ACES ON BRIDGE

“But back on planet Earth they shatter the illusion

The world’s going ‘round in a state of confusion”

— Ray Davies

Here is a great deal from the second session of the 2019 European open pairs final — maybe the best defense of the event.

Against four spades, Henrik Caspersen found the spectacular lead of the diamond queen, which was to have unforeseen consequences as the play unfolded. The lead has some logic, since declarer might have misjudged the play if dummy had the king. Similarly, if East had that card, cashing out might have been essential.

At trick one, Hans Christian Graversen followed with an encouraging two, and West continued with the diamond ace, ruffed by Roy Welland, the declarer. Welland ran the spade queen and then played a spade to the ace. He ruffed a diamond and exited with a spade, West winning and exiting with the diamond 10 as East pitched the heart eight on the third spade.

Declarer ruffed and paused to reconstruct West’s hand. He was marked with three spades to the king, and from the lead and play so far, he appeared to have the five top diamonds. That made it virtually impossible for West to hold the heart king, so East must have held the king plus some length in hearts.

Seeking an endplay when East had 2=3=4=4 distribution, declarer played four rounds of clubs, throwing East in to lead into dummy’s heart tenace. As expected, East held a red king — but when he produced the diamond king, the contract was one down. As you might have guessed, this was a complete top for the defense.