halle1@houxz.UUCP (J.HALLE) (06/04/84)
S:QJ8 H:AJ965 D:K82 Contract: 7 Clubs (!) C:AQ East doubled 5H by north Opening Lead: 2 of Hearts S:AKT9 Declarer ruffs the opening lead H: and leads a club. West plays the king. D:A97 C:J98632 Plan the play. ################################################### Careful timing is required. Assuming east has four clubs, you can make the hand if he also has 3 spades, 3 hearts, and two diamonds (and another card anywhere), as well as some distributions with two hearts. Not good prospects, but certainly well within the possibilities for Georgio Belladonna, who held this hand. The play proceeds: Ace of hearts, throwing a diamond, heart ruff. Three rounds of spades and two of diamonds, ending on the board. Heart ruff. Spade ruff, hoping for this ending: N: H&D, E: Tx of clubs, S: J9 of clubs. East is couped on the lead from north. This hand was board 92 (of 96) of the finals of the 1975 World Championships, the ones famous for the Italian "foot soldiers" cheating incident. US vs Italy. The US is slightly behind going into this board, with the last four being fairly flat. In the other room, the US bid 6NT making 7, so the whole event will be decided by this board. When the audience saw the bidding, they were sure that Italy won another one, but some of the Americans were overjoyed, since they were sure Belladonna would go down, giving the championship to the US. Why? Here are the other hands. S:7632 S:43 H:K432 H:QT87 D:J53 D:QT64 C:KT C:754 Belladonna would surely believe the club K to be singleton, so east would ruff the third spade. And finally the US would beat Italy. So what happens? West tamely plays the ten on the first club. Italy wins again.