Challenge #6**** (difficulty: evil)
This week’s problem is Evil (as promised)! Let’s see if someone can solve it.
You are playing 4NT. West leads the ♠10. You must make your contract against any defense. Good luck!
Solution:
If the Spades situation would have been ♠KJ42 with North and ♠AQ53 with South, 5NT would have been easier to make than "our" 4NT here: Simply win the lead with the ♠Q , play the ♠5 to the ♠J and the ♣A. The remaining spades would have been: ♠K4 in dummy and ♠A3 in hand. Now you play the ♠K and perform an overtaking squeeze: If East discard a heart you play the ♠3 from hand. You have now 3 entries to hand (♦AK and the ♠A) to develop another 2 heart tricks, after you cash the ♥AK . If East throws a diamond – You overtake the ♠K with the ♠A , retaining 3 entries to dummy this time (the ♥AK and the ♠4), after you cash the ♦AK.
However you cannot reach that with the spades above as the remaining 2 spades will never allow you an entry to both sides. The solution to make 4NT is therefore to duck (!!!) the lead. Whatever West continues will allow you to cash the ♣A and the ♠J to reach that situation in the spades: ♠K3 in dummy and ♠AQ in hand. Now you are able to play the ♠3 and perform the overtaking squeeze on East: If he throws a heart, you play the ♠Q and keep the ♠A as a 3rd entry to the hearts in hand. If he parts with a diamond – you overtake with the ♠A and keep the ♠K as a 3rd entry to the diamonds in dummy.
Well done to everyone who solved the problem!
It's a tough one ;-) Here's my solution.
ReplyDeleteDuck the first trick! Let W win with the ♠10. The idea is to reduce E black suits as quickly as possible so E has to choose to discard a red suit card before N/S does.
Second trick W must continue a black suit. Whatever it is, declarer plays two rounds of black suits to end up in dummy with the following cards...
North
S: KJ
H: AK
D: 765432
C:
South
S: Q5
H: 765432
D: AK
C:
At trick 4, play the ♠K. E must is out of black cards and must play a red card. If it's a heart then your extra trick can only come from length in hearts which are in hand so preserve the ♠Q entry by throwing the small spade. Then play AK of hearts, cross to the ♠Q, play another heart. Now E must win and has just one heart left, but you have two diamond stopper entries to force out the E's last heart and after that play your last heart, contract made.
Suppose E throws a diamond instead? Preserve dummy's spade entry and throw the ♠Q under the ♠K. Next play a diamond from dummy to the AK, cross back to the ♠J and it's the same scenario as before, E is unable to force out your heart stoppers before you can cash your contract winning diamond.
Am I close? :-)