Contract Bridge

Bridge is an easy game -provided you make the right bids and plays all the time. Fortunately, the right bids and plays can usually be logically deduced.

Consider this deal played by Emma Jean Hawes in the National Open Pairs championship the year she won the event with Dr. John Fisher as her partner. She reached four hearts as shown. She then did nothing sensational -- just the right thing each time it was her turn -- and wound up making four hearts, something the other declarers in that contract failed to do.

The first good play by Mrs. Hawes was to win the opening diamond lead in her hand, not the dummy. She had already planned the play of the hand entirely, and this required winning the first diamond with the queen. Then, after three rounds of trumps, Mrs. Hawes led a spade and finessed the nine. Why the nine? We’ll come back to that in a moment.

East won with the queen

and led the A-K-Q of clubs. Mrs. Hawes ruffed, played a diamond to the king and led the king of spades. East covered with the ace, making dummy’s jack a trick, and declarer later discarded her diamond loser on it.

The bidding provided

the clue for the deep spade finesse. East’s notrump bid had indicated 16 to 18 points, so he had to have both the ace and queen of spades. Playing dummy’s jack or king was thus a hopeless gesture, but playing the nine would succeed if West had the ten.

The reasoning was certainly simple enough. All that was needed was the presence of mind to play the nine. Tomorrow: High-class defense.