VICTORIA GROMOVA

In case you haven't heard yet, the Russian women's bridge team won the world championships last fall in Istanbul, Turkey. They defeated several top teams on their way to the exciting climax when they came from behind to defeat the USA women. If you subscribe to Bridge Today Magazine, you've been following this match in my monthly feature.

The American women also made a comeback in the last set, but fell short on the last board, losing the match by a mere 12 imps to the Russian gals. It will take a long time before the USA team forgets board 86, from the last set, where 17 imps were won by the Russians:

South dealer N-S vul	North Dummy   A 10 6 3 2   K Q 7   4   Q J 10 6
West J 8 4 10 9 K Q J 5 3 2 3	East K 9 5 5 2 10 8 6 K 7 5 4 2
	South   Q 7   A J 8 6 3   A 9 7   A 9 8

Table 1

Table 2

Opening lead: 3

At both tables 6 was reached. When the Americans were North-South, Randi Montin, South, used 4 for her Keycard Blackwood bid rather than 4NT. The 5 response by Jill Meyers showed two keycards and the queen of trump, and the 5 bid showed possession of all the keycards and asked for kings. Six hearts showed zero kings.

At Table 2, Gromova became declarer in 6 after a straightforward Keycard Blackwood bid of 4NT, followed by a sign-off in 6. Notice that at this table, it wasn't clear whether declarer was off an ace.

At table 1, Montin won the club lead in dummy with the queen, played a diamond to the ace and ruffed a diamond. Then she led the club 6 to the 9. West ruffed and returned a trump, won in dummy. Declarer was finished now, and led another club to hand, but West ruffed that too and Montin eventually lost a spade trick, for down two, 200 to Russia.

At Table 2, Victoria Gromova also received a club lead (a diamond lead, by the way, will probably result in 1430). Gromova played the 6 and won the trick with her 9. She then drew two rounds of trump, heart to the king and heart to the ace, as West, Tobi Sokolow, followed with the 4 and 10. It looks like Sokolow was falsecarding with the 10 in order to induce declarer to give up the lead to East if possible. At this point declarer could have drawn the last trump, taken another club finesse and then play a spade from dummy. If she did, East would have to duck to defeat the contract; otherwise, declarer could drop the queen, setting up a finesse of the jack. Instead Gromova hoped that West had started with only two trump. She led the queen of spades from her hand and floated it to East's king. Janice Molson (East) now had to decide whether her partner had a third trump or the ace of diamonds. She opted for a diamond and Gromova made the contract. Gromova won the ace of diamonds, led a spade to the ace and ruffed a spade. She drew the last trump, ending in dummy and pitched two diamonds on two spades, then took the club finesse. Plus 1430 in one room and 200 in the other was a net total of 1630, 17 imps.

Analysis: This was a good hand for "Switch in Time" defense, where suit-preference is given in trumps. A high-low in trumps (regardless of the number of trumps) would show the diamond ace (the higher suit between diamonds and clubs), while up the line would deny the ace of diamonds and, therefore, the only chance is a club ruff. If you play high-low in trumps to say "I have another trump and want a ruff," it might work on this hand, but this method takes away any chance for the defender to falsecard declarer without falsecarding partner, which is what happened.