Goren Bridge

Today’s deal is from the recent World Championships held in Orlando, Florida. The meaning of the North-South bidding is not clear, especially the no-trump bids, and there is no one to ask. North-South are still celebrating their result and are in no condition for questioning. East has given up bridge for chess and is sequestered somewhere practicing his openings, and West cannot be found. We suspect that the five no-trump bid was a request for North to bid his best suit; North apparently misinterpreted this as a request to bid his worst suit. It could happen to anybody.

South ruffed the opening spade lead in dummy and led a low club. East cleverly played low and South, who needed a 3-3 club split anyway, decided to duck this trick. He played the eight and tried hard to keep a straight face when the eight held the trick. Despite this good fortune, there was much to be done.

South ruffed another spade in dummy, crossed back to his hand with the ace of diamonds, and ruffed his last spade with dummy’s last trump.

East refused to over-ruff with his natural trump trick and discarded a diamond. A low heart was led from dummy. East split his honors this time and the jack lost to declarer’s ace. South cashed his two top trumps and started playing on diamonds. East eventually had to ruff a diamond and lead away from his queen-eight of hearts. Declarer had no trouble getting this right and he scored up his remarkable slam.