THE ACES ON BRIDGE

“Science is the search for truth -- it is not a game in which one tries to beat his opponent, to do harm to others.” -- Linus Pauling

Hugh Kelsey represented Scotland 12 times in Camrose matches (the home countries open international series) and won every major Scottish bridge title, as well as the Gold Cup, England’s strongest team event, twice. Originally a teacher, he tried rubber-planting and novel writing before finding his true metier as a bridge writer -authoring or co-authoring about 50 books. The deal featured today is taken from “The Tough Game.”

In a fictional Gold Cup final, you were originally shown only the North and West hands. North had opened the bidding with one diamond; South had responded one spade, and after extracting spade preference, South had gone on to game.

West led the heart jack against four spades and, after two rounds of the suit had clarified the position, East had the problem of organizing a fourth trick for the defense. The danger of playing passively (for example, exiting with a trump) lay in declarer being able to establish dummy’s diamonds. Nor would the ace and another club be sufficient, for then declarer would be able to bring in his clubs and would not need the diamonds.

Sherlock Holmes’ line is on point, about settling for the unlikely when you have eliminated the impossible. At trick three you must rely on partner’s low club at trick two, indicating a club honor. So at trick three return a low club, in the hope that partner can win and return a club. Now, whatever he tries, declarer is a trick short.