ACES ON BRIDGE

“All by myself, wrapped in my thoughts, And building castles in Spain and in France.”

— Charles d’orleans

This week’s deals come from the 1998 Louis Vuitton Mcconnell Cup, effectively the women’s world championships, held in Lille, France. Today’s deal sees the silver medalwinning German side picking up a slam swing.

Daniela von Arnim’s one-no-trump opening showed 10-12 points, and after the transfer, the four-diamond call was a self-agreeing splinter. With two key-cards, von Arnim wanted to show suitability for slam without going past game. The four-heart call showed that, but not enough to take control. Now it seems aggressive for North to drive to slam, but that is what Sabine Auken did, leaving her partner in the hot seat.

After a heart lead to the ace, the paucity of entries to hand meant that declarer’s only legitimate chance would involve an unlikely endplay on West if that hand had both club honors and a doubleton diamond, or a miracle in clubs.

Von Arnim drew three rounds of trumps, then played the heart king, a diamond to the ace and a diamond to ruff. This was the critical moment, and the combination of the opening lead and West’s shortness in the majors left declarer in a good position.

She led a heart to the queen and ruffed another diamond, and now knew 12 of East’s original cards; three spades, six hearts and three diamonds. When she next played a club to the ace, she knew that the club queen had to be singleton rather than from the king-queen, so she could lead a club to the jack with confidence. That made 11 rather fortunate IMPS for her side.