BRIDGE
New flair
Andrew Robson
THERE IS an annual competition amongst selected experts to produce the best tip for the above average bridge player. Possibly the most useful such tip was the 1988 Prize winning entry of Zia Mahmood entitled 'If they don't cover, they don't have it.' This refers to the old adage for defenders: `Cover an honour with an honour.' For example, if dummy leads a queen and you have the king, you should generally cover the queen with your king; declarer is likely to squash it with his ace, but having removed two of his honours to one of yours, the jack, ten or even nine could well become promoted into a defensive trick.
Dealer South. North-South Vulnerable The Bidding
North East South West
1NT (12
-14) Pass 3NT Pass Pass Pass
West led his fourth highest spade and East won (dummy ducking) and returned 46 to dummy's ace. Assuming West does not have all three missing diamonds, declarer has eight certain tricks: five dia- monds and three aces. Either the heart or club finesse provide a ninth trick if success- ful. But if South takes the wrong one and loses the lead, the opponents will run off too many spades.
South was Patrick Lawrence, a promising player from London's Portland Club with great flair for the game. He led dummy's 1►Q a trick three. When East didn't cover, he decided West was likely to have VK that the club finesse was a better bet. He rose with the ace, cashed ♦A, exposing West's void; then he played a club to dummy's queen, took the marked diamond finesse and cashed his nine top tricks.
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