St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-26
Jan. 27-St. Paul, 35; Boston, IL.
Feb 22-St. Paul, 81; Chicago, 10.
Feb. 29-St. Paul, Al; Fergus Falls, IL.
April list Paul, 21; Chicago. 10.

April 11-Sl. raul, Il, CnlcagO, ~.
COVERING AN HONOR SECOND HAND.
The earliest whist authorities advocated the
rule to cover honor led with an honor sec
ond hand, when holding the honor once guard
ed, but analysis proved this rule to be
unsound, except when the honor was ace, for
If queen or jack be led 1t is clear if the lead
is regular, if second hand holds king or queen,
that the ace is in third or fourth hand, and
that, therefore, covering queen with king or
jack with queen or king simply assists the
leader in establishing his suit. Under the
present system of leads, jack is no longer cor
rectly led from jack, ten, nine and Others
except in trumps though many players still
hold to the old lead from the top of a sequence.
The chief position, therefore, in which the
question arises is when queen is led originally
and second hand holds king guarded, and it
can be easily demonstrated that the play of
covering queen with king is trick-losng The
point which we wish to emphasize, however, is
that this rule applies only to cases where the
lead is regular, for we are firmly convinced
that whenever queen jack is lead as
forced lead, not from long suit in the leaders,
hand, but as last resort, or to partners de-
clared suit; in short in all cases where the
play shows that the cards in sequence below
the card led are not in the leaders hand the
covering of queen led with king or of Jack
led with queen or king when holding the
honor once guarded, is imperative for the
simple reason that II the lead is not covered
third hand will pass, while by covering if
fourth hand has the cards below the card led
they are advanced in rank and made trick
winners Even If third hand holds these
cards, no harm is done by covering except in
the case where the card led is the only one of
the suit in the leaders hand. Indeed, ".
would extend this rule to cases where second
fUyO oil
and regard the play of king on queen or
jack almost, if not quite, as advan-
tageous as if king is but once guarded. The
following is an Illustration of the point. The
play occurred in recent match and similar
situations are Of very frequent occurrence:
North has opened his long suit and the fall of
the cards makes change of suit necessary:
he leads queen of clubs from queen lack and
one other; East holds king and two small.
South ace and three small West ten, nine and
one small; East covers the queen with king.
and Vests ten must win the third round
whereas If East passes twice, the ten does not
take a trick So, if queen is led and East
holds king and one or two small South ace
and others, West Jack, ten and others the
play of king at once establishes the suit in
Vests hand, while, if East plays low, the
queen wins, the suit is led against. ace wins.
and possibly the third round is trumped Any
number OF similar situations will suggest
themselves, and occur often in actual play
that 1t does not require much argument to
convince any student of the game of the sound
ness OF these views. Indeed, we are inclined
to think that any benefts~that may come from
the lead of Strengthening card Of short
suit as advocated by the Foster school, can be
aefeated by judicious covering by second hand.
ST. PAUL VS.. CHICAGO.
The following deals are from the Chicago
st. Paul match of April IL.
DEAL 20.
The Hands
North-spades, J, s.. 7. s; hearts, A, 10, 6,
2; clubs, Q, s, 5; diamonds, K j. East
Spades, A, Q, 10, 3; hearts, K, @, 9, 8; clubs,
A, 3; diamonds, @, 9, 7. South-Spades X. s.
z; hearts, J, s; clubs, X, 10, 6, 4, 8, 2; d.a-
monds, 8, 5. WestSpades, 8, 4; hearts 7
8, 4; clubs, ], Z; diamonds, A, 10, G. 4, 8. O.
Four of spades trump. Leader, North
The Play