Bridge LOOKING FORWARD INTO THE PLAY

Chess players need not just to analyze the position as it stands at a given moment, but mentally see where the pieces will be several moves into the future.

Looking down a deal for a bridge player is easier because the number of cards steadily dwindles. In a chess game, there may be no captures for quite a while, so all of the pieces continue to clog up the board.

In today’s deal, South is in four spades. What happens after West starts with three rounds of hearts?

South’s one-spade advance shows 0-8 points. So, if the doubler has insufficient strength to anticipate game opposite 7 or 8 points, he must pass. A raise to two spades invites game if advancer (doubler’s partner) has a maximum. North’s actual jump raise invites game opposite 5 points or more. So, it was a slight overbid, but he liked his good controls (aces and kings) and the excellent five-card spade support. South’s game raise was also a tad optimistic.

South seemed doomed to lose two hearts and two clubs (as the diamond queen was not singleton or doubleton). But he saw one chance. Declarer ruffed the third heart, drew trumps, played off dummy’s diamonds, crossed to hand with a trump, ruffed the diamond jack on the board, cashed the club ace and played another club. When West won with his king, he had to return a heart, conceding a ruff-and-sluff.

Or, that is what declarer visualized. However, West saw the endplay coming. Under the club ace, he dropped his king! Then East got two club tricks to defeat the game.