BRIDGE

The name of Shri DV Gore may not strike a responsive chord, but Mr Gore earned a niche in the Bridge Hall of Fame as the result of an unusual play he made in a tournament staged many years ago in Calcutta. The hand was published in the Indian Bridge World Magazine.

Gore was East, defending against four hearts. West led the ace of clubs, a very fortunate choice for his side, and then shifted to a trump. Declarer won the trick in dummy and returned a spade, losing the nine to West’s ten.

West led another trump, and it was on this trick that Gore made his extraordinary play: he discarded the ace of spades!

As a result, South had to go down one, as there was no way for him to avoid losing two more spade tricks. When he next led another spade from dummy, West won with the jack, removed dummy’s last trump and eventually scored the setting trick with the king of spades.

To appreciate the effect of Gore’s play, let’s suppose he had made the more prosaic discard of a diamond or a club on the second trump lead.

In that case, Gore would have been forced to win the next spade lead with the ace. Regardless of what he then returned, South would be able to ruff a spade in dummy and so make the contract.

Gore realised that the ace of spades was a liability as long as it remained in his hand, and he therefore got rid of it in a hurry. He knew from declarer’s first spade play that his partner was practically certain to have either the K-J-10 or K-Q-10, since declarer would surely have played a higher spade than the nine if he had held the K-Q, K-J or Q-J.