Back to Earth
By Mark Horton In 1st IMSA World Masters Championships On 14th May 2019
After their astonishing demolition of England in Round 2, Sweden faced China. This was a crucial deal:
North led the 
D
A but that only served to speed up the play, +1430.
Here East could not be sure that 6 would be no worse than a finesse – that was 13 IMPs to China.
West led the 2 and East played king, followed by the ace. Declarer ruffed, cashed the K and followed it with the ten, West pitching the C3 as East won with the queen. Another heart at this point would ensure the demise of the contract, but East returned a spade and declarer won with dummy’s ace (West pitching a heart) and came to hand with a club. When she played a second club East ruffed and played a heart and declarer was two down when she failed to endplay West.
Having come to hand, declarer should draw the outstanding trump, which squeezes West in the minors. The best she can do is pitch a diamond, but she can then be thrown in on the third round of the suit to lead into the club tenace.
South led the CA and switched to a trump, and denied more than one ruff in dummy declarer was two down, losing 12 IMPs. That made the score 1-40 and for the time being Sweden knew what it felt like to be on the wrong side of the scorecard.
