Contract Bridge

This deal occurred during the 1979 world championship in the match between Italy and the United States. At the first table, with Arturo Franco and Dano De Falco North-South for Italy, and Paul Soloway and Bobby Goldman East-West for the U.S., the bidding went as shown. Goldman led the king of clubs, dummy played the ace, East ruffed, and the grand slam quickly went down the drain.

De Falco and Franco would, of course, have done much better had they stopped at six spades and scored 1,430 points. Furthermore, they could have bid and made seven notrump for a score of 2,220 points instead of going minus 100! And so, no matter how you slice it, it was not a good hand for the Italians.

It was generally agreed at the time that Franco should have passed six spades. He had failed to grasp the delicate significance of East’s double of five clubs, which instructed his partner to lead a club against any spade contract played by South. Considering that Franco was looking at five clubs, he should have realized that East’s double was surely based on a club void.

At the second table, where Benito Garozzo sat West for Italy, the bidding went:

Here Garozzo judged that North would make six notrump, so he elected to sacrifice at seven clubs. This turned out worse than he expected when he went down nine -- 1,700 points in those days -- and the U.S. gained 1,800 points on the deal. Tomorrow: Lost in the twilight zone.