ource: 51st EUROPEAN BRIDGE TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS Dublin, Ireland
How would you like your chances, as West, of making 6
on this deal? North leads the seven of clubs, which you duck to South’s queen. South switches to a trump. Play on.
Franck Multon faced the problem in Monaco’s Round 8 match against Austria in the Open series. While it takes a bit of seeing, the contract is now unbeatable as there is a squeeze, in which South is put to the sword in three suits and North in two. (Yes, South should perhaps have worked out to shift to a spade to break up the ending; as the cards lie, even a diamond is sufficient to destroy the timing.) Declarer draws trumps, North pitching spades, then plays a fourth round and South must discard either a spade or a diamond, leaving one of these two endings (this being the one achieved at the table):
South has unguarded spades, so declarer cashes the ace of clubs then plays ace and ruffs a spade. The last two hearts now squeeze North. On the last heart, to keep his spade guard, North has to come down to two diamonds. Dummy’s
10 goes away, and now South is squeezed in the minors. If he keeps the club guard, the eight of diamonds makes the last trick.
If South throws a diamond, it obliged North for the time being, to keep all four diamonds. On the nine of hearts, North throws the club and dummy a spade. South can pitch a spade now, but declarer continues with a club to the ace, followed by three rounds of diamonds, ruffing in hand. Now the last heart is cashed and North, who threw a spade on the club ace, must come down to a singleton spade to keep his diamond guard. Away goes dummy’s diamond and now South must also throw a spade to keep the king of clubs. So the ten of spades wins trick 13.
Multon thus earned his team a big swing. Yes, if South switches to either a spade or a diamond at trick two one of the above possible endings is eliminated and careful defence defeats the slam, but that does not detract from Franck’s play.
(As a footnote, while South was contemplating his discard declarer explained the forthcoming squeeze to him and South responded blankly ‘No squeeze!’ He knows better now.)
