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Fact is so much weirder than fiction.

A “Grosvenor Gambit” is described as “a deliberate error by a defender giving declarer an opportunity to make his contract which the declarer refuses because he expects rational defence.”

“Grosvenor, Kiwi style” is a little different in that it is the declarer who makes the error from which a defender “refuses” to profit. As to whether the error was “deliberate”, I will leave it for you to judge.

I have to give you a defensive problem. You are sitting East and below is dummy, your hand and the play so far:

 

1NT showed 12-14 and 2 was a transfer.  Your partner, West, led the A and with nothing better to suggest, you, East, encouraged and the 2 was won by dummy’s queen, declarer following with 7. At trick 3, declarer called for dummy’s J won by your ace with South and West following with low spades. Which card do you play to trick 4?

The club suit appeared hopeless for the defence. Declarer had to hold the K from the play to trick 2 and presumably the Q and even maybe the Q since South was in no rush to be in hand at trick 2. At the table, East exited the 10. It’s time to reveal all.

 

 

South won the diamond switch with the ace, discarding a club and then a second club on the K. All that remained was to play trumps for no further losers.

Let’s just suppose you were South in 5 on the A lead. You have rather limited entries to the declarer hand. Therefore, when the second heart is played, it seems normal to overtake, discard a couple of clubs on high diamonds and then try and guess the trump position correctly. You had to hope that neither defender held Qxx as when the bare ace scores, the defence simply puts declarer back in dummy with a club…down one!

Our hero/heroine had managed to put the defence off the scent by her extraordinary plays at tricks 2 and 3. The only legitimate way the 5 contract could now be beaten is for East to switch to a club and for West to withhold their queen until the third round. Did you find that switch, honestly?

Oh, I did say “legitimate” way. Before South’s play is nominated for any brilliancy award, I have to complete the actual play. After playing K, South did indeed return to trumps, playing their remaining small one and hesitating for some time after West contributed the 7. Declarer’s choice? Why, the king, of course! Down one.

The silence was deafening!

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

 

 

 

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