BridgeBridge
In the World Championships held in Rhodes eight years ago, the Chinese women displayed excellent form in the qualifying round, eventually losing in the finals to the United States. However, when they took on Denmark, the latter scored heavily on this deal.
In the other room the Chinese had advanced no further than three no-trump after some intervention in diamonds when both hands took very pessimistic views. The bad club split must have seemed like excellent news to them. However, after the Danish North (playing four-card majors) had opened one heart, South (Bettina Kalkerup) had responded two clubs, and West overcalled three diamonds, there was a dispute as to the meaning of North’s double. North intended it for penalties, Kalkerup read it as takeout, and a few cue-bids later she finished in seven clubs.
On the lead of the diamond king, Kalkerup rose with dummy’s ace and passed the club nine successfully. A spade to hand and a top trump meant there was still work to do. Declarer cashed the top hearts and pitched her diamond, ruffed a heart as East pitched a spade, then took the two remaining top spades, finishing in dummy. In the three-card ending, Kalkerup held the K-Q-10 of clubs poised over East’s guarded jack of trumps. There were no clubs in dummy, but when declarer led a plain suit from dummy, she was nonetheless taking a trump finesse, and her grand slam came home. This maneuver is called a trump coup.
Bid with the aces
South holds:
| •A K 8 | |
| •7 3 | |
| •J 8 | |
| •A K Q 10 6 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
| 1 • | |||
| 2 • | Pass | 3 • | Pass |
| ? |
Answer: Try three spades. This normally delivers a four-card suit, but here your priority is getting to three no-trump, and a three-heart call from you would require a bit more in hearts (maybe queen-doubleton or jack-third). You hope partner can bid three no-trump on his own. If he can’t, you will have to play clubs at whatever level he considers appropriate.