The Craftsman

by Kare Beyer Kristansen

Ivar Berg of Norway is a craftsman with many tools in his bag. He tried to fool North on the following board, and it turned out even better than he hoped for. The board is from Round 1, when Norway met Romania.

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

South led his singleton club and North cashed three club tricks, and then shifted to the eight of spades. Declarer played low and won the trick with dummy’s ace over South’s jack. Berg’s plan was to play the diamond ace and another diamond up, to give the impression he held singleton diamond, thus he played the ace – and was more than happy to see the king drop. Actually, he was so happy that he forgot to unblock the jack in hand. Doing so, after drawing trumps he could simply play the diamond seven towards dummy and claim ten tricks. However, now Berg had to bring another tool out of his bag – the squeeze. As you can see, South has to hold three diamonds and the king of spades in the three-card ending. That was a mission impossible for South, thus the contract was made.

Berg declared in a brilliant fashion, far beyond anything he could dream about!