A man is judged by his character, a bridge player by his dummy play. Undoubtedly dummy play in bridge is its most important facet and one which forms the bench mark to distinguish better players from the rest. Of course in dummy play, apart from common sense, the good player tries to organise his play in a manner whereby he can not only outfox the opponents but also manage to make the contract he has bid.
At times, the contract looks well nigh impossible to make. Sometimes it is subject to several factors, depending upon how good the opponents are and what impeccable and penetrating defence they put up.
In this race between the declarer and his opponents, the balance tilts either way on more than one occasion, with the see saw continuing till one side succumbs to the inevitable.
Bridge has produced many players of extraordinary calibre whose performance are still recalled in glowing tributes. But sometimes even in a normal deal, declarer manages to play pretty well which immediately puts a halo around his name. Peter Fredin of Sweden is one: His hand on the following deal:
The Bidding:
East led a diamond to dummy's king. Let us now examine the declarer's 3NT prospects. How would you proceed sitting in his chair? Lets first count declarer's possible losers. He has 2 sure losers in clubs missing the top honours, the spade ace and the wrongly placed KH add to 4 losers. But there is more to it than meets the eye for the defence has the added advantage of getting the tempo with the opening lead. For the declarer, 4 heart tricks plus 3 diamonds add to 7 tricks, granting a spade trick out of KQ will add up to 8, declarer still needs to fish for the ninth trick.
What about the club prospects for the declarer? That would still add to only 8 tricks with one heart, 3 diamonds and 4 clubs before west would have his diamonds ready to run, with the spade ace as his entry.
In the actual deal, those who played on clubs were met with a deserved failure for it was transparently clear that in the race between the declarer and the defenders while the clubs would be established for the declarer the defenders would also be ready to run the suit they had a tempo on.
With so many options to choose from it is not easy for the declarer to hit the right spot unless the tight defence falters for a moment to give declarer the momentum to get back on the right track to success.
In bridge it is emphasised time and again to pause before playing on to the opening lead. Here of course since the KD was solo, declarer needed to pause before playing on to the second trick, which would determine the fate of the contract.
In our illustration our declarer Fredin at trick 2 played a heart to his queen. However, this lost to the king with east who shot back another diamond. Now declarer viewing 4 heart tricks, 3 diamond tricks had 7 sure winners. He needed two fast winners before the defenders ran off with the diamonds, holding spade ace as the entry. So declarer needed that entry to be knocked off and at the same time, the much needed 2 fast tricks to establish.
The declarer took his plunge in spades by playing a low spade and east fell from grace failing to split his honours. The slip in defence was irreversible. When east played low, declarer took the much needed deep spade finesse by inserting the 9S. Bingo - it got ace of spades knocked out to give declarer his 2 needed tricks and the contract. Well played by the declarer who took his best shot.
=====================================
North West East South
=====================================
2 A7 J10543 KQ986
AQ4 1087 K3 J9652
AQ9 J108542 763 K
QJ9764 AK 1082 53
=====================================
=====================================
West North East South
=====================================
- - - Pass
1D 2C P 2S
P 3NT ALL PASS
=====================================
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.