MADEIRA
BRIDGE
What a tussle
Andrew Robson
NO ONE has quite overcome the difficul- ties of presenting bridge on the television: to make it visually clear and attractive; to cater for wide deviations in the standard of the viewers. In essence, it is hard to cap- ture that live tension of the moment. Hav- ing said that, I remember particularly enjoying Grand Slam — a televised transat- lantic tussle from the early Eighties. The US team had a huge slice of luck on the following deal from the 1983 tournament, but Britain won overall that year.
Dealer South Both Vulnerable The Bidding South West North East 2# pass 2♦ pass 24 pass 2NT pass 3♦ pass pass 74 all pass When the British pair held the North- South cards they reached their best con- tract of 64, making exactly 12 tricks. The US North-South pair were more ambitious, the key being North's third bid —his 2• bid in response to 24 showed 0-7 points; his 2NT bid over 24 gave a second nega- tive message. Within that context, he had 4108 and +Q—surely of use in the light of South's 3♦ bid. He had a 'good' bad hand and his jump to 44 conveyed that message. Perhaps hoping North had three 4s and *0, South leapt to 74 and West led a trump. With 12 certain tricks, it appears that a 3-3♦ break is needed to make the Grand Slam. The US South spotted an extra chance — can you? He won the trump lead and immediately played +0, • K and *A. If the +s had divided 3-3 he could simply draw the remaining trumps and cash •8; but not by drawing trumps, South was able to succeed on the actual layout —where the hand with two •s has no more trumps. Declarer was able to trump the fourth ♦ in dummy for his 13th trick. His line seems risky, but if one of the ♦ honours had been trumped, then the contract was unmakeable anyway.
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