BRIDGE

He was ready for the first board

The Hengtong Group 17th World Youth Bridge Team Championships took place in Wujiang, China, last month. The venue was a two-hour drive west of Shanghai. Many bridge players are more prone to make a mistake on the first board of the day than any other because the brain hasn’t moved into top gear. That did not apply to South, Giovanni Donati from Italy, but did to East. This was the first board of the whole tournament. North showed at least 5-5 in the red suits, then aggressively pushed into game. West led the spade king, taken by dummy’s ace. How did Donati proceed? Declarer played the club nine to his jack and West’s ace. West shifted to the heart jack. South won with his king and played a diamond to dummy’s seven. East took that trick with his nine and returned a spade, ruffed on the board. Now declarer made the key play, leading dummy’s diamond king. He ruffed away East’s ace, drew trumps and conceded one diamond to East’s jack. Donati lost only one club and two diamonds. How did Donati find this play? East had paused noticeably over four hearts. Clearly, he was thinking about making a penalty double. The only reason to justify that would be good diamonds. Finally, though, did you notice the tough defence that East missed? He would have defeated the contract if he had not covered the diamond king with his ace. Then, if declarer had drawn trumps, he would have lost one club and three diamonds. Or, if he had persevered with another diamond, West would have overruffed South.