ACES ON BRIDGE

“Since when was genius found respectable?” — Elizabeth Barrett Browning ..................... In this deal from the 2023 Strasbourg championships, Thomas Bessis declared a challenging four spades on the slightly unwise lead of the diamond king. West switched to a trump at trick two to prevent the heart ruff. Declarer won in hand and crossed to the spade ace before leading the diamond queen. He hoped to knock out the diamond ace, using the club ace as a late entry to dummy. After East ruffed in, Bessis overruffed and now needed a double squeeze. He would duck two hearts both to rectify the count and to try to isolate the heart guard in East. In the ending, declarer would hold a club, a heart and a spade in hand, facing dummy’s ace-doubleton in clubs and the diamond jack. When the final spade is led, West must discard a club to keep the diamond guard. Then the diamond jack is discarded, and East must allow either declarer’s heart nine or dummy’s club eight to score the 10th trick. Alas for South, East thoughtfully shifted to the club jack to prevent this. When declarer ducked a second heart, another club came back, cutting the link to dummy and breaking up the squeeze. Declarer had needed to duck a heart at trick three. The defenders would have had to lead a second trump to kill the heart ruff, but now they can no longer knock out dummy’s club entry. Declarer wins the second trump, leads the diamond queen, ruffed and overruffed. With trumps eliminated, he can then duck another heart. He can now win the club shift in hand and run his trumps for the double squeeze. ANSWER: You would like to play the hand in spades, but a two-spade rebid would make it tough to reach game. You have better chances of that by rebidding two hearts, since partner will tend to raise with a fit and a fair hand. A call of three spades is also not absurd here at teams. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, e-mail him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com. Copyright 2023, Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS