ACES ON BRIDGE

At the European Open Championships in Poznan, Poland, Sjoert Brink and Bas Drijver of the Netherlands continued to make the case that they are among the world’s top partnerships. They shone in both the bidding and the play in this deal. The partnership plays the four-diamond response to one club to show long hearts, better than an immediate jump to game, so South, Drijver, took control and drove to slam after using Key-card Blackwood. Drijver had arranged to conceal his diamond shortage from the defenders. So when Jean-Christophe Quantin led the diamond 10 to his partner’s king, Marc Bompis continued the attack on diamonds. Of course, with the South hand on view, it would have been easier to find the club switch, which breaks up any pressure in the endgame. Drijver ruffed the second diamond and ran all but one of his hearts, pitching all his small clubs. He reduced down to four spades and the club ace in hand, and two spades, two clubs and a trump in dummy. When the trump eight was led, East pitched a club, as did South. West decided to hold on to his spades; otherwise, declarer would ruff the fourth spade high with the club ace as an entry. So West bared his club king, but Drijver read the position and crossed to the club ace, scoring dummy’s club nine as the 12th trick. Incidentally, the reason Drijver rejected the club finesse and played for the crisscross squeeze was that East was a passed hand who had already shown eight points in diamonds.