Warming Up

In many major sports the competitors engage in a warm up. For example motor racing has a preliminary lap, tennis has a knock-up and so on. In Bridge, one way to prepare for an important contest is to test yourself on a few problem deals. Try and find the solution to this one:

Dealer North E/W Vul   ª Q 4 © 6 3 ¨ A K J 10 9 § A K J 10 ª A K 10 9 5 3 © A 10 ¨ 8 4 § 8 7 2

West	North	East	South
	1¨	Pass	1©
1ª	3§	Pass	3©
Pass	3ª	Pass	4©
All Pass

You lead your top spades and East follows with the two and eight promising an odd number. Can you see any hope for the defence?

This was the full deal:

ª Q 4 © 6 3 ¨ A K J 10 9 § A K J 10 ª A K 10 9 5 3 © A 10 ¨ 8 4 § 8 7 2 ª J 8 2 © J 4 ¨ 7 5 3 2 § 9 6 4 3   ª 7 6 © K Q 9 8 7 5 2 ¨ Q 6 § Q 5

As you can see, West must continue with a third spade, and when in with the ace of hearts play a fourth round, East ruffing with the jack of hearts in order to promote West's tem into the setting trick.
Of course your partner would also have realised that the only hope for the defence was a trump promotion and petered to show a doubleton spade.

Postcard to Brazil

Of course, we will all be sending postcards from Brazil, but newly crowned European Women's Champion Heather Dhondy had a good reason to send one in the opposite direction on this deal from Tenerife:

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

West	North	East	South
	Smith		Dhondy
		Pass	1ª
Pass	1NT	Pass	2©
Pass	3ª	Pass	4ª
All Pass

West led the king of clubs, and with plenty to do, declarer started off with a heart to the seven, East winning with the queen. Declarer was now in a position to pick up the heart suit by pinning the ten and would doubtless have sent Mr. Chagas a postcard thanking him for his Bols Bridge Tip. There was still the small matter of the trump suit to be negotiated, but when East played back a club, declarer was spared a guess because West won and underled her ace of diamonds.

You can listen to the Brazilian legend as he is a guest commentator at the Championships.