Shree Cement Championships – Approaching a climax

Stepping Stone

Priya Balasubramanian

That I overbid too much is my partner’s bone,
When the dummy comes down, I can’t hold back my groan
After the match, what I dread is my partner’s phone!
Stranded winners in the dummy, can I get a card on a loan?
Brainwave strikes, with glee, I use my opponent as my stepping stone

 

Teachers, parents, friends, bridge partners all have played the role of stepping stones helping us move closer to our goals. But when your opponent provides the stepping stone the success is that much sweeter.

The Shree Cement tourneys have been cementing their presence across the bridge world in India for the past week. The level of bridge has been sparkling and many interesting boards and plays were observed.

One such interesting hand as observed in the semi-final knock out is given below.

West disrupted the bidding by opening 2♥ alerted as 4-4 majors 3-8 points. North bid 2N and the contract of 3N reached. Other tables West stayed silent and a 4♥ contract was easily reached.

 

Declarer ducked the ♠Q lead and took the second spade with the ♠K. There are seven top tricks. If the ♥K is not cashed, two more can be developed in hearts by finessing through West who is likely to have the Queen.

Declarer cashed the ♣K and ♣A and finessed the hearts twice, winning the last heart in hand with the ♥A. He cashed the ♦A and ♦K.  Now for the elusive ninth trick. The ♥K was stranded in the dummy with no entry. He now exited with the last spade.

 

If East won the spade, he would have to give up a diamond trick. If West won the spade, she would provide the stepping stone to the ♥K in the dummy. This end play resulted in cementing North’s contract.

As an aside, this contract makes 6♥, difficult to reach on current bidding. Assuming a spade lead, win the ♠K, ruff a spade. Finesse west twice with the ♥J and ♥10, and play the ♥Ace. Come to hand with a diamond ruff. When the ♥K is played there is a minor squeeze on East. The end position will be as below.

Hand viewer diagram and analysis courtesy Sandeep Thakral

 

 

PS: Thanks to Rajeev Khandelwal for bringing this hand to my notice.
PPS: Many thanks to Subhash Bhavnani for the technical edit.
PPPS: I don’t receive any compensation for these articles except reader’s feedback. So please don’t hold back.

Bridge in Hindi

Uttam Gupta

 

ब्रिज के खेल में अर्जियाँ नहीं चलतीं
दिलों के खेल में खुदगर्जियाँ नहीं चलतीं
चल ही पड़े हैं तो ये जान लीजिए हुजुर
ब्रिज की राह में मनमर्जियाँ नहीं चलतीं

This beautiful to a bridge partnership was composed by Uttam Gupta. While his exploits on the bridge table are well known, we thought we would present another facet of his character here.

He writes many such verses in various chat groups and we are happy that he permitted us to present this here.