From a defender to a declarer

BRIDGE AND CHESS

Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian professor who helped to develop media theory, wrote, “People don't actually read newspapers. They step into them every morning like a hot bath.”

Don't climb out of the bath until you finish the bridge column! Also, if you think your paper has reprinted yesterday's by mistake, hold thy emails.

Yesterday, South was in three no-trump and went down when the first trick went club 10, seven, two, jack. At the other table in a match between France and the Netherlands, this auction was conducted by Paul Chemla (South, arguably France's best-ever player — and Chemla would agree with that!) and Michel Perron (North, another great player).

How did Chemla play in four hearts after West led a low spade?

In the auction, three notrump showed a balanced raise to four hearts.

Given that the trumps were 5-0, this looked like a tough task. But Chemla took his 10th trick about 40 seconds after starting trick one. He won with the spade king and cashed the heart ace, learning about the bad break. Declarer took his two spade winners and played a diamond to the 10 and king. East returned a diamond. South won with his queen, led a club to the king, cashed the diamond ace and played the last diamond, ruffed and overruffed. West took trick 10 with his club ace and led another club. Dummy retained K-J-4 of hearts, and East Q-9-6. When Chemla ruffed with dummy's heart four, East overruffed, but then had to lead away from the heart queen. South lost only one heart, one diamond and one club.