SMALL HAND STORIES
 
Results Contents
Open Pairs: 3rd Qualifier - 4th Qualifier - Total
Seniors Pairs: 2nd Qualifier - Total
Superstars Day
Boards From Session 3
Small Hand Stories
The Morning Session
 

A Switch in Time

Did you pass this difficult defensive problem from the second session of the Open?

Board 20. Dealer West. East/West Vul
  ª J 10 8 6 5
© 5
¨ Q 10 7 4
§ K 7 4
ª A Q 7
© K Q 7 3
¨ 9
§ A Q 6 5 3
Bridge deal  

West North East South
Smederevac Wernle
1§ Pass 1¨ Pass
1© Pass 2NT Pass
3NT All Pass

Your partner leads a low heart and declarer wins in hand with the ace and plays the ten of clubs for the jack, queen and your king. It is clearly right to switch to a diamond and most North's looked no further than the queen. Declarer is now faced with a problem but if you accept that it is unlikely that North would risk underleading the ace of diamonds at this point then the correct play is to duck, intending to cover the next card if it is an honour, or otherwise put in the eight. However, where East elected to cover the queen South won with the ace and being uncertain of the location of the ten of diamonds, switched with fatal consequences, as you can see from the full deal:

  ª J 10 8 6 5
© 5
¨ Q 10 7 4
§ K 7 4
ª A Q 7
© K Q 7 3
¨ 9
§ A Q 6 5 3
Bridge deal ª K 4 2
© A J 6
¨ K 8 5 3
§ 10 9 2
  ª 9 3
© 10 9 8 4 2
¨ A J 6 2
§ J 8

At our featured table, North switched to the ten of diamonds. When declarer made the greedy play of putting up the king, South took the ace and returned a low diamond to North's queen. A further diamond meant one down.



Leader Shines

Patrick Grenthe , playing with Michel Duguet , for France led the field after the first qualifying session and you can see from his dummy play on next board that this was not due to luck but skill

Board 11 dealer South None .
ª AK104
© A64
¨ KQJ
§ 842
Bridge deal ª QJ963
© 85
¨ 876
§ AQ7

West North East South
1 NT Pass 2 © 3 ©* Pass
4 © Pass Pass 4 ª
All Pass


The lead was the Jack of Hearts to the Ace, declarer drew three rounds of trumps -North showing three .Then a Diamond was played taken by South , who played the 10 of Hearts overtaken by North 's Queen:
Now came back the 10 of Clubs East took immediately with the Ace.Declarer cashed his two high Diamonds, North following.

As Patrick ,you have all the clues: North 's exact distribution is known to be 3-6-3-1. So declarer played confidently the third Heart and discarded a club waiting for the forecasted ruff and discard.

North had ª 872 © KQ9732 ¨ 954 §10

You may like or not the two hearts bid !

Someone tried to point out that North who have done much better by playing a third round of Hearts instead of the 10 of Clubs ! North good enough , East ruffs plays his Diamonds , gets the count and now plays a Club letting North's 10 hold .Defence has no good answer


Moyse Lives On

Alphonse Moyse was responsible for popularising the idea of playing in a 4-3 fit. He would have enjoyed this deal from the first session:

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

West North East South
Wernle Smederevac
1© Pass Pass
Dbl Pass 2¨ Pass
3§ Pass 3© Pass
3ª Pass 4ª All Pass

Facing a protective double Jovi Smederevac was not about to get carried away but once her partner showed a decent hand she pressed on to game.
North attacked with three rounds of hearts and declarer ruffed and took two rounds of clubs followed by the ace and king of spades. Now he simply played on clubs. South could ruff but had no effective continuation.
With most of the field making only eleven tricks in clubs +420 produced a very handy score.


Par Contract

Few pairs reached the best spot of Six Notrumps by East on this deal from the first session. Unluckily for my partnership one of the successful pairs was Torelli (West) and Colletta of Italy, our opponents in the Senior Pairs:

Session 1 Board 25. Dealer North. East/West Vul.
  ª A 3
© J 10 7 2
¨ Q 7 5 3 2
§ Q 6
ª K 10
© 6
¨ K 10
§ A K 9 7 5 4 3 2
Bridge deal ª Q 9 2
© A Q 9 5 3
¨ A 8
§ J 10 8
  ª J 8 7 6 5 4
© K 8 4
¨ J 9 6 4
§ -

West North East South
Torelli Hirst Colletta Jourdain
Pass 1© 2ª
3§ 3ª 3NT Pass
4§ Pass 4¨ Pass
4ª Pass 4NT Pass
6NT All Pass

Four Clubs was a slam try setting the suit. 4¨ and 4ª were alerted as cue-bids showing first or second round control, and Four Notrumps was what might be called "Rolling". Torelli, confident the clubs were coming in, went for the big prize and collected virtually all the matchpoints for Six Notrumps despite the spade lead to the ace.
Note that Six Notrumps by West can be beaten by a heart lead from North.


Seniors can be Squeezed

Board 26. Dealer East. All Vul
  ª A 3 2
© K 4 3
¨ J 10 8 7 4
§ Q J
ª K 9 6 4
© 10 9 5
¨ A K Q 3
§ K 2
Bridge deal ª J 5
© J 6
¨ 9 2
§ 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
  ª Q 10 8 7
© A Q 8 7 2
¨ 6 5
§ A 10

West North East South
Rand Romik
Pass 1©
Dbl 4© All Pass

West cashed two top diamonds and switched to a trump. Declarer took the ace and queen and crossed to dummy with the king of hearts. He now played the jack of diamonds discarding a spade from hand. West could not play a black suit so he exited with a diamond. Now declarer could cash two diamonds, pitching a spades and a club, cross to hand with the ace of clubs and play his remaining trumps, squeezing West in the black suits.

Patrick Jourdain reported this same deal in the Senior pairs.
Three Hearts was a popular contract and often made ten tricks with some help from the defence. However, Blasius Gyorffy of Germany managed the result despite accurate defence from Polec of Poland in the Senior Pairs:

West North East South
Polec Chmelik Gyorffy Sycz
Pass 1©
Dble Redble 2§ Pass
Pass 2¨ Pass 2©
Pass 3© All Pass

West led a top diamond but at once switched to a trump. Declarer won in hand and played a second diamond. West won and played a second trump. Declarer won the third trump in dummy, and played the jack of diamonds, discarding a spade. West correctly exited passively with a diamond, but declarer cashed the two diamonds throwing a club and a spade, came to hand with the club, and played the remaining trumps to squeeze West.

   
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