Games: Bridge

Love all; dealer South

North

4A

!A K 9 5

#A K

2K J 9 6 5 3

West East

48 7 6 2 4J 9 5 3

!10 6 2 !J 8 7 3

#8 5 2 #J 9 6 4

2Q 10 4 27

South

4K Q 10 4

!Q 4

#Q 10 7 3

2A 8 2

Defending against a grand slam on this deal, East was forced to unguard one of three suits. He failed to protect himself against a subsequent squeeze.

South opened One No-trump (13-15 points) and, after some meaningless preliminaries, North jumped to Seven No-trumps. West led the eight of spades against the grand slam and, after winning with the ace, declarer played off the ace and king of clubs.

Although the defenders had survived the first crisis, East had an uncomfortable discard to make. To throw a spade would clearly cost a trick and, as South was marked with !Q, a heart discard looked equally bad. Eventually East parted with a diamond. At least, he reasoned, this would be safe enough if South held only three cards in the suit.

Declarer played off the ace and king of diamonds and came to hand with the queen of hearts. Two more diamonds forced East to unguard one of the major suits and now South had enough tricks.

East missed the best chance at trick three. Declarer could be placed with eleven top tricks so, while East could afford to be squeezed out of one trick, he must avoid the repeating squeeze that eventually caught him. A heart discard gives declarer four tricks in the suit, but thereafter he has no entries for a further squeeze and ends one trick short.