Goren Bridge

Today’s deal is from a recent match between a team from Sweden and a team from Russia. To take 12 tricks, declarer must draw trumps, eliminate the hearts and clubs from both hands, and then play the ace and another spade. Should either defender have started with a doubleton spade composed of two honors, he will be forced to yield a ruff-sluff and give declarer his twelfth trick. There is also a chance that a defender started with a doubleton king of spades. He can avoid the endplay by dropping his king under the ace, which is exactly what an expert will do if declarer waits until the end of the hand to cash his ace of spades. The idea is to cash the ace early before the defender can see what is coming.

At the other table, the slam was reached on a different auction that made South the dummy. Swedish expert Fredrik Nystrom ruffed the opening club lead in dummy and immediately led dummy’s ace of spades. The Russian East played his low spade to this and fell victim to the endplay five tricks later.

At this table, where South was the declarer, the opening club lead was ruffed and

adiamond was led to dummy’s ace. A low spade from the table put young Swedish expert Ola Rimstedt to the test. He scored an A-plus by rising with his king of spades. There was no way for the declarer to avoid two spade losers and the slam was defeated. Well done at both tables!