Goren on Bridge

With Bob Jones Both vulnerable, North deals

John Brockwell, from Australia, is well known in his part of the world as a leading bridge administrator. In his younger days, he was considered a very fine player as well. Today’s deal is from the Far East Championships, in Jakarta, in 1989. Brockwell was South.

Seven diamonds was cold, but Brockwell thought that playing in no-trump might be safer. He won the opening club lead in hand with the king and cashed five rounds of diamonds, ending in his hand. He then cashed the ace and king of spades, carefully discarding the 10 and the nine of hearts from dummy. This was the position: Brockwell led the nine of diamonds and West could not defend the position. A club discard by West would make all of dummy’s clubs good. A spade discard would subject his partner to a spadeheart squeeze. West discarded a heart as dummy parted with the nine of clubs. A heart to dummy’s ace dropped the jack from West, so Brockwell discarded his spade on the ace of clubs and took the heart finesse for his thirteenth trick. Very nicely done!

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