Good and bad defence in world championship

Press, 4 January 1978, Page 13

Good and bad defence in world championship

In a world championship one would expect play and defence of a high order but sometimes, it must be admitted, these are not always forthcoming. On this deal from the Bermuda Bowl contest in Manila in October however, nearly every defender rose to the occasion. Perhaps you would like to cover the East and South cards and see if you can find the right answer. The auction was, with West the dealer and North-South vulnerable: W. N. E. S. !♦ 2* No 2A No 4A All pass You, West, lead the ace of diamonds on which partner follows with the three, and the full deal is: N. A A 75 V Q 65 ♦ 7 A AKJ6S4 W. E. A 6 A 10432 V KJB V A 972 ♦ AKIO9B ♦ 543 A 10972 A Q 8 S. A KQJ9B V 1043 ♦ QJ62 A 3 A glance at the full diagram shows that a diamond continuation will do no good whatsoever. The declarer will trump in dummy, cash the aCe and king of clubs then crpss-ruff merrily. Two clubs,

five spades in his own hand and three ruffs on the table will come to the desired 10.

Nor is a spade switch likely to be profitable, for there is far too much danger of South being able to draw trumps and run off dummy’s long club suit. If West in fact leads a spade or a club at the second trick, South can always make his contract.

Clearly then it is necessary to switch to a heart so that the defenders may collect whatever tricks they can in that suit before the declarer obtains discards on dummy’s clubs. But which heart? If West leads the eight dummy plays low and East must play the ace to win the trick. Now another heart back allows the king to win but the queen takes the third round. The way to win the three tricks necessary to beat the contract is to switch to the jack of hearts hoping East has the ace and nine or ace and 10. Now if the declarer ducks in dummy the jack is allowed to win and the king and ace of hearts take the next two tricks. So the queen covers the jack and East wins with the ace. Then a heart continuation goes through South’s 10 to West’s king and eight. Whatever the declarer does he must lose two further tricks. On another hand which seemed to present a difficult

analytical problem several defenders went wrong: •N. A QJIOB6 V J 9 ♦ K 986 A 10 4 W. E. A AK3 A 5 V A 76 V 85432 ♦ J 10 4 ♦ Q 52 A Q 752 A 9863 S. A 9742 V KQIO 4 A 73 A AKJ It is true that as the cards lay three no trumps could not have been defeated, but this would not have been the case had West for instance held a five card heart suit as well as the two top spades. Most North-South pairs therefore elected to play in four spades and by the use of transfer bids or some other mechanism contrived to arrange for the stronger hand to become the declarer. The advantages of this were soon apparent. West’s problems began with the opening lead. At one table the two of clubs was chosen and that was the end of that. The declarer now had three tricks in clubs, on the last of which one of dummy’s diamonds went away. Another diamond was discarded on a high heart, so the only losers were two top spades and the ace of

hearts. Three tricks in spades, three in clubs, two in hearts and the two top diamonds added to 10 in all and the contract. At a second table, West found the better lead of the jack of diamonds, but when the declarer w.on with the ace and returned the king of hearts, he fell from grace. After winning with the ace of hearts he switched to a low club and again the contract was made. A third West started with the diamond jack and when a spade was led to the second trick he won and persisted with the 10 of diamonds. That spelled curtains for the declarer, who had to lose a trick in this suit, plus two in trumps and the ace of hearts for one down. Probably the most effective defence was found by still another West who simply led out the ace king and another spade then sat back to let the declarer get on with it. Try as he could, South still had to lose a trick to the ace of hearts and eventually another in either clubs or diamonds. The unluckiest declarer was forced by his system to play the hand from the North seat. With the strong hand exposed the defenders had few problems and duly collected their four tricks. There must be something to be said for the use of transfer bids after all.