Contract Bridge

The United States won the 2009 world team championship, defeating its archival, Italy, by 36 IMPs in the 128board final. The showdown between the two bridge giants, whose rivalry goes back more than half a century to the days of the legendary Italian Blue Team, was still in doubt with five deals to play, but the U. S. closed strongly to capture the Bermuda Bowl.

The victorious American squad was comprised of Nick Nickell, Bob Hamman, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell, Zia Mahmood and Ralph Katz. Italy was represented by Lorenzo Lauria, Alfredo Versace, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Giorgio Duboin and Antonio Sementa.

Today’s deal from the final produced a huge gain for the U. S. When Rodwell and Meckstroth held the North- South cards, the bidding went as shown. East’s three diamonds indicated a heart fit, and the bidding followed natural lines thereafter. One can hardly blame Lauria, East, for doubling five spades holding two aces, but Meckstroth lost only the diamond ace for plus 1,050.

At the second table, with Hamman and Zia East- West, the auction took a decidedly different turn:

West North East South 1 ♥ 2 ♣ 3 ♣ 3 ♠ 4 ♥ Pass Pass Dble Pass 4 ♠ 5 ♥ Dble

North led the club queen, ruffed by South, who then made a subtle slip by cashing a top spade before leading a diamond. Zia rose with the ace, ruffed a spade in dummy and then, with characteristic panache, announced that he would run his trumps and that if North had the K- Q of diamonds, the contract would make on a squeeze! This was indeed the case, as North could not keep both clubs and diamonds guarded when the last trump was cashed, so the U. S. gained another 650 points.

Note that if South had not cashed a spade before leading to a diamond, there would have been no squeeze.