ACES ON BRIDGE

In today’s deal, the final one from our foray into the 2018 World Youth Team Championships in China, declarer found himself in a desperate contract. Arjun Dhir played six hearts for USA2 after he had opened the South hand one heart. Once South showed extra shape, it was hard for North-South to stay low. Now it was up to the defense; can you blame West for leading his singleton? Hardly. Declarer could win cheaply and run four rounds of trumps, pitching a diamond from dummy. East (as might we all) pitched a spade, a diamond, and a club on the run of the trumps, then ducked the spade play. Declarer could next ruff out the diamond king, cross back to the club ace and subject East to an unusual squeeze despite still having a trick to lose. (This is known as a squeeze without the count.)

The play of the diamond queen caught East in a position where he was forced to release the spade jack, letting declarer pitch a club from hand, then duck a spade and claim the rest.

It would have done East no good to win the spade, since he held the sole guard in the suit. There is a defense, though it is somewhat hard to find. With repeating triple squeezes (which this became), one should discard from the pivot suit, the one declarer uses for transportation. Clubs is the only suit declarer can use to re-enter dummy, so East must discard the club guard early, and now declarer does not have the entries for a squeeze.