Contract Bridge

Famous hand

It is said that defense is the most difficult part of the game, but in this deal from the 1997 world team championship, both pairs of defenders made short work of declarer’s shaky but apparently icecold (as the cards lay) four-spade contract.

The deal occurred in the quarter-final match between a U.S. team and China. At both tables, North-South bid aggressively to reach four spades, which with normal defense would yield

10 or 11 tricks. Against a heart or low diamond lead, for example, declarer would win in dummy and lead a spade to the king. With the ace onside and the suit divided 2-2, South would most likely finish with 11 tricks, losing only a spade and the ace of clubs. But both Wests found the most effective lead, a club.

Both Easts — Xin Li for China and Michael Rosenberg for the U.S. — took the opening club trick with the queen and made a quick assessment of their prospects. East had to assume the ace of clubs was a trick, and this, plus the ace of spades, would give the defenders three tricks. The question remaining was where a fourth trick might come from.

If West had the ace of diamonds, the defenders had four top tricks, but if declarer had the diamond ace, it would be necessary to score a second trump trick.

Accordingly, both defenders, thinking along exactly the same lines, continued with the ace and another club at tricks two and three. South won with dummy’s king and led a spade from dummy, but both East players rose with the ace of spades and returned a fourth round of clubs, promoting West’s spade queen as the setting trick.

Great minds do indeed run in the same channels.