Young Talent!

by GeO Tislevoll

This nice play happened in Norway's (Schools) match against neighbours Denmark Fiftteen year old Harald Eide (Norway), brother of Petter Eide who is playing for the Norwegian Junior Team, showed good card playing technique.

Schools Round 2. Board 18. Dealer East. N/S Vul.
	♠ 2 ♥ K Q 10 7 ♦ A Q 10 5 ♣ A 8 4 2
♠ A J 8 ♥ A J 4 ♦ K 9 2 ♣ J 9 5 3		♠ K 10 9 7 4 3 ♥ 5 2 ♦ J 4 ♣ Q 7 6
	♠ Q 6 5 ♥ 9 8 6 3 ♦ 8 7 6 3 ♣ K 10

East had opened a weak Two Spades, and Eide (South) found himself in Four Hearts. West had raised to Three Spades, and North had doubled this to get South into the game. West led the ace of spades and intelligently continued the suit – trying to promote his heart jack.

The contract seems very difficult to fulfill, but Eide made ten tricks in about the same number of seconds! He simply threw a diamond from dummy to the second trick, and East won it with the king. Then a third round of the suit, and South won the queen discarding another diamond from dummy. Now South played a trump. West played low, and North's king won. Eide had no problems arranging for two club ruffs in hand, with the trump eight and nine, and also taking the diamond finesse along the way.

After the last club ruff he played a second round of trumps towards dummy, and escaped with only one trump loser as well. At the other table Norway were allowed to play in Three Spades, minus two, meaning this nice play of the young talent was worth 11 IMPs to his team.