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Swiss Round 4
by Barry Rigal
I sat down to watch the match between the defenders (Erichsen) and Ventin, a largely French squad. Appearances are often deceptive, because when the match was over the squad that had won heavily were hardly speaking to one another while the losers were not unhappy with their card. Since both Norwegian partnerships are married couples (The Helnesses and Erichsens) we shall refer to them by their first names throughout.
After overtrick IMPs had given Erichsen a 2-1 lead, the third deal provided more weighty material.
| Board 3. Dealer South. E/W Vul. |
| | ♠ A K 9 7 5
♥ A J 6
♦ 7 5 4
♣ K 9 |
♠ Q 10 8 3
♥ 9 5
♦ K J 3 2
♣ 10 8 5 |  |
♠ 6
♥ K 10 8 4 2
♦ Q 8 6
♣ Q 6 4 3 | | | ♠ J 4 2
♥ Q 7 3
♦ A 10 9
♣ A J 7 2 |
| West | North | East | South
|
| Bessis | Tor H | Frey | Gunn H
|
| | | | 1♣
|
| Pass | 1♠ | Pass | 1NT
|
| Pass | 3NT | All Pass
| |
| West | North | East | South |
| Espen E | Gaviard | Helen E | Allouche-Gaviard
|
| | | | 1♣
|
| Pass | 1♠ | Pass | 1NT
|
| Pass | 2♦ | Pass | 2♠
|
| Pass | 4♠ | All Pass
| |
You can see the logic in both Norths’ approaches, can’t you? Bessis led a diamond and declarer ducked twice and won the third. Now what? Gunn led a heart to the jack and king. After considerable thought Frey returned the heart eight, and Gunn put up the queen felling the nine. Since it appears that West has the fourth diamond, leading a spade to the nine makes excellent sense now. In fact Gunn cashed the spade ace and came back to hand with the club ace to advance the spade jack. Bessis covered and claimed down two.
Since Gaviard had gone down in Four Spades by cashing the spade ace-king prematurely this was just two IMPs to Ventin but an opportunity missed.
Let’s move on to the action from other tables. Where North declared Three No-trumps it was easy for him to win the heart lead cheaply in hand and cash the spade ace then lead low to the jack. Now all that was at stake was overtricks. But where South was declarer in Three No-trumps on a heart lead the fate of the contract was still up in the air. Liz McGowan (South) was allowed to score the heart queen at trick one, so could safety-play the spades to ensure the contract. By contrast, at her table Sandra Penfold as East hopped up with the king of hearts and shifted to a dramatic queen of diamonds. Now declarer took the third diamond but did not know who had the jack. So here it was logical to cash the ace and king of spades, trying to keep East off lead; down one.
How about the fate of those in Four Spades? Gromov won the heart lead and led a spade to the jack and queen. On a diamond return his entries to dummy were reduced, but when the bad trump break came to light he could take a club finesse, cash the clubs, then take the marked spade finesse to bring home the game. Well done, up to a point, but this line might have lost out to a singleton spade queen offside (and also if the spade queen falls and the club finesse loses you might be embarrassed).
Ilan Herbst and Fulvio Fantoni played Four Spades on a heart lead. They followed what seems to me the best technical approach, playing the spade ace and then taking the club finesse. When it held they could safety play the spades, the only issue being whether to cash all the clubs before playing on spades (Fantoni did and Herbst did not). 3-2 to Ventin.
| Board 4. Dealer West. All Vul. |
| | ♠ 8 7 3 2
♥ K 5 3 2
♦ J 5
♣ A J 2 |
♠ A 4
♥ –
♦ A K Q 8 4 3 2
♣ K 8 7 6 | |
♠ K Q 6 5
♥ A Q J 10 6
♦ 9 7
♣ 9 4 | | | ♠ J 10 9
♥ 9 8 7 4
♦ 10 6
♣ Q 10 5 3 |
Both tables played Six Diamonds by West here, but whereas Gaviard found the heart lead to put pressure on declarer (nice try but no cigar!) Tor Helness led the diamond jack; nicely done. Michel Bessis ran only six diamonds, on which Helness (who knew from the auction and the early play that Bessis was 2-0-7-4) pitched two hearts then two clubs, baring his club ace, while Gunn threw the spade jack and then three hearts. Now Bessis, instead of playing the last diamond, which would really have put the screws on North, cashed the top spades and the heart ace; no joy there. In the three-card ending with North retaining three clubs and South holding the master spade, heart and club, he led a club and guessed to play his king, so went down a trick. 19-3 to Erichsen.
Although we can all see that the triple squeeze bites, the defenders are not without some deceptive resources. Best is for South to pitch down to the bare heart king early with North simulating possession of that card, or for South to pitch spades and North to pretend he has spade length. Now dummy has to discard on the last diamond, and may well discard wrongly from the majors. Dummy can’t keep the heart menace, the spade menace and a club.
| Board 7. Dealer South. All Vul. |
| | ♠ Q 10 8 5
♥ K 8 6 4
♦ 8 6 2
♣ 8 2 |
♠ 9 7 3
♥ Q 5 3
♦ K Q 10 7
♣ A Q 5 | |
♠ A K
♥ 10 7
♦ J 9 5
♣ K J 10 7 6 3 | | | ♠ J 6 4 2
♥ A J 9 2
♦ A 4 3
♣ 9 4 |
Both tables bid to Three No-trumps by East, giving Tor Helness the chance to be very kind to his wife. A winning defender leads a heart (the view of the press room was that a spade is right but who listens to us?).
A good husband such as Tor leads a spade, giving his partner the chance to make no less than two good plays. When Bessis won the spade king and led the diamond jack, Gunn Helness rose smoothly with the ace of diamonds, and equally smoothly deposited the heart jack on the table. Nicely done, and down one. In the other room Espen Erichsen won the spade lead and sneaked the diamond nine past South (he told me that the nine was better than the jack because South might cover the jack from Ax for the wrong reasons). Nine tricks made; Erichsen led 31-4.
Time for one more deal:
| Board 8. Dealer West. None Vul. |
| | ♠ 6 2
♥ A K
♦ A Q J 6 4
♣ A K 9 8 |
♠ A J 5 4
♥ J 6 5 2
♦ 10
♣ Q 6 5 3 | |
♠ 7
♥ Q 10 9 8 3
♦ 7 5 2
♣ J 10 7 4 | | | ♠ K Q 10 9 8 3
♥ 7 4
♦ K 9 8 3
♣ 2 |
Both tables reached slam here, but each of them played Six Spades. While this is not the worst slam you’ve ever seen, the lie of the trumps is of course fatal to your slam, and Six Diamonds is of course appreciably better. Can the defenders find the ruff now? Each defender MIGHT find the spade lead but they could be forgiven for missing it. Jeremy Dhondy as West heard his opponents reach Six Diamonds by North after that player had shown a balanced hand. To help his partner, he found the Lightner double, and was a little disconcerted to see North award it a blue card. It was too late to do anything about it so he passed, and collected the ruff for +200.
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