Round 12: Forquet finds the Defense

The final round of Day 4 was a once in a lifetime opportunity for the Senior Team to play against some members of the former Italian Blue Team. Unfortunately Garozzo was not playing this round however Pietro Forquet was in with Nino Masucci. Forquet is the author of what many believe to be one of the all time best bridge books, "Bridge with the Blue Team" which documents 100 of the best hands in his teams career.

The defense on this hand was ample demonstration of the challenges when facing this team.

N (Cummings) -> S: AQ H: QJ D: T643 C: AK853
E (Masucci) -> S: J96 H: 9642 D: 752 C: JT4
S (Lindop) -> S: KT843 H: A873 D: K9 C: 76
W (Forquet) -> S: 752 H: KT5 D: AQJ8 C: Q92

With None vulnerable and South the dealer the bidding went:
1S - P - 2C - P -
2H - P - 3D - P -
3N - all pass.

Many defenders allowed 3N to make by allowing declarer to unblock his significant suits and take advantage of the 3-3 breaks in the key black suits. After the fourth suit 3D and subsequent 3N, Forquet stayed off the diamond lead and attacked sneakily with the C9 attacking declarers dummy entries. Lindop won, cashed the SA and SQ and ran the HQ. When this lost to the K and the club Q came back only eight trick were available before the defense could come to five by playing a diamond through declarer. Well defended by Forquet matching the prediction of the double dummy analysis available with all of the hand records.

Fortunately for the Senior squad many other hands went their way and allowed them to finish an otherwise disappointing day with a solid 18-12 win.

As a final personal note getting to play Forquet's dummy for one hand during the set was a an unaticipated bonus for these World Championships.