Chess & Bridge Combined
By Mark Horton In 46th World Bridge Teams Championships On 26th August 2023
The Chess World Cup tournament was taking place at the same time as these World Championships. On this deal declarer brought home his contract by utilizing a term that is well known in that game:
In the Open Room, Percario and Donati had bid 2NT-3
-3
-6NT, but declarer had relied on both major suit finesses being right and went one down.
6NT can be made – but is difficult. After two rounds of clubs, declarer plays two rounds of hearts finessing and then ducks a diamond. If South exits with the Q declarer wins in dummy and plays a diamond and North, down to 
Q96 10 J10 is in trouble. A club discard is out of the question, but whichever major he discards from will allow declarer to continue with that suit in what is effectively a repeating squeeze. Across the fields, 48 pairs went down in a slam, while 5 made 6 and 13 6NT. Remarkably in the BB only Singapore and UAE made the latter – and they were playing each other!
South led the 
Q and declarer won with the ace, played a club to the ace and club to the king, South discarding the 9. Declarer cashed the K, took the heart finesse and cashed the A discarding a diamond. He ruffed a heart, cashed the Q and the diamond king and then played the top spades ending in dummy. He could then play the 10 to score the 7 en passant for a splendid +920 and 14 IMPs.
6 is perhaps a better bet than 6NT. Another way to make it after the 4-1 break comes to light is to take the heart finesse, and after ruffing the fourth heart, cash two diamonds and then throw North in with a club for an enforced spade return.
