CONTRACT BRIDGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22400, 22 April 1936, Page 19

CONTRACT BRIDGE

• MASTERLY DEFENCE A TOURNAMENT FACTOR BY FINESSE I have socii it stated somewhere that one of the greatest factors toward eventual success in big tournaments is accurate defence. In America, where there are so many brilliant players, it lias been remarked that the really good defensive pairs stand out because they are so few in number, as compared with the very large number of those who are so expert in attack. In that popular form of amusement tho pair tournament, with match-point scoring, it must be admitted that there is a good deal of luck, not only with the opponents one meets, but with the bidding, which may, or may not, turn out to be a good guess. This would not matter so much in rubber bridge, but in match-point scoring, where a slight alteration in a score may make so much difference, success very often belongs to the best guesser. The same element of luck extends into the field of the declarer's plav, where the success or failure of a contract may depend entirely upon the favourable position of some outstanding honour and the consequent result of a finesse. Defence An Exact Science Defence, however, is more nearly an exact science. Take the following hand from the American. Grand National Pair Tournament of last year and note the well-thought-out defensive plan made by the East-West pair:—

The bidding went as follows: — South West Nortji East 1 N.T. Pass pass double pass 2 Jf» pass pass double 2 double pass pass pass South (as he explained) feared a penalty at whatever bid he might make and varied the usual procedure regarding responses to doubles by bidding his minor suit first in advance of the major. He felt that if he could play at two clubs without being doubled that would probably be a satisfactory contract, and if the opponents doubled him lie would find that hearts would bo no worse. West opened the four of spades and the finesse of dummy's eight forced out East's king; and now East made the key play, leading the deuce of diamonds, to dummy's strength. West's opening lead showed a fourcard suit and, because South was marked with four clubs and four hearts, West must have at least three cards in each of these suits. This accounted for ten of West's cards and left him with three diamonds, and it was imperative to establish a diamond trick before South could establish the queen of spades and take at least one discard, for a throw-in play at the end seemed not at all unlikely. Setting Trick Established On the diamond return South played the nine and West the jack, and dummy won with the queen, returning a low heart. On this East played low and West won with the king; ho then returned a diamond. Declarer finessed, and East won with the king, and another diamond was taken by the ace in dummy. Now trumps were again led and the ace had to win. But the setting trick was easily established. East, after cashing the ace of spades, led his last diamond. At this point West had the singleton ten of hearts, but South could not prevent its winning. If the diamond suit had not been played so promptly South would have had no difficulty in making his contract. Another case is in the type of hand where a singleton is led toward dummy no matter whether dummy is weak or strong and regardless of any tenace holding there. Singleton leads when the purpose is to get a ruff are the simplest in Bridge and all players are capable of making them. For that reason the following play worked: —

West North East South Pass pass pass 1 pass I A pass 2 9? pajss 3 pass 4 pass pass pass West opened the ten of diamonds and East won with the king. Now, East's main worry was tho number of heart tricks he could take, as the queen-jack of diamonds were marked with South and the club suit was apparently solid. East's solution was to lead the seven of clubs. To South this looked like a singleton Iced and was afraid therefore to let West in the lead to give a club ruff; so South banged out the ace-king of hearts and was set one trick. Clever Line of Play Without this fear of a club ruff declarer would have made his contract, following the proper technique of playing a trump suit of the above type: tho first round should bo taken by the ace, and then dummy entered and the ten led. If East plays low, South ducks; even though West can win the trick the king will now clear the suit. By this play two tricks can bo lost only if West holds Q J x x, in which case nothing South could do would save tho contract. East's play tvas clever, and deserves a great deal of credit, and South could hardly bo blamed for letting himself bo trapped. East actually was only taking one chance—that South might only have two diamonds and an opportunity to discard one of them on tho last club. Probably it would havo been better if East had taken both his top diamonds before shifting. There is no doubt, however, that psychologically the immediate shift was more convincing, for players are seldom in such haste to lead into a tenace unless they havo a singleton. «