ACES ON BRIDGE

Man has to awaken to wonder — and so perhaps do peoples. Science is a way of sending him to sleep again.

— Ludwig Wittgenstein Continuing our look at the 45th World Teams Championships last year, here is a defensive problem for East.

You raise partner’s weak jump overcall, but South comes again with a takeout double. South eventually plays in four hearts on the lead of the spade two.

At trick one, your spade queen forces declarer’s ace. Next come a heart to the ace and another heart to your king, your partner following with the two and three, suit preference. How would you defend from here?

It seems normal enough to return a spade and hope to score two tricks in the minors, but that is extremely unlikely to happen. West would have led a singleton club if he had one, so declarer must have either two or four clubs (assuming you can beat the contract). If his shape is 2=4=5=2 with ace-10-fifth in diamonds, he is likely to get the diamonds right anyway. He would surely mark West with more than one diamond once he failed to lead the suit, and he would naturally start with the diamond ace from hand. There would be no guess from then on. It follows that you must try a club shift, hoping declarer has four clubs and partner can ruff.

Even without this reasoning, consider your partner’s unusual spot-card opening lead, playing fourth-highest leads. He cannot have only four spades; he must be trying to give you an “alarm clock” signal for an unusual defense.

If you play a club, partner ruffs, cashes the spade king and exits in diamonds. Declarer cannot avoid a further club loser now. ANSWER: It is often worth raising partner’s weak two when you have honor-doubleton, if only to make life harder for the opponents. They probably have a making contract somewhere, but they may struggle to find it after starting at the three-level. So bid three hearts. Additionally, this may sometimes help partner lead a heart against the opponents’ final contract.