Everyone agrees that there are different levels of bridge play, each depending upon how much a player has the vision, foresight skill to communicate and the ability to zero is on his target with consummate ease. Not all of us can reach its highest level. For that is left for the top notch amongst the experts.
For the ordinary mortals, sometimes the winning play becomes so obscure to visualise that it slips by the mental process of trying to find ways and means to achieve success at a contract that on the face of it looks almost impossible to achieve.
But bridge has produced magicians like Zia Mehmood, Bob Hamman. Howard Schenken and a host of others who seem to achieve the impossible. Some of the toughest bridge hands that pose tremendous problems for the declarer who is of average plus and even to some of the experts at bridge, can after some thought he resolves on paper but when it comes to the actual bridge table with the heat on and time limited, many of the best players in the world can flounder and fail to find the winning line of play in these tough nut crackers of bridge.
Today's illustration is an interesting one with highly distributional hands possessed by almost all four competitors so that both the bidding, the final contract, the opening lead and the subsequent defence become very significant in the overall context of funding the winning line enabling the declarer to make the final contract bid.
Let us, take you to the Lederer's club in London where the best Bridge Internationals of Britain conveyed to polish off their game and display extraordinary skills and bridge magic. Of course it goes without saying that in such a field, the bidding, play and defense is expected to be of top notch quality making each duet there as challenging and thrilling as ever.
Let us now left the curtain on the bidding the opening lead and the north south cards placing you in the seat of the expert Adam Meredith who held the south hand as under: The bidding became crowded and as expected made difficult for scientific investigation by a series of high level bids made on both sides, making the final contract and a true test of sound judgment and bridge skill. Let us begin by giving you the bidding:
Once the opening bid of 1C by north was pre-empted by east with 4D, taking the bidding to dizzying heights, it became a bit difficult for south to find the vital key cards north could possibly hold. Of course he tried first the quantum of aces held through 4NJ Blackwood and on the positive 2 aces shown making the first round controls secure in all suits, south had little option left but to bid the little slam in spades holding that solid spade suit with a singleton and an extra ace. True, the little slam was a bit speculative but Meredith backed his bidding with his ability as declarer to conjure up the 12 tricks required.
The opening lead surprisingly was KC and not a diamond - raising the first significant inference that perhaps west was void in diamonds, leaving east with 9 diamonds. When on KC, taken by the AC in dummy, east failed to ruff, throwing the 10D, the second significant inference Meredith grasped was the fact that in lieu of west's, double, east was void in spades giving west all 6 low spades but now making the contract a tough cookie.
Well as south how would you proceed? Would you go for the linesse of the JH, and hope west held both the QH and 10H to give you all 4 heart tricks along with 6 spades and the 2 minor aces making 12 tricks. But wait a minute - there is the real problem of finding a back entry to hand, which can only come via a ruff making you short in trumps in lieu of east's massive holding of all 6 trumps. Nor could declarer hope for ruffing a heart in dummy if west failed to have those vital key cards in hearts.
While for the ordinary mortal such complications would snuff out all hope, Meredith was not the one to give up hope. Meredith was not the one to give up hope. Meredith reasoned that if west held those 3 heart cards, east with 4 hearts and the presume 9 diamonds, with voids in black suits, could he fatally end played so after 6 rounds of trumps, he took the finesse of JH, cashed KH an exited with dummy's 5D forcing east to return a red card. Are you wondering that this was on bid problem for east who could return a diamond to pin dummy with AD? That was impossible for east to do for Meredith had Jettisoned AD on the trump run !
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North South
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4 AKQJ109
KJ A942
A5 Q4
AJ987654 3
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S W N E
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- - 1C 4D
4NT P 5H Pass
6S Double All Pass
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