Contract Bridge

Crime and punishment

It is hard to explain or justify some of the horrendous goings-on that occasionally occur in the annual world championship. For example, take this deal played in the match between Pakistan and Sweden in 1983.

With Pakistan North-South, the bidding at the first table went as shown. North's two-diamond bid was artificial and showed a balanced hand with lots of high-card points. East's three-diamond bid was natural and indicated lots of diamonds. North's double was essentially for takeout.

South responded three spades, and North, overwhelmed by his 20 high-card points and excellent trump support, raised to four spades. This ill-advised move — based not on real tricks but on points — proved disastrous. West led his singleton diamond, and the Swedish pair took seven tricks in a row to extract an 1,100-point penalty.

East won the diamond lead with the ace and returned the deuce of diamonds, asking for a club return after West ruffed. West duly obliged by leading the queen of clubs, covered by the king and ace. East then cashed the jack of clubs before leading a third round of diamonds.

The hapless declarer ruffed with the ten of spades, which was over-ruffed by West with the jack. West then returned another club, ruffed by East, who cashed the ace of hearts to put an end to the slaughter.

At the second table, where North was also overly impressed by his points, the Swedish pair similarly got to four of spades. Luckily, they were not doubled and managed to go down only three, so Sweden gained 800 points on the deal.