Goren on Bridge

By now readers are familiar with “Multi-Two Diamonds,” a popular convention throughout the world but restricted for silly reasons in North America. South was Polish World Champion Piotr Gawrys. He did not expect a “correction” to four spades. Such a correction would have delighted him, but the shock might have tested his strong Polish constitution. The sight of dummy may have provided a test of its own, but Gawrys set out to do what great players do — make the best of it.

Gawrys ruffed the opening spade lead in dummy and led a diamond to the jack and ace — a good start!

West continued spades, and Gawrys shed a club from dummy while capturing East’s jack with his ace. He cashed the king of diamonds and the king of spades, discarding another club from dummy. He cashed the ace of clubs and crossed to dummy with a club ruff, then ruffed a diamond in his hand. The fall of the queen from East was a lovely sight, so Gawrys led a heart to dummy’s ace and then another heart. The 3-2 heart split allowed him to claim 10 tricks. What’s the problem?

An opening lead of the queen of clubs would have defeated the contract, but there was nothing to indicate that lead and West cannot be faulted for leading a spade.

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