Goren on Bridge

Peter Fredin has long been one of Sweden’s leading players. He was South in today’s deal, played more than 15 years ago. East had no idea which major his partner held, so his three-heart bid showed support for both majors. This was a warning about the bad split in spades, but there wasn’t much Fredin could do about it. East-West would have had no trouble taking nine tricks in a heart contract.

Fredin won the opening heart lead with his ace and led a low trump to dummy’s queen. West’s discard on the first trump seemed to be a death knell to the contract. Now came a play that came to be known as Peter’s Coup, at least in Sweden. Fredin led a low diamond from the dummy. East innocently played low and Fredin was in charge. Fredin played his 10, which West chose to duck. Fredin continued with a diamond to the king, dropping East’s queen, and led the jack of clubs from dummy, playing East for a doubleton honor. East covered with the queen and Fredin won with his ace. A club toward dummy built a club trick and Fredin was home. Note that one ruff by East would do no damage. East was always going to get one trump trick.

The defense could have done better, of course, but the defense was stressed by an imaginative play by declarer. This deal got a lot of publicity in Sweden at the time. Bob Jones welcomes readers’ responses sent in care of this newspaper or to Tribune Content Agency, LLC., 16650 Westgrove Dr., Suite 175, Addison, TX 75001. Email responses may be sent to tcaeditors@tribune.com.

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