ACES ON BRIDGE

“Best while you have it use your breath,

There is no drinking after death.”

— John Fletcher

In today's hand, NorthSouth landed in the wrong strain. It took some inventive declarer-play to recover.

When North had shown support for diamonds, South thought he could choose the final contract, but North had other ideas. Nils Monsted went on to seven no-trump for two reasons: First, it was a pairs tournament. Also, one can argue that if seven diamonds is making, then seven no-trump and seven hearts will also surely be making.

In fact, seven diamonds is hopeless today. Seven hearts can be made by pitching diamonds from North on the clubs, then establishing diamonds, but seven no-trump requires a squeeze.

Monsted took West's slightly risky spade queen opening lead with the ace and ran the hearts, unblocking the diamond nine and eight from hand as East shed three clubs and West a club and two spades.

What should East do when the last heart is played? A diamond discard would give declarer a subsequent diamond finesse for his 13th trick. So East discarded a club, and South threw a diamond. West was forced to guard both minors and gave up the spade jack. Monsted finished his elegant display with a finesse against the spade 10. This rare pearl is called a guard-squeeze — in fact, it is an example of a double guard-squeeze. East had to protect his partner's diamond jack, and West his partner's spade 10.

For the record, West could have done no better by pitching his clubs. East would then have had to unguard the spades, exposing his partner to a simple squeeze in the pointed suits.

ANSWER: Your twoheart response was gameforcing, so you could simply raise to three spades now, but four clubs, a splinter bid, is a more descriptive call. Despite your minimum in high cards, your hand is worth at least one slam try. Your partner will surely know top trump honors are gold dust here.