Divining the Diamonds

Divining: To discover intuitively
Divining Rod: a rod, commonly of witch hazel, with forked branches, used by those who pretend to discover water or metals under ground.

While you Editor was watching the Round 7match on VuGraph, the following deal came up on the screen. Both teams attempted Six Clubs but neither declarer managed to cope with the diamond position. The commentators thought it was unlikley that anyone would make the contract, but it seemed to me that if declarer could read the distribution he might divine the diamond position.
Let's see what happened when Canada faced Argentina.

Session 7. Board 14. Dealer East. None Vul.   ª K Q 10 6 5 © K 9 7 6 4 3 ¨ J 5 § - ª 2 © Q 8 ¨ K 10 8 2 § Q J 9 5 4 2 ª A 8 4 © A 5 ¨ Q 7 6 § A K 7 6 3   ª J 9 7 3 © J 10 2 ¨ A 9 4 3 § 10 8

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Pellegrini	Grainger	Madala	Wolpert
		1NT	Pass
2ª	Dbl	3§	Pass
3¨	3©	Pass	4ª
5§	Pass	6§	Dbl
All Pass

South led the seven of spades and declarer won with the ace, ruffed a spade, drew trumps and ruffed a spade. Declarer now got the diamonds wrong twice, losing to the ace and jack and then failing to finesse, so he was two down, -300.

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
		1NT	Pass
2ª	Dbl	2NT	3ª
5§	5©	Pass	5ª
Pass	Pass	6§	Dbl
All Pass

North led the king of spades and following the same line as at the other table declarer won, ruffed a spade, drew trumps and ruffed a spade before playing a diamond to the queen and ace. South switched to a heart, taken by dummy's ace and declarer was at the crossroads.
He was sure that North held at least eleven major suit cards, so he could play South for an original diamond holding that included the ¨AJ9 or try and drop a doubleton jack in the North hand. The odds are difficult to calculate but declarer backed his judgement by playing a diamond to the king. When the jack appeared he could go back to dummy with a trump and take the marked diamond finesse and get rid of his losing heart.
Declarer may not have located any precious metal but he had reaped a rich reward of +1090 and 16 well deserved IMPs.

Calendar Bridge

By Kees Tammens

Bridge calenders are very popular. 365 problems, mostly one for you as declarer. A good way to start a new day. Here is a nice example (I have rotated the hands):

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

Contract: 5§ by South
Lead: ©J

This is really easy; You win with the ace and draw trumps whilst eliminating the spades. Now you simply exit with a heart and show your cards to East. He will either have to give you a ruff and discard or lead a diamond.

The full deal:

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

With a Twinkle in Their Eyes

The Egyptian juniors have become regular visitors to the bulletin office to submit highlights of their own and their opponents' game. The following board comes from their encounter in round no.9 against Israel.

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

In the Closed Room Israel's bidding was short and sweet:

West	North	East	South
		1§	All Pass

This way East/West stayed low enough and added a plus score to their column - Israel +70.

With a twinkle in their eyes the Egytian East/West pair explained their bidding, that even contained some cue bids, admitting that: "We got a little too amibitious here":

West	North	East	South
Abd El-Salam		Taymour
		2¨	Pass
2ª	Pass	2NT	Pass
3§	Pass	3¨*	Pass
3ª**	Pass	4§***	Pass
4¨***	Pass	4©	All Pass
* one or two four-card majors
** 4-card heart suit
*** cue bids

South led ¨8 to the jack and ace. Declarer cashed the ©A dropping the singleton king and played ¨10 to the queen and king. North returned §3 to South's queen and ruffed the club return. As North, who was still unsure of the position of ªA, erred and played back a diamond to dummy's six and the damage was done. Declarer continued with ¨9, ruffed by North with ©2 and overruffed by East. The ©Q then felled North's jack and the spade losers went away on declarer's §AKJ.
When our reporter- just to state facts once more - asked them: "So you did not lose the ªAK?", all he got in return was a twinkle in their eyes.