Bridge and sex

“Women are better. Men are best.” — Alfred Sheinwold on whether men or women make better bridge players.

Certain human endeavors have been male-dominated. They include mathematics, chess ... and bridge. Few women have played in the Bermuda Bowl (the world Open Teams).

Some people attribute this to social influences and assert that evolving societal attitudes will narrow the gap. But some studies suggest that sex hormones affect pre-natal brain development so as to give men an edge in bridge-related skills (and women an edge in linguistic skills).

One of the all-time greats of either sex was Helen Sobel (1910-1969), whose card sense was legendary. She was declarer at today’s 3NT; West led a spade in response to East’s overcall. How should declarer play?

Suppose declarer plays dummy’s four. If East plays the queen, declarer can survive by ducking. But if East plays low, declarer fails. If she takes the jack and leads a club to pursue a ninth trick, West grabs

the ace to lead his last spade, and East cashes three spades when he takes the king of clubs.

Nor can South survive by ducking the queen of spades. East will lead the king next, and since South will then get only one spade trick, she will finish a trick short.

Sobel found the answer: She played dummy’s ten on the first spade and let East’s queen win. The defense had no answer. If East led a second spade, Sobel would win with the jack, and the defenders’ communication would be broken; if instead East ducked the ten of spades to preserve a link with West, declarer would get two more spades.