Bridge

Holbrook Jackson, a British journalist, writer and publisher who was recognized as one of the leading bibliophiles of his time, said, "Originality is only variation."

Bridge is a great game for many reasons, but one is the seemingly infinite variations on known themes. (Yes, I know that infinite is a big overbid.) In this deal, for example, how did declarer make three no-trump after West led a fourth-highest heart two?

This deal was played in the last round of the first day in Wujiang, China, at last year's World Youth Bridge Team Championships. One of the successful declarers was Maksymilian Chodacki from Poland, who had his left ankle in a cast because he had broken it in a soccer game. It was written up on Bridge winners by Matt Smith from Australia, who sat East.

North opened with a Polish Club, which was usually a minimum balanced hand, but might have been natural or any 18-plus points. His rebid showed a balanced hand with four spades and fewer than four hearts.

South took East's heart jack with his queen and ran the spade six to East's jack. Back came a heart. Now Chodacki led the spade 10 from the dummy, forcing out the queen and pinning the nine. After another spade, East had no defense. He shifted to his diamond, but declarer won and played a club. Chodacki ended with two spades, three hearts, three diamonds and one club.

That was an unusual intra-finesse.

In the other room, the contract was played by North on the lead of the spade king, so it was a flat board.