BRIDGE AND CHESS

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Oscar Levant claimed, “I once said cynically of a politician, ‘He’ll double-cross that bridge when he comes to it.’”

We are studying how not to double-cross partner with our reply to his takeout double. A simple bid indicates 0-8 points, a single jump promises 9-11 and a cue-bid of the opener’s suit shows 12 points or more. So what about a double or triple jump in a suit?

Since the cue-bid is artificial and, in a way, unlimited, this liberates the wild leaps to describe specialized hand-types that occur rarely.

Both jumps suggest something like 4-7 high-card points with a surprisingly long suit. The double jump promises a six-card suit and a triple jump a seven-bagger. The South hand is a minimum for his threespade advance, and North’s raise is on the light side.

West cashes two diamond tricks, then shifts to the heart king. How should South continue?

West was tempted to make a takeout double over three spades, but the vulnerability was unfavorable. Note that five diamonds doubled goes down two, which would be fine at a different vulnerability.

Declarer must concede a trick to the spade ace, so has to eliminate his heart loser. The only way to do that is to take three club tricks. South wins the third trick with dummy’s heart ace, plays a club to his king (the honor from the shorter side first) and returns a club to dummy’s jack. When that holds, declarer discards his last heart on the club ace and plays a trump.

Look for the Saturday Bridge and Chess and local Bridge results in the new Saturday Fun & Games section