MADE IRA
BRIDGE
Sound tactics
Andrew Robson
West led a safe V10 against South's ambi- tious grand slam contract of 7NT. With only 12 top tricks, ostensibly South needed ♦ Q to fall under dummy's ace or king for him to succeed. Before broaching ♦s, it cost nothing for him to play out his Vs. He won VK, cashed VA, led to dummy's VJ and played ♦Q. Put yourself in East's posi- tion: it looks very dangerous to throw from the four card suits — unguarding the jack could allow declarer to make a fourth trick in that suit, should he happen to hold four cards in his hand. Therefore East threw ♦ 5. Declarer drew the correct inference from this discard — that East's exact hand pattern must be 44s-3,s-4+s and there- fore two ♦s. Can you see how declarer can succeed now? He crossed to 4A and led West covered with ♦Q,. dummy's ♦K won the trick and declarer noted the fall of East's nine with interest. He returned to hand with 4K and led a ♦8. When West followed low, he played low from dummy — successfully finessing against West's ten. A third ♦ trick had been scored and the contract was made because declarer had pinned East's ♦9 on the first round. Had East clung on to his ♦5 and discarded a black suit on the fourth V, declarer would have had no way to win. North must take credit for not using Stayman over 2NT in an effort to locate a 4-4 V fit. South would have responded 3♦ to the 3+ enquiry to deny holding a four card major, and now East would know he was safe to discard a 4 on the fourth V. 48 7 6 V 10 9 8
♦ Q 104 +10 6 4 5
4J V7
♦ 9 fJ
103 2 4 2 5 9 8 5
W N S E
South West North East
2NT (20-22) pass 7NT all pass WHEN DECLARING, it is sound tactics to play off a long suit whenever possible to force as many discards as possible from the opponents. Here just one discard by East gave the whole show away.
Dealer South Both Vulnerable 49 4 11Q J 6 5 ♦ A K 6 3 +A Q3 4AKQ VA K 3 ♦ J 8 7 2 +K7 2
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