A little foresight...

Press, 27 February 1980, Page 20

A little foresight...

CONTRACT BRIDGE

By

J.R. Wignall

Two deals from the 1978 Caransa Philip Morris international Swiss teams, played in Amsterdam, illustrate the foresight that turns good declarers or good defenders into experts. South. dealt, the first with both sides vulnerable:

The auction was straightforward. S. W. N. E. 1A 2<fr 24 No 24 No 44 All pass Against four spades West found the lead of the eight of diamonds, which at least gave nothing away. After winning on the table. South quickly spotted that he had a safety play available to him in trumps. By cashing one high spade in his hand he could pick up four to the knave in either defender’s hand.

The ace of spades duly revealed West’s void so the declarer crossed to the king and led the 10 of spades. When East played low so did South but now an unexpected snag appeared. The lead was in dummy and there was no sure way back to hand to draw the last adverse trump.

Hopefully the declarer led a club to his king, but West won with the ace, returned a club to his partner’s queen and a heart switch meant that South had to lose two more tricks, or four in all.

While South was certainly unlucky, a Polish expert who reached the same contract, and received the same opening lead showed a little more thought. Since West had overcalled in clubs it was more likely he would be short in spades. After winning the opening diamond lead in dummy, the declarer led the 10 of spades to the ace. The rest was easy. He returned to the king of spades and led the three from dummy to the nine in the hand. The queen dropped the jack and then dummy’s diamonds provided plenty of discards.

Six tricks in spades plus six in diamonds produced the contract with two overtricks. Turning to defence, it is often much easier to see the correct line from one side of the table than from the other. On these occasions a player has no excuse for making his partner guess:

South quickly reached the optimistic contract of four hearts: S. W. N. E. IV 1A 24 2A 4 V All pass On West’s opening lead of the king of spades, East, with the best of intentions, dropped the six, showing he held three cards in the suit. West now had no idea how to continue. Eventually he convinced himself that the declarer

had started with the ace of spades which he was holding up to prepare the ground to ruff a spade in dummy.

So thinking, West switched to a low heart and that was that. Six tricks in trumps plus five in diamonds gave the declarer his contract with an overtrick. East should have remembered that it is never safe to rely on partner to do what one can do oneself. When the board was replayed at the other table the same opening lead was made against the same contract. - This time East overtook the king of spades with his ace, made the ace of clubs and returned a spade for his partner to win. West then cashed the king of clubs for the fourth defensive trick and South eventually finished two down when he misguessed the trumps.