Today’s deal is from an Individual competition almost 20 years ago. Individuals have fallen out of favour, but they were once commonplace. The players in this event were the best in the world, but none could play with their regular partners. They all had to play with the same agreements on bidding and defense.
North’s opening bid was light, but very acceptable with his exciting distribution. West threw up a ferocious barrage with his 7-5 two-suiter. North had to bid four spades with his hand, despite having opened light. Competition demanded it! South was the great American player Bobby Wolff, from Texas, and he soldiered on to slam despite the massive East-West interference.
Every trick mattered in this form of competition. What would you lead against six spades from the West hand? West thought the only chance to defeat the slam was to reach partner for a club ruff. He under-led his ace of diamonds at trick one, selecting the two as a suit-preference signal for clubs. Wolff, of course, rose with dummy’s king and had an easy time from there taking all 13 tricks. The contract was unbeatable, but the overtrick was very costly, giving East-West a complete bottom on the deal.
East was Zia Mahmood, another one of the world’s best players. Instead of complaining about the underlead and the resulting terrible score, Zia showed his class by congratulating his partner on making a brilliant lead. It just didn’t work.
