ACES ON BRIDGE

“A person whose mind is distracted lives between the fangs of mental afflictions.”

— Shantideva

There may appear to be no way to go down in four spades on this deal from the 2006 NEC Cup, part of the NEC Bridge Festival, now held biannually in Yokohama. However, Vladislav Isporski and Valio Kovachev of Bulgaria showed how declarer could be persuaded to do so.

Against four spades, reached after an eclectic auction, West led the diamond queen, which South took with the ace. Realizing that he needed to set up the clubs, declarer advanced the club queen at trick two, which held. Unsuspectingly, South repeated the finesse. Kovachev (East) won his club king and returned a low diamond to West’s jack, and back came a club, which East ruffed with his bare spade queen.

That was the third trick for the defense, and Kovachev exited with the heart ace, one of the two cards — the other being the diamond king — that would lead to the defeat of the contract. Declarer had to ruff, and after cashing dummy’s three spade winners, West’s four-card spade holding meant that declarer was unable to come back to hand without promoting a trump trick for the defense. A more natural line, and one that would have worked on today’s layout, would have been for South to duck the first diamond. He could then win the next diamond and either go after clubs, having cut the defenders’ communications, or play to ruff the third round with the spade 10 immediately. After unblocking his spade winners, he could play a low club from dummy, keeping control of the hand.

ANSWER: I would overcall one spade, with some misgivings. You lack the high-card strength or concentration in your long suits for a two-heart Michaels cue-bid. Nor can you afford to pass with such playing potential. So a simple one-spade call will have to suffice.