ACES ON BRIDGE

“Castles in the air — they’re so easy to take refuge in. So easy to build too.”

— Henrik Ibsen

Take the East cards for this defensive problem from the semifinals of the 1998 Mcconnell Cup. Your partner issues a preemptive raise to three hearts and then leads the heart king against four spades. (Normally, this is not a bright idea with enough assets on the side that you might want your partner on lead.) How would you defend?

Your partner is marked with at least four hearts for her jump, so you know only one round of that suit will stand up. Dummy's diamonds are threatening for discards, so you should go after clubs at once, and that is better done from your side of the table in case declarer has a tenace. Furthermore, you need to lead a high club to retain the lead when declarer has something like ace-queen-low. The best defense is therefore to overtake with the heart ace and table the club nine. Today, that would set up two club tricks for the defense to go with the diamond king.

East did overtake the heart king with the ace but rather lazily continued with a second heart, and declarer ruffed and drew trumps. After losing the minor-suit finesses, a good guess in diamonds later produced plus 420 and 6 IMPS.

The right way to tackle the diamonds is to lead the ace and then play low; if East has the diamond king, this line at least breaks even. If West has the diamond king, the club finesse must work. In the other room, West made a simple raise to two hearts, after which North merely competed to three spades, for plus 170.