The Reykjavik Bridge Festival, held annually at the end of January, is one of the great treats of the bridge calendar, and this year it was twice as good: Thomas Charlsen decided to hold his terrific World Bridge Tour (WBT) just preceding it to make it easier for teams who wanted to play both.
In a sea of world-class talent, the outstanding performance of young Danish superstar Dennis Bilde was breathtaking. He was not only on the winning team in both events, but also walked away with first place in the pairs.
Here he is working his magic to make the opps go wrong (see diagram).
Contract 3NT by South
Almost all tables were in 3NT, which is an interesting contract: you have to be a bit careful not to set up a long Heart for West, or lose two Diamond tricks. About three out of four tables made it, while the rest went down. But that’s not the story today!
Dennis always has a throng of kibitzers watching him play and he did not disappoint. On this hand he was West and started with the Ace of Spades to have a look around. This wouldn’t normally be a very attractive lead, but on this occasion he knew his partner had next to nothing, so taking a look at dummy was not a bad idea. He continued at trick two with the 10 of Spades (!) round to South’s King.
Declarer tested Clubs and then knocked out West’s ♥A. Dennis won and continued with the ♠2. Declarer put in the 8 and East – whose interest in the hand had so far been minimal, suddenly found himself taking the setting trick with the ♠9!
Should South have got it right? I’ll leave that for you to work out!
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