Bridge World Extra! Newsletter

PLOT AND COUNTERPLOT

by Alfred P. Sheinwold

Alfred P. Sheinwold was the leading card-play analyst of the early decades of contract bridge. This is the simplest of the deals in an article from the outstanding Algy series.

South dealer
Both sides vulnerable

NORTH
S 10 9 8 5
H 10 7
D Q
C A K Q J 7 2
WEST
S 3 2
H K Q J 6 3 2
D 8
C 8 6 4 3
EAST
S A 4
H A 8 4
D K J 6 5 4 3 2
C 10
SOUTH
S K Q J 7 6
H 9 5
D A 10 9 7
C 9 5

SOUTHWESTNORTHEAST
1 SPass2 C2 D
Double2 H3 S4 H
PassPass4 S(All Pass)

South's actions were a bit forward, but the final contract was good; and the play's the thing. West led the heart king. East overtook and shifted to his club, giving everyone at the table a good idea of how he hoped to defeat the contract. An immediate trump play would have let East carry out his plan (spade ace, heart to West, club ruff), so declarer played dummy's diamond queen. East ducked (!), but South overtook with the ace. When the eight dropped, South continued with the diamond seven, intending to discard dummy's heart to destroy the defensive transportation for the club ruff. But West ruffed, spoiling the plot.

CHALLENGE THE CHAMPS

Challenge the Champs is a continuing bidding battle. Each month, two leading pairs compete, bidding deals from actual play (taken from old tournament reports or submitted by readers). Awards assigned to final contracts are estimates of the matchpoint expectancy on a 12 top in a strong pairs contest. Thus, a normal result will usually receive close to 6, average; a gambling grand slam needing two finesses might receive 3 (you get a top, 12, about 25% of the time and a 0 otherwise, which averages to 3). Awards are rounded off to the nearest full matchpoint. An award embraces all lower equivalent contracts in the same strain.

MATTHEW GRANOVETTER and ZIA
vs.
ERIC KOKISH and PETER NAGY

This month's defending Champs are Zia, the superstar from Pakistan, and Matthew Granovetter, of New York, who has been known to keep on winning Challenge the Champs matches for almost a year. They use very simple, natural bidding methods: good four-card majors, strong notrumps, weak two's. The Challengers are Canada's pride, Peter Nagy, now of Chicago, and Eric Kokish. They have had great success in North American events and came within a hair of winning the world's championship for pairs. Kokish-Nagy use their own highly elaborated version of Kaplan-Sheinwold: five-card majors, weak notrumps, many gadgets and Scientific treatments.

East dealer
North-South vulnerable

WEST
S A Q 8
H Q 10
D A K
C A Q J 7 6 4
EAST
S K 10 9 2
H 7
D 9 8 5 3
C K 10 8 3
Granovetter
--
2 C
2 NT
3 D
Pass
Zia
Pass
2 D
3 C
3 NT
Kokish
--
2 C
2 NT
3 NT
6 C
Nagy
Pass
2 H
3 S
4 D
Pass

You really have to like the way Science worked for the Challengers here. Nagy's two-heart response to the artificial two-club opening showed two 2-1-points (ace=2, king=1). Kokish's two notrump promised a balanced hand. Then, East puppeted to three notrump. West complied to give East a chance to clarify his intentions (with a balanced hand and no slam interest, East would have passed); East's rebid showed 4=1=4=4. West knew East had either both black kings, or the heart ace and another value, such as the queen of diamonds, to justify bidding beyond three notrump.

The Champs used the Standard American expert sequence to reach a nearly hopeless game, instead of a virtually laydown slam: artificial opening and response; natural notrump rebid; Stayman.

Awards: 6 C 10; 4 S 7; 5 S 6; 6 S 5; 5 C 5; 3 NT 3.








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