Contract Bridge

The 1995 Bermuda Bowl, held in Beijing, featured two firsts: the first time a world championship was held in China, and the first time Canada and the United States faced each other in the final round.

The U.S. squad downed their northern neighbors by 43 IMPs in the 160-deal final, surviving a late Canadian surge that brought them within 13 IMPs with 14 deals to play.

Today’s deal -- No. 147 -- helped stem the Canadian onslaught. Both Souths reached four hearts, and at both tables the opening lead was a top diamond followed by the club seven, declarer winning East’s ten with the king.

When Canada’s Eric Kokish

was declarer, he led a heart to the ace at trick three and returned the queen. After East showed out, there was no way declarer could escape the loss of two trump tricks, a diamond and a club, and he finished down one.

Kokish’s play in the trump suit would have limited him to one trump loser if the trumps had divided 3-2, or if East had held the singleton king or K-10-x-x of hearts, but it did not guard against K-10-x-x in the West hand.

At the other table, Eric Rodwell of the U.S. adopted a different approach to the trump suit designed to overcome K-10-x-x in either hand. He led a trump and finessed the queen at trick three. When this held, he crossed to his hand with a spade, led the heart seven and let it ride!

Had the seven lost to the ten, that would have been South’s only trump loser. As it was, West could score only one trump trick, and Rodwell finished with 10 tricks for a 10-IMP gain.

It would seem that Rodwell’s line of play had more to recommend it than his counterpart’s. Kokish’s approach would have guarded against the singleton king in the East hand, but since East was three times as likely to hold a singleton small heart as the singleton king, Rodwell’s line appears to be superior.

Tomorrow: To win or not to win?