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Setsuko Lichtnecker and Peer Bach.

Favourites off the pace in the National Swiss Pairs.

12 by 9 board rounds of Swiss Pairs produced surprising but worthy winners in the National Swiss Pairs this last weekend at the Auckland Bridge Club. There were 28 pairs in the North/South and East/West fields with victory going to two local pairs, Peer Bach – Setsuko Lichtnecker, North/South, and Paula Boughey/Duncan Badley, East/West.

These were the top positions:

	North/South					vps	East/West					vps
1	Peer Bach		Setsuko Lichtnecker			150.34	1	Paula Boughey		Duncan Badley		151.44
2	Pam Livingston		Malcolm Mayer			146.64	2	Hugh McGann		Michael Ware		150.28
3	GeO Tislevoll		Prem Soundra			143.65	3	Brad Johnston		Sam Coutts		140.83
4	Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin		Moss Wylie			138.66	4	Blair Fisher		Jack James		139.20
5	Jerry Chen		Kevin Hu			136.29	5	Linda Cartner		Glenis Palmer		136.11

 

 

The Auckland-Northland Region and Auckland Bridge Club went to great lengths to promote the event as a quality face-to-face competition. Aided by the directing team of Lorraine Stachurski and Paul Coleman and Kevin Walker, the scorer, the event lived up to this aim.

Here’s one board which helped one of the top finishing pairs along the way. It is a lead problem for you:

 

1 promised at least 2 clubs. 2 was a weak jump after which East-West established a heart fit. East’s jump to 5 asked their partner to bid slam if they held a control in the opponents’ suit, diamonds. West said they did. So, your lead is?

While West could have a shortage in diamonds, it is also very likely they held the ace. It would appear that East has at least two small diamonds or else they would not have asked the question. Thus, if you chose to lead a diamond, it would surely not matter which.

What about other options? Since we have 10 hcp, it is likely our partner has not too much, certainly not much outside diamonds. Both black suit leads (top of sequence) look fairly safe, the club less so. We could try a trump which might cut down possible ruffs..or else it is back to leading our suit.

South did choose a diamond…but not the king.

 

Making 12 tricks on this lay-out was by no means straightforward but would be much easier if declarer saw the K at trick 1. Playing on clubs would not be a success but with the spade finesse working, the only loser would be the trump king with East’s third spade being ruffed in dummy.

However, with the appearance of the 6 on their left and the weak jump on their right, East decided that as long the heart finesse worked, they could give up a diamond to East and discard a spade from dummy on the third round of diamonds. That was by no means a foolproof plan. However, convinced that the diamond finesse was losing, East played A at trick 1 and then a low trump to 10. South took that and the next trick with red suit kings.

As stated, there was no advantage in leading K as opposed to the small diamond. Yet, just sometimes the small diamond might work out better. It certainly did for the partnership of GeO Tislevoll and Prem Soundra. The lead of the small diamond is a lead befitting the vastly experienced GeO. Yet, GeO sat North.

Great lead, Prem.

Richard Solomon

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