Bridge and crossword
THE most played contract in Bridge is, you’ve guessed it, the ubiquitous Three Notrumps. Second is Four Spades, third Four Hearts and fourth One Notrump. We’d better practice our Three Notrump contracts then.
West leads the King of Hearts, East encouraging with the eight (holding the equal-honour Knave) and you duck. West continues with the seven of Hearts (low from three remaining) to the Knave and you sensibly decide to win the Ace, as you fear a Club switch. At trick three, you lead and pass the Knave of Spades. East wins the Queen and leads his third Heart. West wins the ten and cashes the Queen, all three other players discarding Clubs. At trick six, West leads their second Spade (best). You win dummy’s Ace of Spades and must refrain from cashing the King because you do not know what to discard from hand. Instead, you cash three rounds of Diamonds, but crucially you cross to the Ace-queen so you can finish in dummy on the third round. The five-one Diamond split is soon revealed as East discards a Club on the second round. However, what can East discard on the third Diamond. He cannot let go of a Spade, or dummy’s Spades will be promoted. So away goes another Club. You now cash the King of Spades, West discarding, but, having squeezed East down to only two Clubs, you lead dummy’s Club to your Queen, the finesse successful, then cash the Ace, felling the Knave and King, and enjoy the last trick with your lowly four of Clubs. Nine tricks and game made. Our second Three Notrumps from a high-stake game also involved squeeze-play. The defence will not have been thrilled with their performance.
West led the ten of Spades, East winning the Ace and switching to the Queen of Hearts, ducked all round. At trick three, East led the Knave of Hearts, declarer winning the King. Hoping for Clubs to split, at trick four declarer led a Club to the King and was disappointed when East discarded (a Spade). At trick five, declarer ducked a Club, East discarding a Diamond. After winning the Club, West led a low Spade, declarer winning the King and leading another low Club. West won (as East discarded a Heart) and it was last-chance saloon for the defence. West needed to switch to a Diamond to break up the squeeze. When West chose a Spade, the end was nigh. Declarer won the Queen of Spades and cashed the Ace-thenten of Clubs. What could East discard on the last Club—from the Ace of Hearts and Queen-knavenine of Diamonds? A Diamond would promote dummy’s AceKing-ten but when he let go of the Ace of Hearts, declarer could enjoy a long Heart (or two), then leading to dummy’s top Diamonds. Nine tricks and game made.