A lovely criss cross squeeze in the third quarter of the Spingold Final

♦ I love this interesting hand which occurred in the third quarter of the Spingold final when everything seemed to be going Meltzer’s way.  As Board 34 started Meltzer was losing 46imps to 70 imps and this deal was part of the turnaround that left Meltzer ahead as the quarter ended.  This deal is interesting because it provides a wonderful opportunity for Sontag to execute a rare squeeze and it shows the great difficulty for even top players like Moss and Gitelman to defend against it.  Since I have been using music to help me along I think this intellectual hands needs a Mozart concerto and because it is Sontag it has to be the allegro movement.  This is Board 34 of the final and I have rotated the hand to make it easier to read.

Dealer: North Vul:  E-W	Berkowitz  ♠ Q83  ♥ Q6  ♦ AQ5  ♣ AKJ106
Moss     ♠ 762  ♥ AKJ5  ♦ 8642  ♣ 53		Gitelman ♠ KJ954 ♥ 2  ♦ KJ109 ♣ Q72
	Sontag ♠A10  ♥ 1098743  ♦ 73  ♣ 984

1♣ was strong and artifical and Sontag’s double showed less than 5 points.  After the Gitelman and Moss bid spades Sontag introduced his six-card hearts suit with 3♥ and there he played.  Moss led the ♠7 and Gitelman ducked (putting up an honor would have allowed Sontag to set up a second spade trick anyway for a pitch anyway).  At this point on the lie of the cards it seems that Sontag has three heart losers and a loser in each minor as long as Moss plays a diamond at some point, down one.  But the play took an interesting turn.  Sontag led a heart, Mostt won the ♥K and switch to a diamond.  Sontag lost the diamond finesse and Gitelman returned the ♦J won in dummy with the ♦A.  Sontag played the ♥Q and Moss was on lead again as Gitelman threw a small spade.  Moss continued spades ruffed by Sontag who played anorther heart GItelman throwing a spade again.  This was the position:

Dealer: Vul:	Berkowitz  ♠ Q8  ♥ ♦ –  ♣ AKJ10
Moss     ♠ 62  ♥ 5  ♦ 4  ♣ 53		Gitelman ♠ KJ ♥   ♦ 9 ♣ Q72
	Sontag ♠ A  ♥ 98  ♦ –  ♣ 984

Moss in on lead now.  He has to place Gitelman with the ♣Q and ♠K or else the hand is over.  It looks safe enough to return a diamond since no simple squeeze will work on East who lies over both of the threats the ♠Q and ♣J which are in dummy.  There is one problem.  Sontag has an alternate threat in the club suit, the ♣9.  As long as he retains the ♠A as an entry to his hand he has a rare criss-cross squeeze.  At this point a black suit return will defeat the hand.  A spade return immediately removes Sontag’s entry to his hand after he has played trump.  He can win the ♠A and play two trump but Gitelman simple keeps the same black cards as dummy.  If Moss returns a club Sontag can win but has to squander the ♠A to get back to his hand to play trump.  But when Moss returned a diamond Sontag ruffed throwing a club from dummy and played the last trump discarding another club from dummy.  Now this is what Gitelman is confronting as he has to play last to this trick (the bold bracketed cards in the North South hands have been played).

Dealer: Vul:	Berkowitz  ♠ Q8 ♥  –  ♦  – ♣  AK(J)
Moss  irrelavant		Gitelman ♠ KJ ♥ – ♦ – ♣ Q72
	Sontag ♠  A ♥  (9) ♦  – ♣   984

if he throws a spade Sontag cashes the ♠A and then dummy is high.  If he throw a club Sontag cashes the top clubs in dummy and returns to his hand with the important ♠A to take the ♣9 as his game going trick.  A beautifully executed criss-cross squeeze to make his contract and win 5 imps for the Meltzer team.

In the Closed Room in the same contract and with the same lead Nunes with the East hand put up the ♠J.  Hampson had to play another spade to get his discard.  South won and returned a third spade as Hampson threw a diamond.  In the end there was no chance of a squeeze on this defence and he eventually went down one.