Bridge THE LONGEST NAME TO APPEAR IN 30 YEARS

To start today, two questions. In my first 30 years of writing this column, one declarer had a longer last name than anyone else. How many letters did it contain, and from which country did he come?

At major events, there are sometimes awards for the best bid, declared and defended deals. Rarer is a providence prize. If you end in a crazy contract and bring it home with a combination of skill and luck, you might win some money or a bottle of a local alcoholic beverage. This deal won the appropriately named Heineken Fluke Award at the 1980 World Team Olympiad.

At the other table, after the pair from Thailand reached five clubs by South, the unnamed East-West found the only defense. West led the heart king. Declarer won with dummy’s ace and called for the spade four, but East took the trick with his ace and returned a trump to dummy’s ace. Suddenly there was no way to enjoy dummy’s diamond suit. South lost two spades and one heart for down one: minus 50.

At this table, South charged into six no-trump. (Is there any defense?) West also led the heart king to dummy’s ace. Declarer unblocked his diamond honors, crossed to dummy’s club ace and cashed two diamond winners, discarding the heart five and spade six from hand. Then he called for a spade. Bingo — East had the spade ace and no more hearts: plus 990!

Six no-trump is defeated by a spade to East’s ace and a heart switch.

The answers to the original questions are 18(!) and Greece. The successful South in six notrump was Theodore Triantafeelopoulos.