BRIDGE
Forced to win
Andrew Robson
THE United States has recently won the World Bridge Championships without ever touching a card or seeing their opponents or their partner. In case you are wondering how this is feasible, it was the inaugural Internet World Bridge Championships, in which 172 Teams from 33 countries originally entered.
Paul Soloway, America's all-time leading Master Point winner, had a huge slice of luck declaring this hand in the final against Russia.
Dealer South Both Vulnerable
The Bidding South West North East 4+ pass 54 pass 64 pass pass pass Soloway optimistically accepted the 54 invitation of his partner — eminent psy- chologist Marty Seligman — and received the sneaky 44 opening lead. He rose with • A and discarded his second ♦ on +A. He trumped +6 and led V3. West played low so dummy's 1PQ won and a second V was ducked to West's V10. West led •K and declarer trumped, trumped ♦K with 45, but had no alternative other than to hope 4K was singleton. +A did indeed drop East's iK and the slam was his. It is interesting to speculate how Soloway would have played the hand on VA open- ing lead. With no need to trump his third V with dummy's 45, he would have been able to take the trump finesse (by far the best per- centage play in the suit). His 4Q would have run to East's singleton 4K and the contract would have been down.
In the other room the Russian North, Petrounin, elected to pass his partner's 44 opener, so a slam swing went to the United States when it could so easily have gone the other way.
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