WOULD YOU EVEN THINK OF IT?

I moved to the United States from London in 1985. Twelve months later, the world bridge championships were played in Miami. I was very surprised when Londoners Glyn Liggins and Andy Robson reached the final of the open pairs. Why surprised? Because I had never heard of them. They had gone from unknowns to world finalists in one year.

They did not get close to winning, but since then have gone from strength to strength, especially Robson. He has one gold, two silver and three bronze world championship medals. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to bridge and charity. He is also the bridge columnist for The Times newspaper in London. In today’s deal from that column, Liggins was sitting East. South was in three no-trump. West led a fourth-highest heart two. What did Liggins do after winning the first trick with his heart ace?

Liggins knew that his partner had exactly four hearts, and if he had had a five-card suit, he surely would have led from that. So West had 1=4=4=4 distribution. This meant that South had 0=4=2=7, making a diamond switch look appealing. However, on this deal South would have claimed his nine winners.

Liggins realized that a diamond shift could wait until trick three. Since declarer had no way to reach the dummy, Liggins cashed his spade ace!

What could South do? If he pitched a heart, the defenders would take one spade and four hearts. But when declarer discarded a club, East shifted to a diamond, and South had to go down one. Beautiful.