Evening star., 1950-08-11
Goren on Bridqe

00fen on DTlQ9e
North and South vulnerable.
South deals.
NORTH
AAJ74
V973
UAJ1042
As
WEST EAST
AQ6 Asp
VQ862 3KJ5
ue53 nKQ87
@KQ1O8 %962
SOUTH
AK1O83
VA104
H6
%AJ743
The bidding:
South West North East
/ club Pass l diamond Pass
1 spade Pass spades Pass
4 spades Pass Pass Pass
Opening lead, two of hearts.
When planning to embark on a
cross-ruff, one need only to ascer-
tain whether the necessary amount
of tricks will be available if the
croSs-ruff is continuous and un-
impeded. A common danger is that
an opponent will overruff. A care
full declarer will, therefore, go to
great lengths to protect himself
against the dangers of an overrut.
No surer way is known than ruft1ng
with the ace and king, which curl
ously enough may prove to be sound
economy. The only possible objec-
ton to such a measure is that it
will upon occasion elicit from some
homeSpun comic the well-known
cliche, TOO big for me-"
Today's final contract was
reached on a normal sequence OF
bids inaugurated by South's open
ing call of one club based on a
holding of IA points, which renders
1t a mandatory opening. Alter
North's normal response of one dia-
mond, South chose quite properly
to rebid one spade, not one no
trump. A .rebid of new suit by
opener at the level of one requires
no additional values and may be
made on an absolute minimum.
North quite properly jumped to-
three spades and it might be worth
noting that South didn't rebid three
no-trump because he had weak
four-card suit and all four suits
were not accounted for. His hand
was unbalanced, and he had the as
surance that North held four
trumps in support, so he naturally
proceeded to game in spades.
West chose as his opening the
deuce of hearts and declarer took
East's king with his ace. South
saw that if he could manage to
win seven spade tricks by means
of ruff1ng in both his hand and
dummy's, those tricks, combined
with his three Side-Suit aces, would
develop the 10 tricks necessary to
fulfill contract. AS both his hand
and dummy's contained single
ton, the prospect appeared rea-
sonably bright, and the only hazard
was an overruff by one of the de-
tenders.
Declarer led diamond to
dummy's ace and ruffed a dia-
mond. He then laid down the club
ace and ruffed a club. He returned
a diamond and ruffed in his own
hand and ruffed another club in
dummy. Then came another dia-
mond and when East proved to
have the remaining diamond, de-
clarer had to play cautiously. If he
ruffed with the ten he would run
the risk of an overruff if West held
the queen, in which case the OBJ
viouS trump return by West would
scuttle the works.
He therefore trumped with the
king of spades. A club was led to
dummy and there was no neces-
sity to take a chance of ruffing
with the jack, for even if it held,
declarer would not gain a trick,
inaSmuch as he would subsequently
have to lose to the queen of spades
in any event. BY ruff1ng with the
ace he was assured of fulfilling his
contract. With nine tricks already
in the bag, declarer need but lead
a diamond and ruff with the ten
of spades. West may overruff, but
the jack becomes established for
the e-fulflling trick
(Copyright, 1850, by Charles n. Goren)