Le Monde
Picking up a copy of Le Monde while on holiday I soon despaired of my sub-schoolboy French, gave up on the front pages and turned to the bridge column. That surely would be an opportunity to improve comprehension even if my pronunciation would be as bad as ever. However, the deal presented had more than just language problems:
| EW Vul. Dealer West | ♠ --- | ||
| ♥ J3 | |||
| ♦ KQ1097643 | |||
| ♣ KQ10 | |||
| ♠ K87652 | ♠ J104 | ||
| ♥ 7654 | ♥ K82 | ||
| ♦ A52 | ♦ J8 | ||
| ♣ --- | ♣ 86543 | ||
| ♠ AQ93 | |||
| ♥ A109 | |||
| ♦ --- | |||
| ♣ AJ972 | |||
I have done the tricky part –translating the cards from Roi, Dame, Valet to the more familiar initial letters. But wait, that South hand still doesn't look right – it only has twelve cards. To those of you who mention to me that the gremlins have again affected my copy, it's some comfort that it happens elsewhere. The queen of hearts is nowhere to be seen.
| West | North | East | South | |
| Pass | 1♦ | Pass | 2♣ | |
| Pass | 2♦ | Pass | 2♥ | |
| Pass | 4♦ | Pass | 4♠ | |
| Pass | 5♣ | Pass | 6♣ | |
| End | ||||
West led the ace of diamonds – possibly of the view that partner might have a trump trick but surely there was no rush. South ruffed this and played the seven of clubs to dummy, West discarding a spade. How should you play from here?
Well, if South has the queen of hearts as seems very likely, then the answer to that question posed by Philippe Brugnon may appear simple; take the heart finesse for three tricks, a diamond, a spade and seven trumps via ruffing. But there is a safer and more pleasing route.
At trick three lead top diamonds from dummy. Your plan is to use them as trump substitutes. East will have to ruff and your plan is to over-ruff once (with the ace) then repeat the process - but second time East trumps a diamond, you discard. The two ruffs reduce the defensive length to dummy's and now you can win the major suit lead, draw trumps with dummy's honour and claim. East does best to void himself in spades:
| ♠ --- | |||
| ♥ J3 | |||
| ♦ 7 | |||
| ♣ K | |||
| ♠ K8 | ♠ --- | ||
| ♥ 76 | ♥ K82 | ||
| ♦ --- | ♦ --- | ||
| ♣ --- | ♣ 8 | ||
| ♠ AQ | |||
| ♥ A | |||
| ♦ --- | |||
| ♣ J | |||
East is on lead having just ruffed in and been allowed to hold the trick. South must save a spade with his top cards and now when a heart comes through, South wins the ace (he never needed the queen) and ruffs the spade queen. The seven of diamonds now ensures the contract without South ever having to count or guess East's distribution.
Was this the answer M. Brugnon was after? Unfortunately the solution is to appear next week and regrettably I am no longer in France.
Published Saturday 7.Jul.2007