Handbook - International Bridge Press Association

ten or queen would make his life easy). No luck there;
so he played a spade to his king – and Bramley
ducked!
Now declarer played two more rounds of clubs and
committed the very slight error of leaving his own hand
with the re-entry when he saw that West was about to
win the third club (it seemed irrelevant to him, since he
knew East had the spade ace). In this position:
♠ 9
J 9 4
–
♣ 6
♠ A ♠ 10 7 6
10 Q
Q 8 4 7
♣ – ♣ –
♠ Q J
–
K 9
♣ 10
The defence had two tricks in, and Bramley now led a
heart to his partner’s queen for the diamond switch.
When declarer won and played a second spade,
Bramley had the rest.
The other finalists were: Tarek Sadek-Walid el-
Ahmady to 3NT, Bulletin 479, pp, reported by Brent
Manley; Richie Pavlicek-Richard Pavlicek to 3NT,
Bulletin No. 481, page 13, reported by Brent Manley;
Doron Yadlin-Israel Yadlin to 5 doubled, Bulletin No.
483, page 2, reported by Lex de Groot; Ross Harper-
Paul Hackett to 4♠, Bulletin No. 486, page 6, reported
by Paul Hackett.
THE 2006 ITES AWARD
FOR BEST DEFENCE OF THE YEAR
Bulletin 494, page 13
Nino Masucci (ITA)
Journalist Kyoko Ohno (JPN)
SHARP DEFENCE
Let’s look at a wonderful defence Italy played against
Japan in the last qualifying round of the Senior Bowl in
Estoril.
Dealer North ♠ A K 7 2
Both Vul. A Q
9 7 6 5 4
♣ J 7
♠ Q 6 ♠ 10 9 8
8 6 5 J 9 7 3 2
10 2 A J 3
♣ A 10 9 8 5 4 ♣ K 2
♠ J 5 4 3
K 10 4
K Q 8
♣ Q 6 3
West North East South
Pietro Abe Nino Masayuki
Forquet Hiroya Masucci Ino
1 Pass 2NT
Pass 3NT All Pass
The South hand is 4-3-3-3 and has slow cards, so Inosan
judged that it was better to choose not one spade
but two no trump. The final contract was three no
trump by South.
Forquet led the ten of clubs, Ino-san played the
seven from dummy, and Masucci played the two(!) in
tempo.
Declarer can succeed if he ducks, but that is hard
to do. Ino-san won the club queen, then played a
heart to the dummy, and played a diamond. Masucci
immediately put up the diamond ace, then returned
the club king, Forquet overtaking with the ace. Three
no trump went to two down, a very nice defence.
This board was played 20 of 66 times in three no
trump in the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup and Senior
Bowl – this was the only time it was defeated! At the
other table, declarer had no trouble making four
spades on a trump lead.
Shortlist: Zia Mahmood, Lederer, by Simon Cochemé,
in 493.2; Peter Gill, South African Nationals, July’05,
by Ron Klinger, in 489.5; Fu Zhong & Jack Zhao,
Estoril, by Mark Horton, 491.8; Maarten Schollardt
Dutch Teams Final, by David Bird, 495.4.
IBPA Handbook 2010 75