Bridge - The Scotsman 13/08/12

By Liz McGowan
Published on 13/08/2012 00:00

For the next two weeks the World Mind Sport Bridge Games (formerly the World Bridge Olympiad) will take place in Lille, France.

Every bridge-playing country is encouraged to send teams to Open, Women’s and Senior’s events.

Here is Pablo Lambardi from Argentina in action. Playing a five-card major system his jump to 3S set the trump suit. 3NT from North showed a minimum two-over-one response, and 4S was a sign off over the 4D cuebid, but Lambardi bid slam anyway

West led the three of hearts to the ten, and East played a second heart for declarer to ruff. Lambardi crossed to dummy with the nine of spades and led the queen of diamonds. When East played low he recalled Zia’s Law (“if they don’t cover, they don’t have it”) and rose with the ace. He drew the remaining trump in three rounds. West discarded hearts, dummy threw two diamonds and a club, and this was the six-card ending:

Declarer ran the ten of clubs. When it scored he carefully cashed two more trump before repeating the finesse. West threw the nine of diamonds on the jack of spades, but on the next trump he had to throw a club, allowing declarer to run that suit.