to the ace, and Reshef cashed ¨A and cleared the diamonds. Ozgur Sakrak ruffed a heart back to hand and ran off all his spades. Reshef was squeezed in hearts and clubs, being forced to bare his king of clubs, hoping that his partner had the queen. At trick thirteen, §Q was declarer's tenth trick; 590 to Turkey.

That was a big dividend for the false card at the first trick. Had Ozgur Sakrak played low at trick one, West could safely have continued diamonds, and in the endgame East would have controlled the heart suit, preventing the squeeze. Playing standard defensive signals, West thought he needed to switch at trick two, but from ¨107653, his partner would have played the three, so perhaps he should have worked out that a diamond continuation was safe.

Although he avoided the fatal club switch at trick two, his heart switch turned out no better when his partner not unreasonably played ©A in case ©2 was a singleton.

Martin's Work-out

By Stefan Back

Usually when we talk about sports and work-out, we have some sessions at the local gym in mind. In bridge all the work-out is, more or less, done with the brain. In the Juniors Round 15 match against the Czech Republic, Germany's Martin Stoszek made good use of his 'little grey cells' to collect all the information that was spread around the table to draw the right conclusion:

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

Stoszek was South and heard his partner Jenny Ewald open the bidding with 1§. East bid 1ª and he doubled to show hearts. West bid 2ª, alerted as a very weak raise and North was happy to introduce her diamonds at the three level. As 2NT would have shown any weak hand, 3¨ promised a decent 16+ count.

West passed and Martin tried 3ª to inquire about a spade stopper. When West passed to show an honour, North bid 4§ to deny values in spades. Here is the bidding so far:

West	North	East	South
	Ewald		Stoszek
	1§	1ª	Dble
2ª	3¨	Pass	3ª
Pass	4§	Pass	?

What did he know so far? As East/West hadn't bid spades higher than the two-level, he expected them to hold no more than nine cards in that suit, therefore it was very likely that North held a 3-1-4-5 (or better) with almost all the points in the minors.

Martin now jumped straight away to 6¨ - not bad on a combined 21-count, if you subtract that 'useful' ªK for a moment.

When diamonds broke 2-2, Jenny Ewald had no problem in wrapping up 12 tricks to give Germany +1370 and a healthy 15 IMPs, when their opponents in the other room reached only 3§ scoring one overtrick for +130.
By the way, if you would like to know who our bidding hero is, his photo appeared under the pseudonym 'Janko Katerbau' in yesterday's issue of the Daily Bulletin.

Biggest Swing so Far?

Schools Round 8. Netherlands v Italy

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

West	North	East	South
	De Pagter		Bob Drijver
	Pass	4ª	4NT
Pass	5¨	5ª	6¨
Pass	Pass	6ª	Pass
Pass	Dble	All Pass

4NT showed any two suiter, usually 5-5. Over 6¨ Bob Drijver had a choice between double (Lightner, trying to get a ruff) or 6ª, as pass is for wimps. He went all the way and drew a glorious fit in clubs from Vincent de Pagter, just what the doctor ordered. South's pass was forcing, as North/South had freely bid a slam and East appeared to be sacrificing. ©K was led and declarer claimed 1310.

West	North	East	South
	Verbeek		Molenaar
	Pass	4¨	4©
4ª	5©	5ª	6©
Dble	All Pass

East began proceedings with Namyats, 4¨ showing a good 4ª opening bid. West doubled prematurely in front of his partner, seduced by the Namyats into thinking that his partner would provide some defence. ª7 went to the ace and ¨6 was returned. That was 1210 to Netherlands. 1210 plus 1310 is 2520; 21 IMPs to Netherlands.

East's singleton diamond at trick two was not wise when he had no trumps to ruff diamonds anyway. The best defence is to promote ©J by playing a second spade, not easy to find as the pips give no clues that ª7 is a singleton. More realistic is for East to cash §K at trick two, East discouraging with §6, with East trusting that this means that West wants something other than clubs, and thus playing a spade for plus 300.

This hand is also covered in the Juniors report of this session.

Session 10 - Juniors: Hungary v Denmark

By Peter Gill

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

Tom Cornelis of Belgium was the first correspondent to point out that, at the tables where North/South were silent, there is more to this hand than I (PG) realised. After ©A, ©K, heart ruff/overruff and two top trumps, North is known to have nine cards in the minors. On the second trump North perforce has to discard a diamond, suggesting a 2=2=5=4 shape. East therefore cashes two more spades to 'trump squeeze' North. If North pitches a club, the clubs can be ruffed good, and if North pitches diamonds, the diamonds split 2-2 and East's third diamond can be established.

Tom also points out that on Vugraph, declarer ran the ten of clubs, which works. However, he is adamant that the trump squeeze is the best line of play. He does not discuss the best play if North is known from the bidding to have five or six diamonds, but the Hungarians have provide some information; see below.

West	North	East	South
Gjaldbaek	Marjai	Henriksen	Hegedus
2¨	2ª	Pass	4ª
All Pass

Previously I suggested that after ©A, ©K, heart ruff/overruff and ªA, the hand is a textbook hand, as one can cross to ªQ, ruff the last club and play ace and another diamond to receive a ruff and discard.

That is too simplistic, as the hand can be counted. South has two spades, six hearts and, once North has opened 2¨, either one or two diamonds. If the former, he has four clubs to make a total of thirteen cards, and thus the best approach is to endplay South with the fourth club, making 4ª whenever South has a singleton diamond. If North follows suit with the last club, the back-up plan is to endplay South with a doubleton diamond honour. Thus declarer seems to have two strings in his bow. That was Boje Henriksen's plan.

The Hungarian npc Peter Gal furthermore reports that after ©A, ©K and a third heart ruffed and over-ruffed, Boje Henriksen cashed ªA, §A then §K, ruffed a club and cashed ªQ. Next came ¨A, and the fourth club. Does anyone see that even this sequence of play is imperfect?

It seems to be better than the play at the other table in one way, as it covers all 6-1 diamond breaks, including when South has a bare honour. On the other hand, it does not cover South having a small doubleton diamond and North having ¨KQxxx, which the other table did cover by exiting with a small diamond from dummy after one club ruff and the two top spades.

However, when declarer cashed ¨A, Gai Hegedus made the excellent play of ¨K under Boje's ace! If one assumes that this is a true card, then either ¨K is singleton in which case the fourth club will endplay South, or ¨KQ is doubleton in which case South will be thrown in a trick later with ¨Q. If South discards his potential ¨Q on the fourth club, ¨J is a winner.
Thus Henriksen stuck with his plan, leading the fourth club. When North had §Q, East had to ruff, but now he was stuck in his hand and had to concede two diamonds. Had he visualised earlier that Hegedus would play ¨K under the ace from ¨Kx, he would have won the second spade with the king rather than the ace, preserving an entry to dummy to play fro ¨Q onside.

Another possibility is for South to discard ¨K on the fourth club, but Hegedus' play is better as he does not know that declarer is not planning a diamond endplay with North holding ¨QJ.

Finally, someone suggested that the percentage play in the club suit is probably low to the ten. However, there seem to be inadequate entries to dummy for that. Enough.