Handle with Care

by Onno Eskes (The Netherlands)

This heart game from round 8 had to be handled very delicately. Ten declarers failed; only Martin Reid, Albert Bitran and Fred Gitelman found the safe way home.

Round 8. Board 15. Dealer South. NS Game ª Q 8 4 3 © Q ¨ J 8 7 5 2 § A 6 5 ª 7 ª A K 6 2 © K 9 7 4 2 © J 6 3 ¨ A K 4 ¨ 10 9 6 § K Q 4 2 § J 10 7 ª J 10 9 5 © A 10 8 5 ¨ Q 3 § 9 8 3

West North East South Gitelman Silver 1© Pass 2© Pass 4© All Pass

Gitelman won the spade lead in dummy with the ªA and did not fall in the first trap, cashing the ªK prematurely, in which case declarer will lose control. Fred continued with a heart to the king, felling the queen. He realized that continuing hearts would again result in loss of control, so he played the §K to drive out the ace. North won the §A (ducking would probably have been better) and persisted in spades.

Fred, who had played the hand rather defensively until now, realized that the time to change gear had come. He took the ªK, ruffed a spade, cashed the ¨AK and §Q and crossed to the §J. The fourth round of spades from dummy allowed him to score his ©9 en passant for his tenth trick.

Other things that have to be handled with care are words like 'inevitable', as in '6§ has two inevitable losers' in yesterday's bulletin, concerning this hand:

Board 4. Dealer West. Game All ª K © A J 8 7 3 ¨ 8 7 3 § 10 7 4 3 ª Q J 10 6 3 ª 8 7 5 4 2 © Q 4 © 9 6 2 ¨ K 10 4 ¨ 6 5 2 § Q 8 6 § 9 2 ª A 9 © K 10 5 ¨ A Q J 9 § A K J 5

West North East South van der Pas Zhang Vriend Gu Pass Pass Pass 1§ 1ª 2© 3ª Dble Pass 4§ Pass 6§ All Pass

Marijke van der Pas led a spade. Ling Gu played quickly as if there were no problem in the play at all. Two top trumps, followed by the ªA, throwing a diamond from dummy. The ©K was followed by four more rounds of hearts. Marijke van der Pas is still puzzling how she could escape and leave declarer with the allegedly 'two inevitable losers'. Ruffing a heart would endplay her immediately; instead she discarded on all the hearts, but that was only delaying the execution. Ling Gu exited with a club at trick 10 and Van der Pas had to concede a ruff-and-discard or lead into the diamond tenace. Very elegant. All other declarers in 6§ went ingloriously down when they tried a diamond or club finesse at trick two.