jan-digital

English 55 Horror Corner (3) – 12 IMPs Back and Forth Ram Soffer Our last two columns featured bridge disasters which happened long ago. The naive reader may think that such occurrences are a matter of the past and while today’s bridge elite players may not always play perfectly, at least they avoid the most blatant errors. As the following two hands show, this is still far from being the truth. It all happened at the same table during the penultimate session of the 2017 Bermuda Bowl final match at Lyon. Please remember that this was the fourteenth consecutive day of competition without any rest except pair rotation within a team. Board 2. Dealer East, Vul N/S ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ QJT97432 A A4 T2 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ K 9832 J876 KQ65 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ A85 KQT764 K A43 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 6 J5 QT9532 J987 Contract: 4♠ doubled by North, making four West North East South Grue Bessis Moss Volcker 1♣ 1 ♦ Dbl 4♠ Pass Pass Dbl All Pass Playing a strong-club system when non- vulnerable, The Americans (East/West) were unable to find their heart fit. West’s double was game-forcing opposite his partner’s promised 16+ HCP. South bravely overcalled at unfavorable vulnerability, removing any fear North might have had of bidding at the four level. Actually, missing the heart fit should have been excellent for East/West as at the other table five hearts went down after a spade lead. North took his aces, and on the play of a second spade, South’s ♥ J turned out to be higher than any of dummy’s trumps. Against four spades doubled one can easily see four top tricks in the black suit as well as an impending diamond ruff. One would expect a top fair to register a fairly comfortable +500, and what actually transpired was no less than shocking. The ♦ K lead was taken by North’s ace, West playing the six . Grue-Moss were playing upside- down attitude and count and standard suit- preference. The king might have been led from a singleton or doubleton AK. In either case, suit preference made more sense. Moss was hoping for two diamond ruffs. At trick 2 he jumped with his ♠A at declarer’s ♠Q, and after the downfall of his partner’s trump king, he was looking for an entry to his hand in hearts. Result: ten tricks made, France +790 and 12 IMPs. Going up with ♠A may not have been such a terrible play, it would have worked well had the