ACES ON BRIDGE

At the 2000 Politiken tournament in Copenhagen, Vincent Ramondt, who was part of the Netherlands team, found an elegant solution to a nearly unsolvable problem.

He knew Norberto Bocchi, East, held at least five hearts with four spades, but how should he play three no-trump after the lead of the diamond jack? Ramondt took the diamond top cards, noting the distribution, and exited with a spade. Giorgio Duboin had to win the spade king and could already see the endplay looming. He therefore did his best by unblocking the spade ace and exiting with a top diamond. Now Ramondt won the diamond queen and made the key play of cashing the heart ace to extract Duboin’s most dangerous tooth. From there it was smooth sailing. A low diamond put Duboin on play, and though he could cash one more diamond trick, his last five cards were all clubs. Duboin had to present declarer with a club trick next, and on the third round of clubs, Bocchi was inexorably squeezed between his spade queen and heart queen-jack. Nine tricks made on a very imaginative line.

Duboin might have done better simply by winning the first spade and playing clubs immediately, with the idea of setting up club winners for himself if declarer persisted in the elimination. However, declarer would still be able to survive by winning the club in dummy and advancing the heart 10. He could later endplay East in spades to lead hearts into dummy’s tenace for the ninth trick.