ACES ON BRIDGE

“Formerly, if you killed a man, it was possible that you were insane — but now, if you, having friends and money, kill a man, it is evidence that you are a lunatic.”

— Mark Twain

At the 2002 World Championships, this board came up in the semifinals of the McConnell Cup. Randi Montin declared three no-trump on the challenging lead of the diamond two.

She guessed well to play low from dummy, and East erred when she put in the seven, letting Montin score her eight. Montin now tried to set up the clubs by passing the club queen (though the shortness of entries to hand might suggest the alternative approach of leading to the ace). When East eventually shifted to the spade nine, declarer came to nine tricks by setting up an extra spade trick after endplaying West in diamonds.

In the other room, Kerri Sanborn led a diamond to her partner Irina Levitina’s jack; on the low heart shift, declarer took the queen and also chose to run the club queen to Levitina.

At this point, East seemed to be endplayed: The spade nine went to the jack, queen and king. South cashed the spade ace to find the bad news there, but Levitina made the critical play when she pitched a heart on this trick. Declarer did her best by cashing the diamond ace-king and club ace, then exiting with a club. However, Levitina won that and returned a club, and declarer, down to all hearts, had to play the ace and another heart. This meant that Levitina had the last two tricks with the heart king and the 13th club. Had she pitched a club on the second spade, she could have been endplayed in hearts to lead that suit back at trick 12.