Sunday, September 29, 2002		Bridge

West might have beaten the contract

WEST had quite a problem with his opening lead, none of the four suits looked at all attractive. Eventually he made the unorthodox start of his singleton club, which did prove to give nothing away. Declarer won with dummy’s ace and cashed two more rounds of clubs. Suppose you had been sitting West. Which two cards would you have discarded? At the table, West threw one spade and one heart. When the ace and queen of hearts were played, East showed out on the second round, revealing that West had almost certainly started with 5-5-2-1 shape. Declarer played ace and another diamond, throwing West on lead. Forced to give a trick in one or other major, West chose to lead into the heart tenace.

Declarer made tricks with the 10 and king of hearts, then exited with the 10 of spades. His luck was in! West was endplayed for the second time and had to concede a trick to South’s spade king. Game made. Did anything occur to you about the dead? West might have beaten the contract by throwing the king and queen of diamonds on dummy’s clubs. Against that, when declarer sees a diamond honour appear on the second high club, he can refrain from playing the third club winner. He can exit with a low diamond immediately, throwing West on lead.