North-South vulnerable. North deals.

North-South vulnerable. North deals.
NORTH
A J 10 8 6 3
5
A J 9 2
A 10
WEST EAST
K 9 4 Q 7
J 9 8 7 4 2 Q 10 6
5 K Q 10 8 7 6 3
J 8 5 2
SOUTH
5 2
A K 3
4
K Q 9 7 6 4 3
The bidding:
NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST
1 3 4 Pass
4 Pass 4 Pass
4 Pass 4NT Pass
5 Pass 6 Pass
Pass Pass
Opening lead: Five of
Can a deal win the award for both best play and best defense? Consider this one from the match between France and Bulgaria at the recent Prokom Software European Team Championship, held in Warsaw.
At one table, Alain Levy (France) played in four spades and made 11 tricks. At the other table, the Bulgarians were more enterprising and landed in six clubs on the auction shown. Four no trump was Key-card Blackwood, and five diamonds shows three of the five key cards (the king of trumps counts as an ace). All that remained was for declarer, Vladimir Marashev (Bulgaria), to make 12 tricks.
West led his singleton diamond, and declarer realized that entry problems militated against ruffing a heart in dummy since West's diamond lead was surely a singleton and a trump promotion was likely. For instance, suppose South wins the opening lead with dummy's ace, cashes the ace of clubs and ace of hearts and ruffs a heart on the table. There is no quick way back to hand without allowing East to gain the lead and play the king of diamonds, promoting the jack of trumps. A similar situation arises if, instead, declarer exits with a low spade. The defenders win and return a spade, and declarer is faced with the same predicament. Try it.
Instead declarer drew three rounds of trumps, ending in hand, and led a spade, intending to finesse. Although that loses to East, declarer can win any return and repeat the spade finesse to take care of his heart loser.
The best laid plans of mice and men went awry when Marc Bompis (France) jumped in with the king of spades! Declarer had no choice but to allow the king to hold. Bompis countered by returning a low spade, putting declarer to an immediate guess. After a few moments' thought declarer rose with the ace of spades, dropping the queen and landing his slam.
This column is written by Tannah Hirsch and Omar Sharif. For information about Charles Goren's newsletter for bridge players, call (800) 788-1225 or write Goren Bridge Letter, P.O. Box 4410, Chicago, Ill. 60680.
& copy;2006, Tribune Media Services
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