| Technique, tactics or both? |
| Thursday, 07 January 2010 07:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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1 Natural (!) - the deal dates back from the 1950's - and forcing Reese won the ♣J lead, forced out the ♦A and won the club return. He had eleven top tricks now, but since there were practically no squeeze or other chances, he had to finesse for the ♥Q. But over which defender? He could cash his tricks in diamonds and spades hoping to discover a long heart suit with one of the defenders; the finesse for the ♥Q over that defender then would give a better than 50% chance. However he expected rather evenly distributed hands with EW, so he would not be any wiser after taking these tricks (he was right as can be seen from the lay-out: EW both follow suit in the black suits and both have two diamonds).So it looked like he would have to gamble, with a 50% chance of success. But top players hate to do so; they will always try to improve on their chances. The deal below has a similar theme, though harder to recognise:
1 Five or more spades West leads the ♣J. East wins with the ♣A and returns the ♣3. Found it?
South plays the ♠9 from hand. And how about declarer's tactical line of play? The ♠9 from hand as well! Nice, isn't it, when technique and tactics coincide? In the heart lay-out below declarer South 'usually' (technically spoken) loses two tricks if the suit is 4-1 in EW, but a tactical line of play may induce a mistake by East. How should declarer play?
He plays the ♥9 from dummy. Technically correct and nice if West has the bare ♥8. Furthermore, very satisfying if West has the bare ♥Q, ♥J or ♥10...
...and East wrongly decides to cover: South then wins, crosses to dummy and advances the ♥2. East cannot recover from his earlier mistake: if he plays the ♥6, South inserts the ♥7, if East plays a higher heart South can wriggle out for one loser only as well. In the example below too declarer begins with the ♥10 from dummy, hoping for East to cover. Again: East should not, but many East players will do it...
Note that if West's singleton had been the ♥9, this play would have been technically correct (on the assumption dummy has two more entry cards, since declarer will need to play hearts from dummy two more times). In the layout below East has shown a heart guard. Declarer plays the ♥J from dummy, again hoping for East's 'covering reflex':
Again this is a technical line of play as well: just interchange the ♥10 and the ♥K... Although declarer in the layout below has no intention to finesse, he begins with the ♥10 from dummy, rather than a lazy top heart from hand:
You never know: maybe East is caught napping and covers... Of course, if East plays the ♥8, declarer goes up with the ♥A; a 2-1 split is far more common than this 3-0 split. The next 'tactical safety-play' is rather, but not completely similar:
It will not come as a surprise any more: declarer begins by playing the ♥10 from dummy. He has no intention to finesse if East plays the ♥7, for he does not give up on the far greater chance of the suit being 2-2 (if the suit is 3-1, the most common distribution, any reasonable line of play works). But if East has all four hearts and wrongly decides to cover, South escapes with only one loser. I conclude with the reply to the question in the headings: technique is fine, tactics is more fun, but a line of play that combines the two aspects is best! |
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A common quality of top bridge players is their ability of playing technically correct while at the same time not losing sight of tactical chances. In other words: they induce mistakes by their opponents.