Bridge

This time of year brings a spate of new books. Is it my coming birthday, or do players have a surfeit of book tokens to use up? I have some recommendations. I liked Bridge Quiz Book by Bernard Magee (Collins Willow, pounds 3.99). Try this one.

The bidding was wild and woolly. South opened a weak Two in diamonds (well, he had the announced 4-9 points), West doubled and North raised to 5#. East bid 5! and South contested with an undisciplined 6#. West went on to 6! and North "sacrificed" in 7#. With no control in the enemy suit, East doubled, and all passed.

It was, in a sense, the par contract. East-West can make 6! or 64 (played by West) and, at most, 7# will go only three off. Now should West regard his partner's double as Lightner and perhaps find the best lead of a club? It all seemed too unlikely to West and he plonked down a routine !A. Suddenly South was in with a real chance.

If he ruffs in dummy, draws trumps, and takes a club finesse, he will make it if the clubs are 3-1 or 2-2 with the king right and trumps 2-1. With trumps 3-0 he cannot afford to draw all the trumps because then he will not have enough entries for two club finesses. And what about a not unlikely 4-0 break in clubs?

An important safety play was available: ruff high in dummy and draw only one round of trumps before taking a club finesse. East shows out on the club, but has no trumps left. All over! The last trump can be drawn, the clubs established with another finesse and a ruff, and dummy re-entered with a top trump. If West had planned to defend like this, perhaps he should have sacrificed in 74 - there might not have been a diamond lead!