| 12th World Bridge Championships | Page 4 | Bulletin 10 - Monday 19 June 2006 |
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Chagas vs Henner-Welland by Mark Horton There are no easy matches in the Round of 16 in the Rosenblum Cup. Our first offering features teams representing Brazil and USA.
Two Spades was constructive and promised a four-card major and a longer minor. Chagas could not bid Three Hearts, as it would have been forcing. At this vulnerability, South’s decision to bid on was brave, to sat the least. When that was doubled North retreated to hearts, but, with Five diamonds likely to cost 1100, this contract fared no better. East led the two of clubs and West won and switched to a heart, East ducking declarer’s king. With all hopes of a ruff removed, declarer was down four, –1100. @Room:Closed Room
Again a club was led and West won and this time switched to a top spade. When that held West tried a diamond so now declarer could organize two spade ruffs in dummy and hold the loss to –800 and a surprising pick up of 7 IMPs.
Open Room
East led the queen of hearts and West overtook and switched to a diamond. East won and played back a club, West winning with the king. A club now would have produced a second undertrick, but West played a second diamond, so that was –100. Closed Room
Facing a passed partner one can only speculate why East bid on to Five Hearts. (Isn’t that polite!) There was no way to avoid the loss of three tricks, –200 and another 6 IMPs to Henner-Welland. An overbid on the next board advanced the score to 19-0 but then Chagas got on the board in a big way.
Open Room
In this day and age East’s pass was surprising. Peter Fredin is well known for his – shall we say – flamboyant approach to bidding. Even so it was obviously difficult for East to believe he could have quite such a miserable hand. There is a chance that South would have made Five Diamonds but defending Five Spades was an easier option. Declarer ruffed the opening lead of the ace of diamonds in dummy and played a heart. South went in with the ace, cashed the ace of clubs and exited with a heart. Now declarer played on cross-ruff lines, finessing in clubs along the way, and South scored a club ruff with the jack of spades; two down for +300. @Room:Closed Room
South paid a heavy penalty for an off-centre double. Declarer won the spade lead in dummy and played ace of hearts and a heart, West discarding the four of clubs. Now a diamond to the king was followed by a diamond to the nine. East ruffed and forced declarer with a spade. That held the contract to eight tricks; –800 and 15 IMPs.
Open Room
North led the five of clubs for the queen and king and declarer played a diamond to the nine! South won with the king and retuned a club to the jack and ace, dummy discarding a spade. North switched to a spade and declarer won with dummy’s king and played a heart to the king and ace. North returned the jack of diamonds and declarer took his tricks, claiming +630. There are other ways to arrive at nine tricks, (I would have been tempted to simply play back a high club, for example) but declarer’s play will surely find its way into the text books – well, one of mine at any rate. Closed Room
South led the nine of hearts and declarer played low from dummy, winning in hand with the jack and playing a club to the nine and ace. North cashed the ace of hearts and gave South a heart ruff. Declarer won the spade switch in dummy, discarded a spade on the king of clubs and played a diamond to the ace and a diamond. South won with the king and played a spade and North ruffed – one down, +100 and 12 IMPs. The contract can be made, but only by the counter intuitive play of going up with one of dummy’s heart honours and if that is allowed to hold playing a diamond to the ace and a diamond.
Open Room
Declarer ducked the opening lead of the queen of diamonds, won the next diamond and played a heart to the queen. When West discarded it was a case of scrambling for tricks and declarer arrived at seven; –200. Closed Room
West led the seven of diamonds and declarer won in dummy, cashed the other top diamond to discard a spade and then played the three of hearts, covering East’s four with the six. A club to dummy was followed by a second heart and the hand was over; +590 and another 12 IMPs to Henner-Welland. Declarer had a choice of plays in the heart suit. I consulted our resident guru, David Burn, who reported back that, of the three possibilities, low to the queen is best, followed by low to the nine and then low to the ace, as opposed to low to the nine followed by low to the queen. So declarer took the best line – unluckily. (There is not a lot in it for all three lines – 65%, 63.75% & 62.91667%.) Of course, I was hoping that low to the nine would be the winner – a mirror image of the play on the previous deal. |
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