BRIDGE

BRIDGE

East-West vulnerable, South deals

NORTH

xA 3 2

uA K 10 8 5 2

vQ 4

wJ 7

WEST EAST

xJ 9 x7 6 4

uQ 6 u7 4 3

v10 8 5 vJ 7 3

wA K 9 6 5 3 wQ 10 8 2

SOUTH

xK Q 10 8 5

uJ 9

vA K 9 6 2

w4

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1x Pass 2u Pass

3v Pass 4x Pass

5w Pass 5u Pass

6x All pass

Opening lead: Ace of w

Two Polish experts bid this deal as shown at an important invitational tournament in Europe some years ago. As the cards lie, this is one of the easiest slams to make that we’ll ever see. Trumps split 3-2, the queen of hearts sits ”in the pocket,” and the diamonds split 3-3. Despite this, the expert declarer failed to make his contract, and his line of play was solid. What could possibly have happened to cause this slam to fail?

What happened is that Zia Mahmood was sitting West! Zia is originally from Pakistan, but is now winning world championships representing the USA. The defense started with two rounds of clubs, declarer ruffing the second. South cashed the king of spades and Zia followed smoothly with the jack! Zia had no particular reason for playing the jack -- it was simply a falsecard that couldn’t cost. Declarer saw that, if he drew all the trumps, he would need a 3-3 split in diamonds or a doubleton queen of hearts -- both against the odds.

South decided to treat Zia’s play as an honest one and he protected himself against a possible 4-2 diamond split. He led a diamond to the queen and a diamond back to his hand, before ruffing a diamond with dummy’s ace of spades. Next came a spade to his eight. Had Zia discarded, declarer would have claimed the balance, but Zia produced the nine to defeat the contract.

Declarer’s line was solid, maybe even indicated, but he might have tried cashing the ace and king of hearts before starting on diamonds. The fall of the queen would have saved the day.

Tribune Content Agency