ACES ON BRIDGE

“A well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one.”

— Thomas Carlyle

At a Cap Gemini tournament, Jason Hackett led his singleton club against four spades. Krzysztof Jassem won with his ace and led a diamond. Hackett won and shifted to the trump jack, but Jassem found the brilliant play of low from dummy! Now if Justin Hackett overtook to give his brother the club ruff, he would lose his second trump trick. So he had to let the jack win, and the defense never obtained the ruff. Four spades made.

When Andrew Robson held the West cards against Ivan Nanev, he switched to the trump nine at trick three. Declarer might still have made if he ducked — it is not so obvious for East to put in the spade 10. But declarer rose with the king, and the contract went one down after the ruff.

In three no-trump by North on a diamond lead, West should put in the 10, knowing that the king must be to his left, to retain defensive communications. Declarer wins the diamond jack and needs to cash all of South's clubs at once (or East can duck a spade and disrupt communication).

Now when declarer plays a spade, West must put in the jack, and East captures declarer's spade king with the ace. A heart shift then beats the game. Declarer cannot take the ace, or when East gains the lead in spades, another heart lead is fatal (hence West's earlier unblock of the spade jack). If declarer ducks the heart ace, West wins and returns the diamond nine, knocking out declarer's last stopper and leaving him no entry to the heart ace.