“At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year.” - Thomas Tusser

The Belarussian declarer in today’s deal, played in the European championships in Warsaw, received a nice Christmas gift from his Turkish opponent. It wasn’t a commonplace 920 for making a small slam in a minor, but a much rarer 920 for scoring four no-trump redoubled.

Imagine you are South on the lead of the diamond queen. You win in dummy, pass the spade queen, and after getting the expected bad news, lead a heart to your jack. West wins and clears the diamonds. You cash your heart ace to your ace and can put East on lead with the third heart, eventually coming to 10 tricks. Of course, East might have meanly jettisoned the heart queen on the second diamond to avoid this position.

What the declarer actually did after winning dummy’s diamond ace was to run the heart nine to West’s 10. West cleared the diamonds, and East now carelessly pitched a low heart (the queen would have been far safer). Declarer won the diamond in hand and exited with a low heart, leaving West able to win his heart king and run the diamonds. But how could West tell if his partner had the bare heart ace or queen left? Unable to bear the ridicule if he were to reduce his three heart winners to two, West played low, and East had to win the heart queen. Declarer now had his 10 tricks, tied with a big red ribbon.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: A useful gadget to have here is a jump to five no-trump, asking partner to pick between a slam in spades and no-trump. Mind you, if your partner were to suggest a minor, you would be happy, too. The call is forcing, and so you must be confident you are worth a drive to slam. I think you are, based on your spade intermediates.