Bridge At The Top, By Sanjoy Bhattacharyya

The HCL International Bridge Tournament, held in New Delhi in September, is definitely the most prestigious event played in India. True to its name, more than 20 top-drawer teams from Europe, Israel, Asia, Russia, and Australia were in attendance and one had the good fortune to see players such as Bocchi, Duboin, Verhees, van Prooijen, Upmark, Nystrom, Peter Gill, Dennis Bilde, Dubinin and Gromov in action. Apart from the teams, there was a Swiss Pairs, IMP Pairs and Match-Point event with more than 200 participants in each instance..The round of 16 witnessed a cliff-hanger between Iceland and Formidables (led by Kiran Nadar), with both teams in contention for a spot in the last 16. The 10 board match ended dead even and a 4 board tie-breaker was invoked to arrive at a decisive outcome. Three of the four boards were fairly routine and did not see a meaningful exchange of IMPs. The fourth board set the cat among the pigeons!In the Closed Room, the Indian NS pair did well to land in 1NT and scrape home with 7 tricks. Two of India’s most experienced and gifted players – B Satyanarayana and Rajeswar Tiwari – were playing in tandem in the Open Room. With both sides vulnerable, Satya sitting West set the ball rolling with a pass. The Iceland international, Jorgensen, sitting South held ♠K6 ♥AJ984 ♦86 ♣J1073 and heard his partner open 1♠. East chose to double and perhaps overcome by the gravity of the situation Jorgensen placed the blue card on the table – Redouble! Unruffled by the proceedings, Satya bid 2♦, which was promptly axed by North. Tewari bid 2♥ in a flash and met the same fate with a double by South, which ended the auction..With the match hanging in the balance, what would you have led as South?.A trump lead is ruled out and a diamond might well compromise partner’s high card holdings..Moreover, you hardly seek any ruffs in defense given the robust trump holding. Which black suit provides better odds – the suit bid by partner or the prospect of establishing club winners early? Jorgensen chose ♠K and that was curtains for the defense when declarer played the diamond suit correctly for just one loser. The club Jack ensures a minimum plus score of 200 for NS! The full deal is given below:.Try your hand at this slam from one of the early rounds in the Swiss Pairs. After a brisk and ambitious auction, North – an erstwhile Ruia trophy winner – was left wondering how to arrive at 12 tricks. The opening lead was ♠2 and West helpfully played the Queen at trick 1..Also Read: Simple, But Not Easy.Assuming trumps are 3-1 and the diamonds no worse than 4-2, there will be no problem if East was dealt the ♥A. Since there is little benefit in drawing trumps and you cannot tackle the diamonds without locating the heart Ace, best to play a low heart immediately. East plays a low card and the moment of reckoning has arrived! Most players would instinctively reach for one of the honour cards, which is a losing play given your available information.. In all likelihood, West has the Ace and will return a club..Now it is virtually impossible to set up 2 heart winners in dummy. Your only chance is to find East with either Jxx or 10xx. Instead, if you play the 8 at trick 2 which loses to either J or 10 you can arrive at 2 diamond discards after taking a subsequent ruffing finesse with ♥K! It is worth mentioning that the East hand was ♠962 ♥1053 ♦J62 ♣Q1087..A hand from the first session of the Matchpoint Pairs Elimination posed a daunting challenge for partnerships using Standard American bidding methods. With only your side vulnerable, seated South you hold ♠KQ8 ♥2 ♦J10973 ♣Q765 and hear partner start proceedings with 2♣ in the fourth seat. Partner shows a balanced hand, 23-24 HCP, with a 2NT re-bid on your 2♦ response. Expert partnerships play 3♠ as Minor Suit Stayman in this situation asking partner to confirm whether he holds a 4 card minor or else bid 3NT. Partner responds 4♣ and the prospects of a slam seem appealing provided North has the right cover cards - A♠, A♥ and ♦AQ at minimum apart from the 2 top trump honours. You are keen to communicate your singleton heart and push ahead with a 4♥ bid conveying your interest in slam. On partner’s RKC enquiry, you bid 5♦ to clarify that you hold no key cards. Partner now bids 5♥ to enquire whether you hold the trump queen and any outside kings. The 5♠ bid informs partner that you hold ♠K and ♣Q. You are pleasantly surprised to hear him conclude the auction by bidding the grand in clubs. Partnerships playing either Precision or a Big Club variant should find it a lot easier to land in the right spot. In practice, many partnerships languished either in 3NT or 5♦, with a few lucky but clueless brave-hearts reaching 6♦. Bidding 7♣ gives you serious bragging rights during the interval!.The full hand appears below:.Sanjoy Bhattacharyya is Managing Partner at Fortuna Capital and an avid bridge player..The views expressed here are those of the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of BloombergQuint or its editorial team.

Bridge At The Top, By Sanjoy Bhattacharyya

Ready for a Diwali card game? Learn how the pros play bridge from Sanjoy Bhattacharyya.

Choose a plan