Bridge Game, Bridge Lessons at RonKlingerBridge.com

Try this problem:

South dealer : North-South vulnerable

West	North	East	South
			1
4	Dble	Pass	?

What would you do as South with:

(Answer later)

Seniors: We defeated Canada 16-14 in Round 13 and Belgium 17-13 in Round 14, then 15-15 vs Scotland in Round 15. That gave us 48 for the day, still sixth, 10 VPs ahead of ninth, with eight teams to qualify for the final stages. Our first match today against Turkey could be critical as they are just behind us.

While the Open and the Women’s qualifying are over and are starting the Round of 16 over 96 boards, the Seniors have two more qualifying rounds, followed by the Round of 16 over 64 boards.

Australia Open Team: A loss in Round 13, 7-23 vs Finland, and the team looks as though it is locked in 10th place, a long way behind 9th and a long way ahead of 11th. Round 14: 17-13 vs Israel. Round 15, the last qualifying round: 17-13 vs China. That gave the team 213.5 VPs, a tick above average (210), 15 behind 9th and 21 ahead of 11th. The fourth qualifying spot in this section scored 271 VPs.

The Australian Women’s Team lost their last match, 4-25, to Scotland and had to wait until the end of the day to see whether they were the best sixth. The good news is that they survived and are playing Sweden in the Round of 16. This is the first time in my memory that the Australian Women’s Team has reached the knockout stages in the world championships.

Answer to today’s problem:

This was Board 31 from Match 14 vs Belgium. Our team picked up 13 Imps in quite extraordinary fashion:

South dealer : North-South vulnerable

At our table 4 doubled was passed out. North led the 7, ace. The 7 ran to the queen and North shifted to the 4, jack, ace. North won the next spade and played another diamond, ruffed.
Bill Haughie drew the last trump and now did the right thing by leading the 9.

(In another match West led a low club: two, six, king. North now must make a club trick for one down.)

North dithered for some time and then covered with the ten. Double dummy, declarer could now succeed either by ducking in dummy or winning with the ace. Once the K goes, declarer can hold the club losers to one for +590. This is easy, of course, when you can see all the cards. In practice, Bill covered the 10 with the J and now North had to score a club trick for one down and –100 for us.

At the other table Bruce Neill bid 5 as South and East doubled. There are several ways the defenders can score 500 (A, A, diamond ruff or spade lead, queen; heart, ace; diamond to the ace, spade ruff, A). Even if the defence does not find this, declarer has three aces to lose, but this is what happened: A lead, club switch : ten – jack – king! K, the ten drops, and now South lost only to the two red aces for +850. That gave us 13 Imps and we won the match by 7 Imps, a 17-13 win. Had the defenders scored 500, we would have lost 12-18. Had the defenders taken 5 one off, +200, we would have lost 13-17.