CONTRACT BRIDGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23012, 13 April 1938, Page 8

CONTRACT BRIDGE

HIDING THE WEAK SPOT DECLARER'S TACTICS BT C. I». EASTGATE Every player Trill remember certain hands which he played as declarer, and •where there were holes—decided holes —in the solidity of a certain suit, or suits/'which badly needed a mask. Especially is this so when a three notrump contract has to be jockeyed through somehow, and a subtle camouflage lias to be engineered. Most defenders have ways and means of finding the weak spot if it exists, as their own leads and signal cards (especially) are a pretty good intelligence department Tho defenders in the hand shown below, however, should not be too severely censured for falling for the declarer'* attempt to cover up his weak link:— South dealer. Both side vul.

The bidding: South West North Ea»t 1 N.T. pass 2 N.T. pass 3 N.T. pass pass pass "West made an unfortunate lead in choosing his fourth best club. Declarer •non with the nine and returned a club to the king. With only seven sure tricks in sight (four clubs, two hearts and on® spade),' declarer thought that the best ■way to secure the other two precious tricks would be through the enemy's aid If ho could entice a heart lead he might well make three tricks through "split honours." A diamond trick might, be developed, of course, but there was always the menace of the spade 6iiit. If lib were to relinquish the lead by playing the diamonds, almost certainly the defenders would shift to dummy's weakness. Declarer decided to make a psychological play. Ho therefore led dummy's ten of spades, and when East playecl low, let it ride. West won with the jack, and naturally had not second sight to know that a spade return by him was desirable. He chose the safe exit of a club. Declarer won, and cashed his last club, discarding a diamond from dummy. N6w, as he could not afford to take out dummy's heart king in order to make another spade feint toward his own ace, he led a low spade toward the" nine-spot. West jumped up with the ■queen, and, as declarer hoped, led a diamond. East won with the ace, but was now in a quandary. His only sure entry that might have brought home the long spado was gone, and the best he could do was a diamond. This was let go round/to the jack in dummy, and although West made the queen, this was the last trick East-West took, and declarer camo home with four clubs, two hearts, two diamouds and one spade for contract.

South is playing a contract 6f fix spades, and West leads the king of clubs. The ace wins and trumps are now drawn. As the trumps break ereply the best chance for the eontract jjs to try and establish the diamond suit; a diamond is therefore led to the ace and a small diamond ruffed. TJie heart should now be led and overtaken with the ace. Another diamond is led and ruffed, and ; as the diamonds do not break, it is necessary to find two more entries into dummy. A finesse against the heart jack is taken, the fourth diamond ruffed, setting up the suit, and the heart queen utilised as a entry for the casning of the long diamonds. It should Be noted that the overtake of the heart king is a safety play, ap if the diamonds break 3 —3 the suit will provide more than Sufficient discards. and it will not be necessary to finesse 4 the heart jack. But the chance of a 4—2 diamond break makes preparation for an extra entry vital. If declarer first led to the heart queen, West could subsequently shut out the extra, heart entry by putting in the jack. CURRENT EVENTS At the Northern Contract Bridge Club the kick-start tournament resulted as follows: —North-South: Dr. Mackenzie and J. Yock, 61.5 per cent, 1: Mrs. Pattinson and Mrs. Acheson, 60.3 per cent, 2; Mrs. Warren and Mrs. Tucker and JJrs. Harvey and Mrs. Macfarlane, 58 por cent, equal. 3. East-West: Mrs. Heighwav and Captain Barnes, 66.6 per cent, 1; N. 0. Morgan and R. K. Wylie, 64.2 per cent, 2; Miss Swap and Mrs. Le Cren, 58.5 per cent. 3. At the Auckland Bridge Club the second' round of the Pascoc Cup pair competition resulted as follows: — North-South: N 0. Morgan and L. McKillop, 212 match points. 1; G. A, Cox and V. P. Scaletti. 188 match points. •2; C. Bruce-Smith and C, !>• Ensteate, 177 match points. 3. EastW*>st: N. Watson and C. N. Tucker, 189} match points 1: Mesdames Wad-' dell and Thomas. 1721 matf-li points, 2: Mesdames Kibblewhttp and Israel, 170 match points. 3