Bridge

Bridge in Eastern Europe has flourished since the fall of the USSR, when it ceased to be frowned upon as a bourgeois pastime. This deal comes from a high-class invitational event in Moscow, run in memory of Slava Grinuk, a talented player who died at the tragically young age of 30.

Would you open this North hand? It seems to be trendy to do so, but I must confess to some pleasure at seeing such a bid punished. The Russian international Khiuppenen might have scored a goal if his partner had chosen to double 4D, but South, who was clearly aware of his partner's nonvulnerable style, settled for the "safe" game. He must have been slightly surprised by the double. East led the king of spades and declarer won the ace and discarded his losing spades on the three top clubs. East ruffed the third club with his singleton trump, cashed the ace of diamonds and gave partner a ruff, and there were two more trump tricks to come for two down.

An undistinguished result for North-South, but much better than the one achieved by an Italian pair. Alfredo Versace also opened 3H, West overcalled 4D, and Lorenzo Lauria, accustomed to a sounder pre-empting style, leapt to 6NT. West doubled this and led his diamond. East won and switched to the king of spades. When clubs did not break there were just seven tricks, and a rather anguished Italian post mortem. Lauria is not accustomed to losing 1100.