A Vienna Coup in the 2014 Palace Cup 2014

30 August, 2014

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On August 26-29, 2014 at the Centrum Konferencyjno-Wystawiennicze “Pałac Prymasowski” in Warsaw, with the support of Casino Palace and Bridge24.pl, was held the 2014 “Palace Cup” tournament.

The main event, was played on August 27-29, and it was an invitational tournament TOP-16 played by many of the most famous world stars: Balicki, Bertheau, Bessis, Brink, Buras, Drijver, Dubinin, Gromov, Kwiecień, Muller, Narkiewicz, Nystrom, Pszczoła, de Wijs, Zia, Bilde…etc.

Finally Jacek Kalita-Michał Nowosadzki won the event and the $ 10,000 first prize. At the 11th position arrived W. Gawel -R. Jagniewski, in the last board of the event they declared a slam, and the declarer had to execute a Vienna Coup followed by a squezze to arrive to his 12th trick.

Vienna Coup: The Vienna coup is an unblocking technique in contract bridge made in preparation for a squeeze play. It is so named because it was originally published by James Clay (1804-1873) after observing it being executed in the days of whist by “the greatest player in Vienna” — identity unknown. (Wikipedia)

2014 Palace Cup Board 20 1

West	North	East	South
Mahmood	Jagniewski	Bilde	Gawel
Pass	1	Double	3
3	6	The End

A heart lead defeats the club slam. After a heart lead declarer needs the K on side. But at the table Dennis Bilde chose to lead his A, after the bidding it was clear that they were short in diamonds.



Lead: A



After winning the first trick and watching the 4 played by Zia, Dennis decided to continue with hisQ. Declarer ruffed, and continued playing the A y K. Dennis’s double showed 4 or more heart cards and no doubt the K.

So Jagniewski immediately unblocked the A, and begun to run trumps…this was the position after three club rounds:



Q A K 7 4 6 10 6 2 K K J 9 5 3 10 8 Q 8 10 When declarer played the 10 and after pitching dummy’s Q, East couldnt play a safe card, if he played the K the 10 was the 12th trick, and if he played a heart, declarer’s fourth heart was the 12th trick. These were the results of the hand in all the tables: Note that all the tables played a club contract (5 or 6) and nobody led a heart. And these are the makeable tricks by DeepFinesse: