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Every year an IBPA (International Bridge Press Association) jury awards prizes for best declarer play, defence and bidding.
Italian bridge-legend Benito Garozzo received the 1974 award for best declarer play. The deal was from the Italian team trials for the 1975 World Championship. By skilfully interpreting the bidding he made a slam on a combined point count of 19! 'Brilliantly bid and played', observed the jury...
| S/— | ♠ | K J 10 8 | | | | ♥ | J | | ♦ | Q 10 9 6 5 4 3 2 | | ♣ | —
| | ♠ | 4 |  | ♠ | Q 7 5 | | ♥ | Q 10 9 7 6 5 | ♥ | K 4 | | ♦ | K 8 | ♦ | J | | ♣ | A K Q 6 | ♣ | J 8 7 5 4 3 2 | | | ♠ | A 9 6 3 2 | | | ♥ | A 8 3 2 | | ♦ | A 7 | | ♣ | 10 9 |
| West | North | East | South |
|---|
| De Falco | Belladonna | Vivaldi | Garozzo | | — | — | — | 1♠ | | double | 4♣1 | 5♣ | double2 | | pass | 5♥3 | double | redble4 | | pass | 6♠5 | pass | pass | | pass | | | |
1 Splinter: spade fit, singleton or void in clubs, slam interested
2 'I'd rather not play at the five level since my hand is a minimum; so let's defend'
3 Control in hearts but not in diamonds
4 First round control in hearts, control in diamonds
5 'You didn't want to play at the five level, so the six level should be alright then!' Not exactly timid bidding by Belladonna. Now it was up to Garozzo to land the ambitious slam.
De Falco led a top club, the normal lead on his hand. It turned out to be the best lead, since it removed a trump entry from the hand with the long diamond suit.
Garozzo ruffed in dummy. He played West for shortness in spades in view of his take-out double (a remarkable double, by the way: nowadays 'everybody' would bid 2♥ with this hand). That was the key to the winning line of play: at the second trick he ran dummy's ♠J! When it won, his next move was to play the ♦A and another diamond, West's ♦K winning.
Once more De Falco shortened dummy's trump suit by playing another top club. Garozzo ruffed low in dummy, leaving the bare ♠K there.
If the trump suit had been 2-2, Garozzo should have played the ♠K now. However, his spade approach showed that from the start he didn't believe the suit to be evenly distributed (why else would he have finessed for the ♠Q?). He was probably even more convinced after having seen East's singleton in diamonds.
So he now played a good diamond from dummy. East was helpless: Garozzo kept on playing diamonds until East ruffed. Declarer overruffed, crossed to dummy's ♠K (thus drawing East's last trump), after which dummy was high. If East had never ruffed in, South would have pitched all of his hearts and drawn trumps.
Not bad: bidding and making a slam, with fewer points than the opponents... |