BRIDGE

Many years ago, a young American girl traveled to Botswana with the Peace Corps. She met a young man there, whom she married, and they made a life for themselves in Africa. Today, Nancy and Diniar Minwalla are, perhaps, Botswana’s top bridge partnership. Nancy was South, in today’s deal.

Twelve tricks would be easy as long as there was no more than one trump loser, so Nancy won the heart opening lead with her ace and started by cashing the ace of spades, getting the bad news. The contract seemed doomed with two sure trump losers, but she carried on by cashing the ace and king of diamonds, then ruffed a diamond in her hand.

She crossed to dummy with the queen of clubs and ruffed another diamond, West following suit again. Next came the ace and king of clubs, discarding a heart from dummy. When West followed to all three clubs, declarer had a complete count on West’s hand.

She led a heart to dummy’s king, then ruffed a heart with the queen of spades. West was helpless! Should he over-ruff with the king, he would have to lead away from his 10 into declarer’s split jacknine tenace. An underruff would be followed by a spade toward dummy’s jack. Twelve tricks either way and a beautifully played slam!