| 3rd European Open Bridge Championships | Page 5 | Bulletin 12 - Wednesday 27 June 2007 |
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Tracks to Tricks
We featured Ulf Nilsson making Three No-trumps. Can Four Spades make?
The answer is Yes, the contract can be made on any lead. West cashes all his honours, ace-king of spades, the club ace and the heart king. He exits with a spade to South, who can’t play a club since it produces the two extra tricks needed for declarer. If instead he tries two high diamonds, declarer just pitches a heart. A third diamond becomes an entry to dummy to run the club queen through South. And all the time the heart ace remains as a precious step to dummy’s trick(s)! Double-dummy
problem at the table
Chris Dixon showed me a deal from the Senior Pairs, which produces an unexpected result at double-dummy. Consider the following deal, normally played in a spade part-score, and note the number of tricks that can be made in diamonds by North/South. Rather curiously, while South can make six tricks in diamonds, North can make seven. The reader is asked to produce the explanation for themselves.
Solution to double-dummy problem. Declarer has three diamonds, two spades, one heart and a club trick – all things being equal. But they are not. Declarer has no really sure entry to dummy to play spades towards his hand, and if he tries for a spade ruff, the defenders play three rounds of diamonds to kill the ruff. The point is that if East is on lead at trick one with a trump lead, he will be forced to let declarer use the diamond nine as an entry or block the defender’s trumps. The winning defence is for West to lead a trump and for East not to play the king unless dummy contributes the nine. South wins the first trick and leads the heart queen. There are now a number of options, but as easy as anything is for East to take the heart ace, lead the trump king, and find the club shift for West to win cheaply, cash the diamond ace and get out with a top heart. South wins, and can do no better than lead a club now. West simply plays his clubs so as to prevent declarer using dummy’s ten as an entry, and declarer will eventually have to tackle spades from his hand. The contract can also be defeated with the club jack and ten reversed, although again the variations are quite complex. Dumbo flies high
by Peter Ventura Seven Clubs can be made on this board, if declarer guesses the trump suit correctly. Open Teams, Swiss 1.
This board appeared in bulletin no. 10 where it was mentioned that at one table North/South’s vigorous preemption did not prevent East/West from reaching slam. At the other table North took out insurance in Seven Spades when West bid the grand slam. In the match between Dumbowich and Popova from Germany and Bulgaria/Turkey respectively, it was a completely different story. This was the auction in the Open Room:
Polish Deals Rafal Jagniewski is playing with Michael Kwiecien and he gave me a couple of deals that illustrated a nice point of technique, as well as a degree of optimism that makes Pollyanna look positively depressing.
Rafal correctly determined that he would be defending against a 6-3 fit, and that dummy figured to have short spades. There would be no hurry to lead spades since his partner rated to have five weak spades (given no immediate overcall). So he led a low trump, figuring that on a good day he might score a trump trick if his partner had the doubleton king or queen! His prediction worked out well, for an odd reason. Kwiecien won the diamond ace and shifted to a deceptive heart three, to the king and ace. Back came a second heart, and Kwiecien won the queen and played his low heart. Since his carding was entirely consistent with holding three hearts, and if declarer ruffed high he would have to find the diamond jack, South ruffed with the ten, and the diamond jack did indeed provide the setting trick. We saw from this board that the Poles’ standards for vulnerable overcalls are quite high. So Rafal’s actions on the next deal are partly explicable – but only partly so!!
For this deal the players had swapped seats, and Jagniewski thus found himself with a remarkably good hand and remarkably loaded in spades. A pessimist would double Four Spades – cards not penalties – an optimist would bid Five Diamonds. Rafal tried Five Spades! And when I raised an eyebrow he commented ‘Give partner as little as void, AQx/Kxxxxxx/Axx and maybe we make a grand slam!’ up to a point, Lord Copper…. South doubled Five Spades and also West’s retreat to Six Diamonds, a Lightner double with a lot of sense behind it. Alas for him North led a club and declarer claimed 1540. Note that on a heart lead – probably the right choice since if South were void in clubs North might score his trick anyway the 3-0 trump break leaves declarer too much to do. Declarer cannot draw trumps before giving up a club and South can leave his partner on lead to get his heart ruff. |
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