Bridge is a game of some intelligence which coupled with a strong intuition and foresight can produce some spectacular plays in Bridge whether in dummy play or defense. Today's illustration is one taken from a very famous rubber Bridge session played by no less than the Emperor Bao Dai who was then on the Indo-China throne and his partner was one of the greatest French Bridge expert Blaizot. The game was being played at the Dalat palace of the Emperor who was sitting east with Blaizot as his partner as west. Being declarer west opened the bidding and the Emperor's hand as east was as under:-
The bidding proceeded as under:-
The opening lead from west was the AC with the following dummy showing up as under:
Before proceeding further let me put the reader in the Emperor's seat as east and see if you can match the defense put up by the Emperor.
Well, as east you have 2 more aces to the ace taken by your partner making up 3 tricks for the defense. You need 2 more tricks to down the contract. Can you plan your defence to that effect looking at the dummy and the bidding? South's 3D bid places him with a lot of diamonds and his 3NT bid looking to his probable singleton or void in clubs would surely place him with a lot of spades too. If he has the required kings in the key suits, most likely the declarer would try to get past your aces for running his diamonds. If he can score 4 or 5 diamonds after your ace of diamonds is knocked out, his 3 heart tricks in dummy along with the KC and even possibly the KS in his hand would give him a lot more tricks than the required 9. Does if then mean that the defense has little or no chance to put up a challenge to the declarer's aspirations? If yes, how? As east you want to see whether west continues with a club in order to enable him to run his suit with flourish when and if he gets an entry into his hand. Suppose you signal to your partner with the discard of the heart 6; a neutral discard to tell him that you have no entrance in hearts but probably have a spade stopper and that all he has to guard is the remaining suit of diamonds that the declarer had bid in the first place.
So far with you planning, perhaps you have at best discarded a higher heart than warranted and await what the partner plays next. There is however no doubt that your partner releasing the AC from a tenace holding of AQJ and that too no less than from a 7 carder, west is planning to play his QC next come what may as his only hope looking at the dummy. Supposing, if and when he does so, what would you signal next? Perhaps the lowest heart as a preference signal for the other suit. Even if that signal is not taken as meaningful at least the spade signal would be registered with your partner which ever heart you throw next. For surely it is difficult to release any spare card from spades or diamonds.
Let us now reveal the fascinating defense put up by the Emperor as east which at first may look fairly absurd. On the ace of clubs, the Emperor sitting east, discarded the ace of diamonds much to the astonishment of the by standers who were watching incredulously thinking perhaps the Emperor was tired and was defending senselessly. That was not all. More fireworks were to follow when Blaizot played next the QC. The Emperor to the horror of the spectators threw the ace of spades! The only defense to beat the contract for the west-south hands was as under:-
Had east not unblocked his aces, south had easy access to 10 tricks whatever suit he tackled - spades or diamonds. Now the stoppers lay with west in both suits and the contract was doomed.
It remains still the most spectacular double unblocking defense in the annals of Bridge.
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A 10 3
J 10 8 6 5 4 3 2
A 10
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W N E S
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3C Dbl P 3D
Pass 3H P 3NT
All Pass
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9 5
A K Q
J 8 3
K 8 6 5 3
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West
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J 4 2
Q 2
A Q J 10 9 7 4 2
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South
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K Q 8 7 6
Q 7
K 9 7 6 5 4
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