St. Petersburg Times – 5 Ago 1970
For thousands of years, a stock comedy figure has been the man who looks at the stars and falls into a well.
During the recent world championship in Stockholm one of the Norwelgan experts played a hand in this grand comic tradition.
Tore Jensen, of the Norwegian team, won the first trick in his hand with the queen of hearts and surveyed his assets with satisfaction. Five clubs, a diamond, a heart, and three spades.
West’s take-out double of one club made it clear that the ace of hearts was safely tucked away in the West hand.
Happily looking at the stars, Jensen led a low spade to dummy’s jack and then continued with dummy’s ten of spades. Bobby Wolff, holding the West cards, took the ace of spades and shifted to a diamond, knocking out the ace. Jensen was already in the well, but he hadn’t yet discovered it. He learned where he was when he led a club to dummy’s king, only to find out that all of the missing clubs were in one hand.
Too Late
It was too late for the Norwegian star to recover. He could lead a club from dummy, capturing the ten of clubs with the queen, but then he couldn’t return to the dummy for another lead through East’s clubs. When South led a heart, West stepped up with the ace of hearts and ran the diamonds to defeat the contract.
A down-to-earth declarer would check on the clubs at the second trick. A club to the king is followed by a club back through East. South’s queen captures the ten. Only now can South lead a low spade to dummy’s jack. West cannot stop declarer from reaching dummy with a spade honor. And then declarer leads another clubs through East to bring in his five club tricks — and his game contract.