BRIDGE
Sure fire
Andrew Robson
THE first Mind Sports Olympiad held in August in the Royal Festival Hall was a great success, but not from a bridge play- er's perspective. Only 40 people turned up to play the Championship Pairs, less than the number of Stratego players.
But it was a bridge specialist, Andrew Dyson, who won the Decamentathlon. Cover up the East-West cards and try to match his clarity of thought on the follow- ing hand from the event.
Dealer South 4J 9 6 5 Q 4 • A Q 8 4J 9 7 6 4 K 3 K 106 • 6 5 4 + K 5 Both vulnerable 5 4
4Q 108 7 4 r3 2 • J 109 7 f108
N W
S
E 4A2 • A J 9 8 7 • K .3 2 + A 3 2 The Bidding South West North East pass 3• pass pass pass pass How canyou maximise your chances of making 4, on 45 lead. Taking the trump suit in isolation, the best lay to avoid los- ing •Q is to bang down TA and •K. But the trump suit must not be taken in isola- tion. Dyson spotted an almost sure fire route to success. He won 4A, crossed to • K, returned back to +A, crossed to 4K, cashed 4K, and led a • to •J. If West had discarded, declarer was home. But Dyson proved that the contract was still certain even though •J lost to •Q, regardless of how many 4s West started with. If he started with a doubleton 4, then he would be endplayed to lead a • around to declar- er's •K or lead a 4 allowing declarer to trump in dummy and discard a losing • from hand. If he held three 4s then he had a safe exit in +s, but the even split would give declarer a fourth f winner in dummy. On the actual layout, West could exit with a 4 to dummy's 40 but declarer could play dummy's fourth 4 and discard a This 'loser-on-loser' play endplayed West in a similar manner to the above.Dyson's line only fails when East has a singleton 4, at least two trumps, and West holds *A.
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