Contract bridge

Press, 24 March 1977, Page 21

Contract bridge

J. R Wignall

One of the fascinations of; contract bridge is that from! time to time it has its com-! pensations for those of us; who are bad card-holders. When South picked up his poor collection on this deal, he resigned himself to defending against some high level opposing contract, but the bidding and subsequent; play took a delightful course:! A— a'q 10 4 ♦—KJ 10 83 2 A— A 10 W. EA—KR ♦—A K Q 10 ♦—B 7 4 9 53 ♦ _A9 ♦-R5 A— K J A—Q 9 7 0 4 3 A— 9 8 7 5 3 ♦—J 2 ♦—Q74 A — B 5 2 S. W. N. E. No 1V Dble No ; 1A 4V 4A No No 5V No No 5A All Pass Whv, or indeed how. West refrained from starting with; a game-forcing opening bid is not at all clear, but the: actual choice of one heart 1 enabled North to make a take-out double and thus establish his partner held some spades. When on the; second round of the auction, the opener jumped to four; hearts it was thus too late, for North had an easy bid of ( four spades. West grimly pushed on to five hearts, a contract which: would have been defeated' onlv bv a diamond opening! lead. On any other attack, the declarer after drawing trumps drives out the ace of clubs then enters dummy with a; small heart to the eight to; discard his losers on the long l club suit. When five hearts was; passed round to South, he decided that with no defence; whatever in his hand he had h’tter take the sacrifice. He was pleasantly surprised when nobody doubled five;

spades but there was a still, imore agreeable surprise ini store. Against five spades West; Ted the ace of hearts, looked I ■at dummy and switched to! I the ace and another diamond.; rThe declarer won in hand! with the queen, led a small; .spade to dummy’s queen,; ’cashed the ace, thus drawing! Jail the adverse trumps, and! ran off the diamonds' on I ; which all his losers went I away. i West would have done far (better to switch to a club at the second trick, thus (setting up a third defensive trick before the diamond ace was driven out. I Another case of defensive I suicide occurred in the Far |East Bridge Federation championship in Auckland last; vear in a match between Taiwan, the eventual winners, and India who finished third. A— AQ9 8 V— 9 8 4 2 ♦ —AJB A— lo 3 W. E. A— .llo 5 A— 63 2 ♦—KJ 10 7 3‘V—AQ6 : ♦ —5 ♦—7 3 ■ A— Q 7 5 4 A— A K 9 6 2 s. A— K74 ♦ -5 ♦ —KQ 109 6 42 A— J 8 The proceedings when the] board was first played with • India sitting East and West I were strange enough: ’! W. N. E. S. !♦ 3A I No 3NT No No 4A 4 4 No No 4V No 5A All Pass ! Playing the precision club; I, East had to open one I diamond because any other ;bid would have been more misleading. South countered ■ with a weak jump overcall to ; three diamonds, after which .North gambled three noI trumps. No doubt this contract I would have gone a quiet five j down when East took five)

tricks in clubs and five in hearts. West, however, came valiantly to the resuce in an attempt to find his partner’s true suit. First he tried clubs and | when North pushed on to four diamonds he persisted with hearts. The eventual contract of five clubs not doubled was defeated by only one trick when the defenders made two tricks in spades and one in diamonds. In the other room the auction was quite different: W. N. E. S. INT 24 2 V 34 3 V 3NT All Pass Here the Chinese East player opened the bidding with a weak one no-trump, j South making the natural overcall of two diamonds. When West tried two hearts North raised his partner and East pushed on to three hearts. So far all had been plain and straightforward but at this point South introduced a [diversion. Wanting to bid further but frightened of driving his opponents into a possibly unbeatable four hearts contract, he called three no-trumps in a bold attempt to confuse the issue. If doubled he intended to run back to four diamonds. To his surprise nobody doubled and he was left to i play this hopeless contract. The Indians are excitable players and one can only speculate on South’s thoughts as he prepared an explanation for his teammates of the poor result he seemed bound to score. Then he looked at West’s opening lead and almost threw his I arms around his opponent for it was the jack of spades. At high speed he raked in four tricks in spades and seven in diamonds to make his contract with two overtricks. The Chinese are normally impassive at the table but East showed some signs of strain as he reminded his partner that he had supported: the heart suit.