39th World Team Championships Page 6 Bulletin 11 - Wednesday 9 September 2009

The Best Chance

by Brian Senior

England led virtually throughout the Seniors quarter-final against Egypt, but the Egyptians came back strongly in the later stages to lose by just a single IMP. This deal from Set 5 was worth 11 IMPs to the Egyptian cause.

Board 8. Dealer West. None Vul.
 ♠ A J 8 5
♥ A Q 8
♦ A 5 3 2
♣ 5 3

♠ 9 7 4
♥ J 6
♦ 10 9 7
♣ K 9 8 7 6 		Bridge deal
♠ K 10 2
♥ 10 9 7 5
♦ 8 6 4
♣ A Q 4
 ♠ Q 6 3
♥ K 4 3 2
♦ K Q J
♣ J 10 2

At both tables North declared 3NT after the simple auction, 1NT 3NT. The English East led the five of hearts to the jack and queen and declarer crossed to dummy with a diamond and led a spade to the jack and king. East continued with the ten of hearts and declarer had ten tricks for +430.

For Egypt, Amr El Askalani kicked off with the ten of hearts, declarer again winning with the queen and crossing to dummy in diamonds to take the spade finesse. Askalani won and decided that he was unlikely to be able to beat the contract unless his partner, Mohamed Shaker Ghamrawy, held the king of clubs. Accordingly, Askalani switched to the ace, queen and a third club and the contract was down two for 100 and 11 IMPs to Egypt. Nicely done.

It isn’t quite true that the only chance for the defence is to find West with the ♣K. But the alternative is to find him with both the ace and jack of hearts, when a heart through nets two hearts and two clubs but that requires two specific cards instead of one, so is a less likely lay-out.

Page 6

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