Bridge is indeed a game of logic and simple reasoning. It has its own requirements according to the ends in view. In other words, the level of the Final contract determines the nature of declarer play, imbuing it with the motivational factor to reason out the winning play based on simple inferences of logical play.
The art of declarer play rests on the principle of maximising winning chances with the minimum of risk. Hence in bridge importance is given to safety plays in a team event of competitive bridge. Today we have 2 illustrations that reflect the importance of safety play and logical inference.
Let us begin with the first one and see how we fare in it as south in a grand slam contract of 7D based on the following: North south hand: The bidding has gone as under:
The opening lead is the club king taken in dummy by the ace. Putting yourself in the south seat, how do you go about in the making of your grand slam? As you take stock of your tricks, you see on the face of it a club loser and a spade loser even if spades break 3-2 and more if they break adversely 4-1.
Well, the vital question after trump extraction at trick 2 is: what next? In bridge it never pays to the hasty. Did you discard a club on the ace of heart? Well if you have, you can bid goodbye to the grand slam. What should be the logical plan to make 7D? Obviously the spade loser is inevitable unless you find a way to redress this hopeless situation. Logic provides the answer. You must discard 2 spades on AK of hearts and then bank on a 3-2 spade break to park your club loser next. No other plan can work once you discard 2 spades from dummy, play AK of spades and ruff a spade to find spades breaking 3-2. Now your fourth spade being master can take care of a club discard from dummy. Lots of good declarers have suffered from a blind spot in bridge in their haste to overlook the safety play and the logical deduction in the context of the contract bid. Anxious to discard a club loser staring immediately, one can, in a blind spot miss the winning line of play.
In our second illustration north south hold the following cards: As stated, different level of bids acquire different strategies of play. Supposing we are in a 3NT contract on a heart lead taken by AH and back a heart. How would you cash in? Obviously 4 spades, 1 heart, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs give you 9 sure tricks. So you forget the finesses in the minor suits and cash in your 9 winners by not risking a losing finesse to let the opponents run wild with their hearts.
Similarly, if the contract was 6NT, your play would vary considerably. For you would be forced with no choice but to bank on a diamond finesse to make 12 tricks, ignoring the club finesse, which can only give you 4 clubs on a club break of 3-2, coupled with 4 spades, 1 heart and 2 diamonds totalling 11 tricks-well short of your little slam.
Hence the diamond finesse becomes mandatory. But what if you are in 4NT? What is your line of action now? Now either a club or diamond finesse would do the trick. But the question is which one gives the optimum chance? Here the 'combination of chances' principle in bridge needs to be remembered again. Yes, cash top honours in the longer suit in an effort to drop the queen and in case Q does not drop, then next go for the club finesse of the queen, in the shorter suit. For in bridge, it pays to be safe and logical.
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North South
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A965 K832
- AK7
AQ108652 KJ97
AJ 86
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North South
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KQ6 AJ87
Q10 K9
KJ1094 A82
A75 KJ82
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S W N E
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1D P 1S P
2S P 4NT P
5H P 7D
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ALL PASS
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