North-South vulnerable. South deals.

North-South vulnerable. South deals.

NORTH

xA K J 4

uA 5

vQ 8 6 4

wA 4 2

WEST EAST

x7 6 2 x9 8 5

u6 u9 8 4 3 2

vA K 10 5 2 vJ 9 3

wJ 9 8 7 w6 5

SOUTH

xQ 10 3

uK Q J 10 7

v7

wK Q 10 3

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1u 2v 3v Pass

3u Pass 4v Pass

4u Pass 6u Pass

Pass Pass

Opening lead: King of v

“I am constantly amazed by the seemingly magic plays found by experts,” writes a reader. “Is there any way an average player can master expert technique?”

For the most part, no! However, there are some aspects of the game that can be learned. Here is an exercise in logic from a World Open Pairs Championship. Sitting West was Brazilian world champion Gabriel Chagas.

Against six hearts Chagas led the king of diamonds and East followed with a discouraging three. (East should probably have encouraged a diamond continuation to make sure declarer was forced to ruff.) After only a few moments’ thought, Chagas continued with the ace of diamonds, setting up dummy’s queen! Declarer ruffed, but East now had a long trump which proved to be the setting trick. How did Chagas know?

It was obvious that East held little or nothing in the way of high cards. If declarer had six hearts, Chagas could count 12 tricks for North-South, so Chagas assigned only five hearts to declarer, giving East five hearts. Therefore, continuing with the ace of diamonds was the only hope.

If declarer held either two or three diamonds, the ace would cash. If the declarer held a singleton diamond, he could ruff, but trump control had now passed to East. Simple, when you come to think of it!

2008 Tribune Media Services