Contract Bridge

This deal occurred in the 1974 world team championship. When it was played in the Brazil-North America match, the outcome at both tables was four hearts, down one.

The opening lead at both tables was the nine of clubs, and the play followed the same pattern. Declarer won with dummy’s ace and led a trump to the king, on which both Wests played low!

Declarer led another trump, and this time both Wests took the trick as East discarded a low diamond to show lack of interest in that suit. West thereupon shifted to a low spade, and East cashed two spade tricks before giving West the club ruff that sank the contract.

Not very exciting, you might say, since the outcome was a washout. But the fact is that each West made a good play by not taking the king of hearts at trick two.

The great advantage of ducking the king is illustrated by what happened at another table when the same hand was played in the match between Italy and Indonesia. Again the contract was four hearts, and again West led a club. The Indonesian declarer won with the ace and played a heart to the king, but here the Italian West took his ace.

West now had to guess whether to lead a spade or a diamond. He had very little to guide him to the right decision, and, unfortunately, he shifted to a diamond at trick three, hoping to find East with the ace. This didn’t work out well, and the Indonesian declarer finished with an overtrick.

By taking the first heart, the Italian West subjected himself to a difficult guess that could have been avoided had he just been a little more patient.