ACES ON BRIDGE

“War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography.”

— Ambrose Bierce

This board from the quarterfinals of the World Championships in Lyon turned out to be a fine battle between declarer and the defense.

Against four spades, Jacek Pszczola (Pepsi) cashed two top diamonds and wisely did not play a third, as declarer Mikael Rimstedt would have set up his clubs. Instead, he switched to the spade 10. Rimstedt covered this with dummy’s jack, drawing the king and ace. West now held the sole guards in both spades and clubs.

Next, declarer played the king and queen of trump, ruffed his diamond loser with the heart ace and ran the remaining trumps. To retain his club honors, West had to reduce to just one spade. If he kept his spade nine, he would be thrown in with a spade to lead away from the club king. If he discarded his high spade, South’s spade eight would be good. Either way, declarer had his 10 tricks.

After two rounds of diamonds, West needed to switch specifically to the spade queen, so that East would be able to guard the suit with his king.

In the other room, Frederick Nystrom led the diamond ace and, realizing that he would have to venture into spades sooner or later, found the necessary switch to a spade intermediate at trick two.

When declarer Joe Grue allowed this to win, West cashed the diamond queen, then played the spade six to the seven and ace. Declarer eventually had to surrender a club and a spade trick for one down, and Sweden had a well-earned game swing.

ANSWER: A simple raise to four hearts looks right here, given your weak spades, but a four-club call as a cue-bid agreeing one of partner’s suits is not unreasonable. If partner is interested in slam, he can always ask for aces.