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1st Mind Sports Olympiad
Singapore

Tertiary Pairs Session 1 - Part 1
by Mr I Nan Liu - Tournament Director

As the event is played over 3 sessions of 22 boards each it was not quite possible to have a detailed analysis of all 66 boards. What I have done here is to highlight some of the more fascinating hands.

Board 5. N/NS Game

			K 10 6
			A 4
			A 7 4 3
			10 8 4 3
	5 4 2	N W E S			J 8 7
	Q J 5 3				10 9 8 6
	10 9 8 5 2				J 6
	2				K Q J 9
			A Q 9 3
			K 7 2
			K Q
			A 7 6 5

Against 3NT by South, West leads the 10 and is taken by South's Q. Playing in duplicate, making your contract is usually not good enough. As your result will be compared with the results on the other tables it is crucial that you make an extra trick whenever you can. Here, you can see 9 top winners with 10 if the J drops. You should not content with just winning those tricks and instead must strive to be better than the other declarers.

The chance for an extra trick lies in clubs - with eight clubs between the two hands there is a good chance that the remaining clubs are divided 3-2 among the defenders. So you should proceed to let the defenders win two clubs, you play a small club from hand and play a low card from the dummy as well. East will take the trick, and holding such invincible strength in clubs he will lead back another one. You play low again according to your original plan but receive the bad news when West fails to follow suit. East continues with yet another club high card and now you must win.

There's nothing left for you to do but to take your winners, but in the right order please. First you must get the K out of the way; then the three top spades ending in hand. When the J drops you can go on and win another trick with the 9, discarding the useless club in the dummy. Next you play a low heart to North's ace in order to be in the right hand to take the A.

Meanwhile, something very mysterious has happened. West has discarded 1 diamond on his partner clubs but he must hang on to 4 diamonds. If he discard one more then North's 7 will eventually become a winner. Therefore he has to discard 2 hearts. After following to the ace of hearts he has only 1 heart left. East has discarded 1 heart too, when the declarer played the winning 9.

After following to the ace of hearts he still has two left. But when the A is played from North East suddenly finds himself suffocating - he cannot discard a club as you still have a club in your hand. So he is forced to throw away a heart. As for you, you know your last is no good as East is still holding on to his master club so you let it go. You lead a heart from the dummy in order to win your king of hearts. You last card is the deuce of hearts - the lowest card in the suit. Strangely when you play it no one has a higher heart to beat it.

Your opponents did not make a mistake when they discarded their guards in the heart suit allowing you to win with the deuce - they simply had no choice in the matter. They each had a guard over two suits and they both were forced to give up one of the guards. The maneuver that forces the opponent to give up a guard in your suit is called a 'squeeze'. A 'squeeze' on both opponents is therefore known as a 'double squeeze'.

Board 9. N/ EW Game

			A 5 4
			K Q 10 2
			A K 9 6
			K 4
	Q J 10 6	N W E S			8 7 3 2
	8 7				6 5 3
	Q J 10 7 3				4
	10 7				J 6 5 3 2
			K 9
			A J 9 4
			8 5 2
			A Q 9 8

A browse through the score-sheet reveals that only 2 pairs managed to bid to slam. So here's a suggestion on how the slam can be bid:

North		South
1		1
4	(19-20)	4NT	*I have 14, plus 19-20 is 33-34. We should have a slam. I wish to check on the aces.
5	(2 aces)	6	**That is nice. We have all the aces. There's no point in checking for the kings because we do not have the values to make a grand slam.

There are 12 easy tricks in 6. If you bid and make 6 you should score about 90% of the matchpoints unless you are playing in a competition where majority of the competitors are strong players. There is no need to try for the extra 10 points 6NT to outscore everybody.

Be content with 90%. One pair perhaps has learned this lesson the hard way - they tried 6NT but unfortunately they couldn't make it. Incidentally, 6NT can be made if you escaped a spade lead. But you need a 'double squeeze' to do it.