The Importance of the Lead

by Christer Andersson

On Sunday evening Serbia and Bulgaria had an even battle resulting in a small 16-14 win for Serbia. Here are two deals where the losing side showed that their declarer play is of the highest quality:

Dealer East. All Vul
	♠ 9 6 5 ♥ - ♦ A K 7 5 ♣ 9 7 6 5 3
♠ Q J ♥ K J 7 ♦ J 9 8 4 3 2		♠ A K 10 8 ♥ A Q 9 8 3 ♦ -
	♠ 7 4 3 2 ♥ 10 6 5 4 2 ♦ Q 10 ♣ A Q

Open Room

West	North	East	South
Bonev	Parezanin	Batov	Duricic
		1♥	Pass
1NT*	Pass	2♣	Pass
4♥	Pass	6♥	All Pass

The 1NT response was a one round force with 0-13 HCP, and the 2♣ rebid promised no more than two clubs. The rest of the bidding was optimism.

Although the optimism of Vasil Batov in the bidding surprised everyone at the table, it was not a strong enough warning for Branislav Duricic to see the need for a trump lead. He could have inferred that East’s happy jump to slam was not based on extra trump length, and, therefore, on distributional values. As it was, he led the ♠7, covered by dummy’s jack, partner contributing the five, and declarer winning deceptively with the king. A club followed and Duricic won with the ace to continue the neutral looking spade. When Darko Parezanin contributed the nine, declarer revealed his deception and allowed the queen to win the trick. He cashed the club king, happily noting the queen falling from South. Now it looked like he only needed to draw trumps and ruff one club on route to land his contract. This hope was ruined when Parezanin discarded an encouraging diamond on the trump king. Because of his spot cards in trumps, he could still make his contract. He ruffed a diamond in hand, cashed his two high spades and played the high ten of clubs. Duri?i? had to ruff but was over-ruffed on the table. A diamond ruff allowed Bativ to reach his hand to ruff this last club and claim his high trumps.

In case Parezanin had been upset over the unlucky lead, Duricic had the reply ready: “You wouldn’t have found the trump lead either”. That was not needed as both laughed warmly for the lucky breaks of the suits.

Bulgaria won 13 IMPs on the deal as Serbia had an uneventful sequence in the closed room and just made the contract on a trump lead and trump continuation when in on the club ace:

Closed Room

Dealer South. North/South Vul
	♠ A Q ♥ K J 10 9 6 2 ♦ 9 8 7 2 ♣ J
♠ 7 5 2 ♥ A 8 5 ♦ A 6 5		♠ J 10 9 3 ♥ 7 ♦ K
	♠ K 8 6 4 ♥ Q 4 3 ♦ Q J 10 4 3 ♣ 6

Open Room

West	North	East	South
Bonev	Parezanin	Batov	Duricic
			Pass
Pass	1♥	1NT*	2♥
2NT*	4♥	5♣	All Pass

The 1NT intervention showed either 4 cards in the other major and a 5+ minor suit, or a balanced hand with 19-20 HCP. 2NT was forward going promising some type of club support.

What should you lead on this bidding? When Branislav Duricic missed the spade lead and instead chose partner’s suit, Batov took full advantage by exploiting the fact that the spades were 4-2 with honours blocked. Batov won the heart ace on the table, ruffed a heart, cashed the ♦K (discarding a spade from hand), led the ten of clubs to the queen on the table (noting both missing trumps falling), cashed the ace of diamonds and ruffed the last diamond high in hand. Now a club to the seven on the table allowed Batov to complete the elimination of the red suits and throw in the opponents in spades, for them, either to give declarer a ruff-and-discard, or establish a spade trick.

This time, however, the Serbs were saved by their countrymen Branco Vlajnic and Dimitraki Zipovski in the closed room who found the same contract and play as in the open room:

Closed Room

Climb Every Mountain

by Mark Horton

Austria, one of the youngest teams in the Women's tournament, made a slow start, but have improved steadily and will spend the second week fighting for one of the qualifying places. In Round 9 they fought out an exciting draw with the powerful French team. This was one of their gains.

Dealer West. None Vul
	♠ A 10 9 8 5 ♥ J 8 6 ♦ 2 ♣ A K 9 4
♠ K Q 7 6 4 2 ♥ K 9 4 3 ♦ A Q		♠ J 3 ♥ A Q 5 2 ♦ 10 7 6 5
	♠ - ♥ 10 7 ♦ K J 9 8 4 3 ♣ Q 10 8 5 3

Open Room

West	North	East	South
Grumm	d'Ovidio	Weigkricht	Gaviard
1♥*	1♠	2♥	3♦
All Pass

West was intending to canape into spades, but North's intervention ruled out that possibility. With South presumably unable to double, the club fit was lost and declarer had to struggle in Three Diamonds.

The defence started with three rounds of hearts and declarer ruffed and played a club to the ace and a diamond to the jack and queen. West switched to the king of spades and declarer ruffed and tried the king of diamonds. West took the ace and forced declarer with a heart. There were still two trump tricks to come, -100.

Closed Room

North led her diamond and declarer won with the queen, played a heart to the queen and the jack of spades. South ruffed and returned the four of diamonds for North to ruff. She underled her club honours and South won and returned another diamond for a further ruff. Declarer stopped that by ruffing with the king of hearts, but when she played a top spade North could win and exit with a trump. That left declarer with a losing spade , two down -300 and a nice 9 IMP pick up for Austria.