ACES ON BRIDGE

“Folly, you have conquered, and I must yield! Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain.” — Friedrich Schiller

In today’s deal from a teams event at the 2009 European Open Championships in Sanremo, Italy, Ismail Kandemir and Suleyman Kolata of Turkey were on defense against three no-trump. Here, both defenders found neat maneuvers to defeat the game by giving declarer a sequence of losing options. Kolata sat East when Kandemir led a top heart. Instead of overtaking to unblock the suit, he deliberately ducked, as did South. Now, on the low heart continuation to the king, declarer was seduced into ducking again, assuming the suit to be 4-3. Kolata found the killing shift to a top spade, won in dummy. He ducked declarer’s diamond play and won the second diamond. Then he sacrificed his spade trick to kill the diamonds by continuing with a second top spade. The best declarer could do was take the spade 10, pitching a diamond from hand, then cash the heart ace, but East could keep his clubs and take the last two tricks with a spade and a club winner. Let’s revisit the deal after a similar start: a top heart lead, overtaken by East, followed by a top spade shift when South ducked. East ducked the first diamond and won the second diamond to sacrifice his spade trick in order to kill the diamonds. When the defense started this way against Pierre Zimmermann, declarer overcame the defense by cashing three clubs and a heart, then exiting with a diamond. In the three-card ending, East had a club to cash, but only two spades left, while dummy had spade and diamond winners. ANSWER: You should overcall one no-trump here, despite your small doubleton in a side suit. This is partly a tactical action — you want to make it harder for the opponents to locate an eight- or nine-card fit in either major. Also, though, your hand has quick tricks, and you expect to have decent play for a no-trump game facing a maximum pass. If doubled, will you run? Watch this space.