Where every prospect pleases, and only (Her)man is (de) Vile

Last night Tacchi and Herman played in the Journalist’s Pairs, and did not finish last. When they played against us, Herman passed a Bacon Torpedo Two Diamond opening (normally, and in this case, game forcing). Tacchi commented after the game that Herman was the only player capable of getting a one-card ending wrong. I riposted that this was hard to do – and then we started thinking about just HOW this could be done. The simplest if unlikely way is to lead as declarer from the wrong hand at trick 13 and to have the opponents accept it. An even sillier mistake by declarer would be for one defender to lead at trick 13 when it was not his turn, and for declarer to accept it! An even less likely option might be in the case that a player plays no cards to a trick early on and now reaches trick 13 with a winner and a loser and has to guess which one to lead. I had always thought Jim Mason of Leicester had produced the minimum misplay when he was fourth to play on the penultimate trick. Declarer, needing both the last two tricks led a heart towards dummy’s bare queen. I followed suit, dummy played the queen, and Mason with the king of hearts and a small heart left was unable to rise to the occasion. I think we’ve all played with a partner when declarer has led towards a winner in dummy at trick 12 and we have discovered that partner could not work out which hand declarer was going to win the trick in. More common and more excusable is the situation where declarer leads a low card at the fourth round of a suit. One defender has a winner in declarer’s suit and a winner in the suit that partner has left – but dummy has the second highest card in that suit. Who is going to win trick 12? If it is partner you must throw one card, if declarer, you must throw the other. Some situations are even rarer.

	♠ – ♥ A K 5 3 ♦ – ♣ –
♠ – ♥ J 9 2 ♦ K ♣ -		♠ Q 10 ♥ Q 5 ♦ – ♣ -
	♠ K ♥ 7 ♦ A ♣ –

Betty Fox (according to Patrick Jourdain) once found herself in the following inconvenient position. She was in dummy, at no-trump, and needed three of the last four tricks. She was about to lead ace king and another heart when after leading the ace, she discovered she was a card short and had played two cards to one trick earlier on. Now she realized that if she followed this line she would be left with no card for trick 13. So after cashing the ace she led a low card; but which card should she keep for trick 12? She guessed right, and kept a spade. But at trick 12 West pitched his heart and at trick 13 the lead passed to her Left Hand Opponent and West had a winning diamond to cash.

Correct approach

by Jan van Cleeff

After winning the silver medal French Senior Patrick Grenthe – as a true sportsman - showed us a hand on which he failed. As often is the case, the dummy, in this case Philippe Vanhoutte, immediately spotted the correct approach when the hand was played.

Board 32. Dealer West. E/W Vul.
	♠ Q 6 4 3 ♥ A 6 2 ♦ K 10 5 ♣ Q 8 3
♠ 10 5 ♥ K 9 ♦ A Q J 8 3 ♣ J 6 5 2		♠ A K J 8 2 ♥ J 7 5 4 ♦ 9 6 4 2 ♣ -
	♠ 9 7 ♥ Q 10 8 3 ♦ 7 ♣ A K 10 9 7 4

* gf, agreeing diamonds North led a club, ruffed in dummy. Grenthe tried a heart for the king and ace and was down immediately, when North continued the suit. Vanhoutte, in view of the 2NT bid, suggests the following interesting line of play. A trump to the ace at trick two, followed by the ten of spades for the queen (to cover is best) and ace, king, jack of spades (pitch a heart), eight of spades (pitch the king of hearts). Ruff a heart, ruff a club, ruff a heart, ruff a club. This leads to eleven tricks. With spades 3-3 and a doubleton trump in South, this line does the job as well. South ruffs the fourth trump and declarer overruffs. North may overruff or not. That doesn’t matter much, declarer is home, since the king of hearts is protected.

A battle of pips

Maija Romanovska from Latvia defended well on board 20 in the Open Pairs semifinal-A

Board 20. Dealer West. EW Vul.
	♠ 3 ♥ K 10 3 ♦ A J 8 3 2 ♣ K Q 9 5
♠ Q 9 7 6 5 2 ♥ 5 4 ♦ 10 4 ♣ 10 8 2		♠ A 10 ♥ A 8 2 ♦ K 7 6 5 ♣ A J 4 3
	♠ K J 8 4 ♥ Q J 9 7 6 ♦ Q 9 ♣ 7 6

MMaija led a diamond which went to dummy’s nine, West’s ten and declarer’s jack. Declarer played his spade. Maija won with the ace and played another small diamond (the king had been better considering the size of her spot cards. Sometimes partner even has the eight). A heart to the king won the next trick. Declarer continued with two rounds of trumps discarding a spade and a heart. Maija exited with the spade ten. Declarer put in the jack and ruffed West’s queen. The heart that followed was ducked again. Declared could throw a club away, then gave Maija her heart ace but had to lose two club tricks in the end. Nicely defended. However, declarer could have done better. If after the second diamond declarer plays two rounds of hearts and Maija wins to exit with a heart, two club losers go on two high major cards and Maija must ruff with her trump trick. So she must duck. But now declarer throws his remaining heart on the spade king and turns to clubs. Look at those spot cards. He covers whatever card West plays. Maija can win with the jack and exit with the heart ace, but declarer ruffs and plays a high club. Eventually his club five produces the ninth trick.

Clever Little Devil

by Mark Horton

In a low scoring match one individual piece of brilliance can turn defeat into victory. In the Women’s quarter-final between Germany-Croatia and Poland the alliance led 10-5 at half time, and stayed ahead deep into the second half. Then this deal came along:

Board 19. Dealer South. E/W Vul.
	♠ 8 7 6 3 2 ♥ 6 ♦ Q 7 4 ♣ Q 8 7 4
♠ A ♥ K 10 7 3 2 ♦ A 10 8 6 ♣ 9 5 3		♠ Q J 9 5 ♥ A J 8 5 4 ♦ K J 3 2 ♣ -
	♠ K 10 4 ♥ Q 9 ♦ 9 5 ♣ A K J 10 6 2

* Natural 11-15

Cometh the hour, cometh the woman. Grazyna Brewiak produced a brilliantly timed psychic response that picked off the heart suit and secured a match winning swing for her side as Poland took the second half 37-28 to win 42-38.

The Hungary Bulgarians

by Mark Horton

Valio Kovachev and Vladi Isporski are one of the hottest pairs around, so it was something of a surprise that they failed to qualify for the final of the Open Pairs. They scored heavily in both sessions of yesterday’s B Final, but it was only enough for fourth place. Still, they had the consolation of this typical match point venture.

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

	♠ 9 ♥ – ♦ 9 7 ♣ 10 5
♠ – ♥ 2 ♦ A ♣ K 9 8		♠ – ♥ K ♦ Q J 10 ♣ A
	♠ – ♥ – ♦ K 3 ♣ J 6 3

When he played the king of hearts South was caught in a criss cross squeeze.

Play your short suit

by Jan van Cleeff

Suppose you own:

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