Times Past

By Mark Horton

When I first started attending World Championships (in Yokohama) the Press Room was a hive of activity and the journalists supplied a constant stream of material to the Editors of the Daily Bulletin.

As the years have flown by it seems that the number of journalists has decreased – at least the number of contributions has fallen. It cannot be the lack of interesting deals, as these two boards from the last session the Rosenblum ably demonstrate.

Board 4. Dealer West. All Vul.
	♠ J 6 3 ♥ J 5 ♦ 9 3 2 ♣ K 10 9 7 6
♠ – ♥ A K Q 9 ♦ A J 8 5 4 ♣ A Q 5 2		♠ K Q 10 9 ♥ 8 7 3 2 ♦ K 6 ♣ 8 4 3
	♠ A 8 7 5 4 2 ♥ 10 6 4 ♦ Q 10 7 ♣ J

West	North	East	South
1♦	Pass	1♥	1♠
4♠	Pass	5♦	Pass
6♥	All Pass

Imagine that you reach Six Hearts from the East seat, South having overcalled One Spade? How realistic is it for you to make the contract?

Suppose South leads the jack of clubs? Fearing a singleton you rise with the ace and test the trumps. When they break you draw a third round and play a diamond to the king. If you now finesse in diamonds you can cash four more tricks in that suit, discarding two clubs and a spade from dummy. Then you ruff a club and advance the king of spades. If South covers you can duck, endplaying South. If North fails to follow to the ace of diamonds you simply discard a club and once again South is endplayed. The main point is that you need South to have the queen of diamonds – if North has it then you cannot get home if South has led a singleton club. It may look as if things are more complicated if South leads a trump, but you draw trumps and play on diamonds as before. Eventually you will reach this ending:

	♠ J 6 ♥ ♦ ♣ K 10 9
♠ – ♥ 9 ♦ – ♣ A Q 5 2		♠ K Q 10 ♥ 8 ♦ – ♣ 8
	♠ A 8 7 5 ♥ ♦ ♣ J

Perhaps the most elegant way to make the contract is to exit with a low club, endplaying whoever wins it. (This also caters for the cases where South started with the king of clubs.)

Board 13. Dealer North. All Vul.
	♠ A K Q 9 2 ♥ 9 6 ♦ Q 8 6 2 ♣ K 10
♠ J 6 ♥ J 8 ♦ A K J 7 5 ♣ Q 9 7 6		♠ 10 8 4 3 ♥ 7 5 4 2 ♦ 10 9 3 ♣ J 4
	♠ 7 5 ♥ A K Q 10 3 ♦ 4 ♣ A 8 5 3 2

West	North	East	South
	1♠	Pass	2♥
Pass	2♠	Pass	3♣
Pass	3♥	Pass	4♦
Pass	5♣	Pass	6♥
All Pass

If West leads a top diamond the play is relatively straightforward provided West switches to a major suit. Say he plays the jack of spades. Declarer wins in dummy, and draws trumps, discarding diamonds from dummy. He then plays on spades, ruffing the fourth round with his last trump. He crosses to the king of clubs and plays the master spade, squeezing West in the minors.

However, if West is really on the ball he might find a club switch at trick two, and that destroys declarer’s communications.

How reasonable is it to find that play? Well, you know declarer has five hearts, the ace of clubs and a singleton diamond.

If dummy’s spades are going to provide five tricks then that puts declarer up to twelve, so you must assume the spades are not going to run. Once you have got that far I think you have a good chance of realising that your best chance is to switch to a club.

If West happened to find the unlikely lead of a trump declarer would win in hand and be faced by a choice of plays – either playing a diamond, hoping spades break or some ending will develop, or playing for clubs 3-3.

As the cards lie you are best to go for the former, as it requires West to find the club switch.