Handbook - International Bridge Press Association

THE 1995 PRECISION AWARD
FOR THE BEST DEFENCE OF THE YEAR
Zia Mahmood (USA)
Journalist: Alan Truscott (USA)
The nominations were:
Eduardo Scanavino for hold-up and underlead in the
Argentine Teams (B360/ B361 page 16); Mathias
Bruun of Denmark for ducking K in Danish National
teams (B369 page 4); Zia Mahmood for putting in J
from K J x x when the queen was behind him (B358
page 12); Israel Delmonte of New Zealand for Best
Defence in the World Juniors (B367 page 14).
Zia Mahmood produced perhaps the year's best
defensive play at the Spingold Knockouts
By Alan Truscott The New York Times
The most brilliant defensive play at the American
Contract Bridge League's Summer Nationals in San
Diego, which ended last weekend, will very likely
prove to be the best of 1994. It occurred on the diagrammed
deal from an early round of the Spingold
Knockout Team Championship, and the hero was Zia
Mahmood, a colourful Pakistani expert who lives in
Manhattan but is usually playing bridge somewhere
else.
♠ A J 10 6 4
K 5 2
A 10 6
♣ 10 7
♠ Q 7 3 ♠ 9 8 5
J 9 8 3 7 4
9 7 3 K J 5 4
♣ A K 9 ♣ Q 8 6 3
♠ K 2
A Q 10 6
Q 8 2
♣ J 5 4 2
South West North East
1♣ Pass 1♠ Pass
1NT Pass 2 Pass
2 Pass 3NT All Pass
West led the diamond three
Zia held the East hand, and defended three no-trump,
North's two diamond bid at his second turn was 'new
minor forcing', asking South for information about his
major suit holdings. West therefore led a diamond,
since that was the only suit that had not been genuinely
bid.
First, consider how the play would proceed with
normal defence. South plays low from dummy and
East wins the king and returns the suit. South sees
that he can make at most eight tricks unless he brings
in at least three spade tricks, so he plays for West to
have the spade queen and finds he has ten tricks.
That sequence was followed when Zia's team-mates
held the North-South cards.
As East, Zia knew that the spades were favourably
placed for South, so he tried to confuse the issue for
the declarer. When the diamond six was played from
the dummy he played the unexpected jack instead of
the routine king. This play was not going to cost anything,
whoever held the queen.
When South won with the queen, he was now convinced
that the diamond king was on his left, which
meant that he could take three diamond tricks, not
two. This offered the prospect of taking seven tricks in
the red suits plus two spade winners, so he played
three top hearts. When the jack failed to drop he
confidently finessed the diamond ten, and was considerably
deflated when Zia produced the diamond
king and shifted to the club queen, defeating the contract.
The thoughtful queen-play made no difference in
this case, though it would have paid off if West's club
holding had been A-J-9. But it was the deflection play
of the diamond jack at the first trick that led South
down the garden path to defeat.
IBPA Handbook 2010 67