ACES ON BRIDGE

Turkey’s Senior Team won its country’s first-ever European Teams Championship a couple of years ago. This hand features a well-reasoned play by Orhan Ekinci, a member of that team.

Against four spades, West led his singleton heart, and South rose with dummy’s ace. The play seems straightforward: Draw trumps, then pitch a heart on the third diamond and play on clubs for 11 tricks if the club queen sits onside, or for 10 if not.

But Ekinci had to reassess when, at trick two, he discovered he had a trump loser. How to proceed? One line would be to play three rounds of diamonds, discarding a heart from hand, then finesse East for the club queen. East was less likely to have the club ace as well as his strong heart holding, for then he might have opened one heart. And, indeed, that is how the play went at many tables.

However, Ekinci already knew that West held a singleton heart plus four spades, whereas East had six cards in the majors. If West also held four diamonds, he could be endplayed. So declarer cashed three rounds of diamonds, shedding a heart, then led dummy’s fourth diamond, on which he pitched his last heart. West won, but was now endplayed in the black suits. Incidentally, had East produced the fourth diamond, Ekinci would have ruffed high and played a low spade. He would still have come home had the club queen been wellplaced for him.