Evening star., 1933-09-09

! its. "A natural response, not a forced
one, is required for game to be bid
North-Two hearts. Not quite strong
enough to bid three hearts
i South-Ihree spades. A force Is
proper at this stage. for bid in heart
has been confirmed and slam looms
high.
| North-Four no trumps. An en-
phatic acceptance of the slam try.
| showing high cards in both unbid suits
| and also, by implication. the inclusion
of at least one high heart honor in
the heart support promised by the first
raise. He is practically saying: Il very
nearly gave you forcing raise to three
on the first round
South-SiX hearts. "At worst" he
thinks. my partner has K 10 Of clubs,
so that I will have a finesse for six
hearts. Prcbn bly, 1 will have a finesse
for seven, b.. after all, North might
have three small spades and only A-Q
. of club and K-Q Of diamonds. and two
finesse offe- too high risk If my
partner has two aces in his rand, he
will presumably take me to seven if
now jump to six. and the grand slam
will then be the right bid"
This reasoning is undoubtedly justi-
ned. As the cards lay. six was the
most that should be bid and this would
be spread against any reasonable
spade distribution. Opener cannot at
spades to precisely the @ 10 8 in Vests
hand. in spite of his own freakish dis
tribution. North's bidding moreover,
seems to show a fairly normal distribu-
ton. with shortness in spades, if any,
where.
Fatal Though Almost Obligatory
Double.
West doubled the bid of six hearts
and led the king of diamonds. De-
CARER trumped; drew trumps, winning
the second round in dummy: then led
the queen of diamonds. discarding the
club. He was now able to discard. q
spade on the diamond jack and trump
the two other losing spades, thus max
ing his contract. He played this hand
very well. From Vests double he in
ferred that the spade suit was massed
against him, 50 he did not risk q ruff
by trying to crossruff the hand until
the spades were cleared. He took i'm
mediate advantage OF the favorable
opening lead and made the only safe
play as a consequence.
Poor Defense.
At the same time West should not
have given him this chance From the
bidding he knows that there is practi-
cally no possibility of his partner TAX
ing trump trick. From his own hand
he knows that South's slam is bid en-
tirely on distributional grounds. There
fore, he should lead trump, this being
the only lead which will not sacrifice
or jeopardize high card in his hand.
Possibly Declarer cannot afford to lead
trumps even once, with SO many spades
to ruff. West should safeguard his
strength in three suits and drop two of
Declarer's trumps together by leading
his lone trump
Against trump lead there is no
way Of making slam. No squeeze. no
end play or strip play. Take plenty
OF thought before you make opening
leads. The fine players are concen-
trating more than ever on this phase
Of play.
- - Exception That Proves Rule.
have repeatedly said in no uncer-
tain terms that regard a trump lead
against a slam contract as the worst,
feeblest. most hopeless Of all leads .
Generally 1t surrenders the timing
factor which is the sole hope of the
defense If there is any way of beating
the slam. In this case. however. West
should discern the exceptional circum-
stances under which the slam has been
bid, in view of his own powerful hand
The rufang factor. not the timing fac
tor, is dominant here On what suit
Is Declarer going to discard losers
quickly? Plainly his line Of play must
consist in making as many trumps
separately as he possibly can. Two of
them can be incapacitated for this
purpose on the very first trick. am
very glad that South made his slam.
as 1t was rightly bids
| -(Copyrisht. 1e333
Mr. Sims will answer al inquiries on
1 contract that are addressed to this news:
paper with . self-addressed. stamped