Bridge

THE Macallan International Pairs Champ-ionship, which takes place in London this week, affords the opportunity of seeing many of the world's top pairs in action.

This was a deal from the event of several years ago and - as far as I could judge - no two auctions were the same! Clearly 7NT was the best spot but several pairs languished in a small slam and one pair reached Seven Diamonds. There would have been no problem if West had made the textbook lead of a trump, but his actual choice of a low spade - attacking dummy's entry before the hearts could be unblocked - set declarer problems.

Judging, correctly, that West would not have led away from a king against a grand slam, declarer won with dummy's ace. Now there was a choice of plays. One possibility was to draw trumps and later overtake _10 in dummy, succeeding if the hearts broke 4-3 (62%). Another was to come to hand with a trump, ruff a low club on the table, and rely on a 3-2 trump division (68%).

It was the late Giorgio Belladonna who found the best - and winning - line. He played five rounds of trumps and cashed his two top clubs. Now he was at home if the hearts split 4-3 and also if either defencer held five hearts and [QJ or, as on the actual deal, five hearts and ]K. As you can see, East was squeezed.

The Macallan International Pairs will take place at the White House Hotel in London between 20 and 22 January

GAME ALL: dealer South

North

] A 8 7 6 2

_ A K Q J 5

+ J 8 4

[ none

West East

] J 9 3 ] K 5 4

_ 8 6 _ 9 7 4 3 2

+ 10 6 3 2 + 9

[ Q 6 5 2 [ J 9 7 4

South

] Q 10

_ 10

+ A K Q 7 5

[ A K 10 8 3