Bridge

THE eight quarterfinalists in the Bermuda Bowl at the 44th World Team Championships in Wuhan (long-before coronavirus) were generally regarded as the strongest ever. Winners of the round-robin, the US, earned the right to pick their quarterfinal opponents from the fifth to eighth-place qualifiers. England, seventh, were regarded by most as marginally the weakest of those eight and the US duly picked us.

For four out of the six sets, their choice looked misguided. We won every set to build up a huge lead. Take our first deal.

West led the King of Diamonds, declarer, England’s Artur Malinowski, winning dummy’s Ace. The layout is very favourable and any sensible line works. However, I like Mr. Malinowski’s best.

Declarer cashed dummy’s King of Clubs and crossed to his Ace (no risky finesse—lose it and West promptly cashes a Diamond). He then cashed the Ace-king of Hearts. No Queen fell, but he crossed to the King of Spades and ruffed a third Heart. The three-three split revealed, he now crossed to the Queen of Spades and discarded his Diamond loser on dummy’s fourth Heart as East ruffed. Twelve tricks and slam made. It would have taken quite a parlay to beat him.

An alternate winning line after winning the Ace of Diamonds and cashing the two top Clubs is to try three top Spades, hoping the defender follows to three rounds (as here). You can then drop your Diamond loser on dummy’s fourth winning Spade.

With the US North-south languishing in Four Hearts (making Four) at the other table, that was 12 imps to England.

However, in the fifth set the US played brilliantly and eradicated our entire lead. Here was an example of their brilliance. (1) A Diamond short of a classic pre-empt, but such bids do make life very awkward. (2) Would normally have three Diamonds, but wants to further pile on the pressure. (3) Take-out ie bid a major. (4) Normal choice, but passing would have netted 800 points, the defence winning the first six tricks. South would cash the Ace-king of Clubs, give partner a Club ruff, win the Heart return, give partner another Club ruff and the defence would cash another Heart.

Placing East with short Spades on the bidding, both North and South having implied some length, West kicked off with the Ace of Spades. At trick two, he led the nine of Spades as a suit preference signal for the higher-ranking Diamonds (over Clubs), hoping his partner held the Ace-king-queen (likely if he held only six cards, as West had to hope). East ruffed and duly underled his Diamonds, West beating declarer’s ten with the Knave and giving partner another Spade ruff. One down—breathtaking.

Sadly, the US continued their momentum into the last set, overturning our lead and advancing into the semi-finals. The English sextet were soon to be seen on their phones, changing their return flights. But there were English successes elsewhere. The Seniors won the Silver medal and the Women won the bronze—fabulous stuff.