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 |
|
|
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 |
|
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 |
|
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 |
|
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 |
|
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 |
|
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.
|