Bridge

THE systems on view at the Junior European Championships showed the influence of online bridge. Almost everybody was playing the lingua franca of BBO: strong no-trump and five-card majors. Here West reached 4H after East made a Bergen limit raise and South intervened in spades. The double was a cost-nothing effort, since the high cards were already marked in the South hand, and partner might have an unexpected trump trick.

North led partner's suit, and South cashed the ace and king and gave him a ruff. The third card played in such situations is a suit preference signal, and it looks normal to play the two of spades, asking for a club return. But see what happens if North leads a club at trick four. Declarer wins the ace and runs six rounds of hearts. In the three-card ending, dummy has all three of its diamonds, and declarer has a diamond and jack and another club. South has to keep three diamonds, and will probably discard king of clubs, hoping that partner has the jack. No luck, and the contract makes on a squeeze.

France seems to produce an endless series of fine card players. The French South, Lorenzini, saw that he might run into trouble in the endgame, so, instead of signalling for a club he returned the eight of spades, asking for a diamond. This would not help if declarer had a second diamond, but when he had only one the entry to dummy was gone, there was no squeeze, and the contact failed.