FRANK STEWART BRIDGE

Checkmate the defense

Few chess masters have also been adept at bridge. Samuel Reshevsky, an American grandmaster, tried bridge. He learned the basics of bidding and play, but because his mind was oriented to abstract analysis, the personal element of bridge was beyond his grasp.

Some dummy-play problems mirror chess; declarer must look several moves ahead. In today’s deal, West leads a heart against 3NT. (Six diamonds would be a fair spot.) Declarer has ample winners, but if he plays low from dummy, East may win and shift to a damaging spade.

Unblock

Say South takes the ace of hearts, unblocks dummy’s ace of clubs and continues with the A-Q of diamonds. East will play low, and then South can’t untangle all his tricks and will fail. South must time the play perfectly. To handle his entry problems, he leads the queen of diamonds at Trick Three and, when East ducks, the jack next. If East ducks again, South leads a heart. He is sure of three diamonds, two hearts, a spade and three clubs.

Daily Question

You hold: ♠ A 4 2 ♥ Q4 ♦ 9 82 ♣ K Q 7 4 2. Your partner opens one heart, you bid two clubs and he rebids two hearts. What do you say?

Answer: Partner isn’t expecting you to pass after you responded in a new suit at the two level. A bid of 2NT (despite your weak diamonds) or a raise to three hearts (hoping he has a strong suit) is acceptable. In a style where a response of two clubs would force to game, you would have responded 1NT with this hand.

North dealer

N-S vulnerable