Searching for Peter Fredin
By Mark Horton In 46th World Bridge Teams Championships On 21st August 2023
My colleague Ron Tacchi presented me with this innocuous looking deal from Round 4:
Ron’s question was why can East make nine tricks in clubs, but West only eight?
With all four hands on view it should not take you long to come up with the right answer, which is that North can lead a low heart.
If declarer puts in the nine, takes South’s ten with the jack and returns a heart, North wins and can now switch to a club. Declarer wins, ruffs a heart and plays a spade for the king and ace. Now a diamond from North allows partner to cash two tricks in the suit and then give partner a heart ruff.
With East as declarer a heart lead gives declarer three tricks in the suit. Leading a trump allows declarer to win and play a spade, setting up a discard on the dummy’s 
Q with the 
K as an entry.
Across the four events only 10 pairs played in 3
– naturally all from the West hand (the popular contract was 2). Equally naturally no North led a low heart – where is Peter Fredin when you need him?
