Bridge Andrew Robson

Freak hands usually occur only in goulash deals, or in the minds of creative journalists seeking to sensationalise. However, South’s hand actually occurred at the table – in the British Gold Cup semi-finals. Only one North-south pair reached the Grand Slam in diamonds and that declarer failed to make his contract. Yet 7 ♦ is makeable – can you see how? (1) You’ll open many weak hands with an eight-card suit at the four level. However, West’s hand is so poor, he sensibly bids a level lower. (2)Partner must have solid diamonds, so there shouldn’t be any fast losers. Whether there are 13 winners may be another matter… Declarer has 12 top tricks but it is not easy to see how he can manufacture a 13th. At the table, declarer attempted to establish spades and, when that proved fruitless, took a double club finesse by running ♣ 10 and hoping for West to hold both ♣ Q and ♣ J. No good. The best line on ♥ Q lead is as follows. Win ♥ A, discarding ♣ 2, and ruff ♠ 3 with ♦ Q. Cash ♦ A, drawing the two missing trumps, and lead ♦ 2 to ♦ 3 in order to cash ♠ A discarding ♣ 5, then ruff ♠ 6. West discards, so an extra spade winner cannot be established. Instead declarer starts reeling off his trumps. As he leads his penultimate trump, dummy has ♠ Q 10 and ♣ A K 6 and East has ♠ K J and ♣ Q 7 3. Dummy’s ♣ 6 is discarded and East is ‘trump squeezed’.

East cannot discard ♠ J, or declarer will cross to ♣ K, ruff ♠ 10 bringing down ♠ K, return to ♣ A and cash ♠ Q. But discarding ♣ 3 works no better. Declarer now cashes ♣ A K, ruffs ♠ 10, and enjoys ♣ 10 at trick 13. Grand slam made.

Only an opening club lead breaks up the trump squeeze. ANDREW ROBSON