Contract Bridge

Most team- of-four contests today are scored by a scale that converts total point differences attained on each deal into International Match Points. For example, a difference of 20- 40 points in the outcome at the two tables is scored as a gain of 1 IMP for the team that is plus. The scale continues upward from there.

The maximum IMP score possible is 24 and can be achieved only if one team earns a net gain of 4,000 points or more at the two tables. In practice, this highly unusual result is experienced perhaps once or twice in a player’s lifetime. Today’s deal, which occurred in a national team championship, furnishes one of the few recorded specimens of this exceedingly rare genus.

At one table, the bidding went as shown, with EastWest arriving at six spades after East had opened with a strong and artificial twoclub bid. At this point, South, holding a considerably betterthanaverage hand of his own, opted to bid seven hearts, partly as a sacrifice and partly on the off chance that he might actually make the grand slam.

West now had to find the only opening lead that could defeat seven hearts — a diamond. With little to guide him, he tried his singleton club, a move that did not meet with great success. After winning the club, declarer drew trump and discarded his losing diamond on dummy’s sixth club to score 2,470 points.

At the other table, the bidding was equally spirited, and East-West again reached six spades. But here South elected to double rather than try seven hearts. The defenders took their club trick, and declarer scored the rest for plus 1,660.

The combined total of the two results came to 4,130 points, breaking the 24- IMP barrier with a bit to spare. The lone saving grace for those on the losing side was that the extra 130 points cost them nothing at all!