At times in a crunch game of Bridge between good sides, both sides fight it out to the last giving nothing away by way of un-forced error. In one of the world championship match between Germany and Netherlands, wherein at one table where the German south was declarer in 3NT on the following NS hand, after west had overcalled spade the opening lead was the QS:
After QS led by west, east played low and south perforce had to take his SK leaving the spades now vide open. Holding 17 HCPs to dummy's 9 gave him a tally of 26. South's overcall however sunk his heart for he knew that most likely both minor king were with west giving him little hope to eat the cherry.
But still as south, what would be your line of play? Do you give up, or try to go for the making of the contract on the lie of cards that offer hope - and that is placing the singleton king of clubs with west. Of course the German declarer was too pessimistic to hope for a singleton king and so crossed over to the dummy by over taking his KH with the ace of heart and went all out to take the diamond finesse which if on, would yield him the required tricks. His line of play was not too unreasonable.
For, he felt that even if KC was with east the finesse would not solve his problem with JC out, unless east held KJ doubleton. Before we lift the curtain on the actual holding of the west hand, let us go to the other table and find out how south made his move at trick 2 after winning the KS. The bidding at this table had been as under:
Here too on the same opening lead of QS, won by the KS, the Dutch player took his maximum chance of combining both his alternate lines of play. For he made the fine "extra chance" play by laying the A of clubs. Voila! West' KC made its appearance making the maxim of Bridge ring lot of bells that dropping singleton king is the hallmark of experts. The declarer was over joyed for he knew now that he held the contact by the scruff of the neck. Yes, for now he could easily overtake the king of hearts with the AQ of hearts and run the 10 of clubs which would yield him the required tricks. For east even if he fails to cover cannot prevent the declarer from now cashing his heart winners and repeating the club finesse to net in all 5 club tricks, 3 hearts, a spade and AD for of an overtrick. By the way, who do you think gained on this deal the Dutch or the Germans?
There is an element of surprise in this fascinating duel of brilliant moves at Bridge for otherwise there would be little point in telling you the past happenings. On the drop of KC, the Dutch declarer in glee overtook the king of hearts with the AQ of hearts and ran the 10C to trap east's holding of J654. Guess what happened west produced the JC and the heavens fell for poor south east west rattled off the 4 spade tricks for the same result. But west needs to be congratulated for his extra ordinary defense - for he had the KD- singleton and the KJ of clubs doubleton. Had he not dropped the KC on the AC south may well have gone for his only hopeful alternate move of playing the AD to drop west's KD singleton and so make the contract. True both sides made some highly accurate moves for maximizing their chances of success and both deserve applause for their sighted Bridge wherein both were equally good.
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North South
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9 8 4 K 2
A Q J 6 K
Q 10 9 A J 7 5 2
10 8 7 A Q 9 3 2
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S W N E
- P P P
1D 1S DH P
2C All Pass
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