Contract Bridge

This deal was played in the final of the 1989 world team championship, which saw Brazil defeat the United States to capture the Bermuda Bowl.

With Hugh Ross of the U.S. South, four hearts was reached as shown. West led a spade to dummy’s king, and Ross played two rounds of trump, West ducking both. Declarer then led a club to the jack, also ducked, and lost a diamond finesse to West’s king.

West’s spade return was taken by the ace, and a club was conceded to the ace. West saw that a diamond or heart return would make it easy for South to score 10 tricks, so he returned a spade, hoping declarer would slip. But Ross did not falter.

He discarded dummy’s third club while ruffing in his hand, cashed the diamond ace and then played clubs, rendering West helpless. If West ruffed with the eight, dummy would overruff and play good diamonds until West scored his trump ace; if

West did not ruff either club, declarer would discard both diamonds from dummy and then lead the diamond ten to achieve the same result. Either way, the contract was home.

When Brazilian star Gabriel Chagas held the South cards at the other table, the play to the first few tricks was essentially the same. But after West took the diamond king and returned a spade to dummy’s ace, Chagas erred by playing a third round of trump instead of driving out the club ace.

West, Chip Martel, made no mistake. He won the heart and returned a heart, drawing Chagas’ last two trumps in the process. With no stopper left in spades and the club ace still outstanding, Chagas could not score a second club trick and so finished down one, giving the U.S. a 470point gain on the deal.