Aces on bridge

“In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had 500 years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

-- Orson Welles

One of the most successful formats for events in the United Kingdom is Swiss Pairs. An event of 12 eight-board matches typically takes place over three days. The format pits pairs who are doing equally well against one another, and it is now the standard format for the first weekend of the annual Brighton Summer Congress.

Today’s deal features a well-conceived defense by Richard Winter and Phil Godfrey from a recent championship. Against four hearts, West (Winter) found the best lead -his bare spade queen, with declarer winning in hand with the king. Seeing all four hands, one can easily plan the way to defeat South’s game, but as the defenders were not blessed with X-ray vision, they had to rely on accurate signaling to direct the defense.

When South led a low heart at trick two, Winter split his honors. Declarer won with dummy’s ace and continued with a second heart. East discarded the spade nine on this, a card that could not convey attitude since both East and West knew that the dummy had all the missing high cards in the suit. So what should the card mean? Logically, it had to be a loud suit-preference signal for the higher-ranked of the other two suits -- in this case, diamonds.

On winning with the heart queen, Winter underled his diamond honors. Godfrey won with the king and returned a spade. Winter’s ruff with his last trump was the third defensive trick, and the club king eventually set the game.

ANSWER: The range for a balancing call of one no-trump is 11-15, perfect for this deal. Be aware that it might even be right to bid one notrump with this hand if the minor suits were reversed. Possessing a club stopper is less important than describing the range and balanced nature of your hand.