Puzzle 8M49 Main

Two Turtle Doves

by Richard Pavlicek

How many times have you ruffed the opening lead? Hundreds, maybe? If you’re thinking in that neighborhood, you’re on the wrong page. I mean, how many times on a single deal, where virtually everyone’s honest answer would be once — not because of any fault but because opportunities for twice are extremely rare, except at Christmastime. Cue the orchestra!

On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me — a par deal, in a pair game:

6 South	5 4 3 2		Trick	Lead	2nd	3rd	4th
	K Q J 10 9		1. W	K	2!	2	8!
	J 10 9 8		2. S	A	6	3	7
	—		3. S	2	6	K	7
6		7	4. N	Q	8	3	5
6 5		A 8 7	5. N	J!
K 7 6 5		Q 2		Declarer succeeds
K Q J 10 9 8		A 7 6 5 4 3 2
	A K Q J 10 9 8
	4 3 2
	A 4 3
	—

Despite being gifted a ruff-sluff at Trick 1, declarer cannot benefit. If he ruffs in dummy and pitches a diamond, trumps are drawn, then East holds up the A twice to defeat the contract. Pitching a heart instead, or ruffing in hand and pitching from dummy, also leads to a dead end. The only solution is to ruff twice; then if East holds up in hearts, diamonds can be established for a heart discard.

On the second day of Christmas, a star in the East opens 6 , Jesus saves, and King Herod doubles. Watch this amazing grace:

6 × South	3		Trick	Lead	2nd	3rd	4th
	A Q J 10		1. W	A	3!	2	2!
	A Q 10 9 8 6 5 2		2. N	A	3	4!	3
	—		3. S	2	6	10	9
K J 10		—	4. N	2	4	5	4
K 8 7 6		9	5. S	3	7	J	5
K J 7 4 3		—	6. N	5	6	6	7
A		K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2	7. S	4	8	Q	7
	A Q 9 8 7 6 5 4 2		8. N	6	8	7	J
	5 4 3 2		9. S	5	K	A	9
	—		10. N	8	10	8	K
	—		11. S	9!	10	9	J
				West is endplayed

King Herod leads his partner’s suit, giving Jesus two turtle doves. Then five gold rings (diamond ruffs) finessing hearts for transportation completes a sextuple trump reduction. Lunchtime for the King! Evidently Jesus didn’t “love his enemies” all that much. The incensed King retaliated by killing a camel, which explains why only two wise men showed up for the finals.

On the 13th day of Christmas, the grandest gift will be, 13 tricks-a-making…

Construct a deal where declarer must ruff the opening lead twice to make 7 .

A further goal (tie-breaker for the December 2015 contest) is for the North-South hands to be as weak as possible, judged by the sum of all card ranks: Ace = 14, King = 13, Queen = 12, Jack = 11, etc.

Hendrik Nigul Wins

Congratulations to Hendrik Nigul, Estonia, whose clever construction topped the field hands down. This is Hendrik’s first entry in the current series, though he has participated in the past, including a second-place finish in The Law of Total Trash. (Of course, wise men claim that all my puzzles fit that law.)

Winner List

Rank	Name	Location	N-S Total
1	Hendrik Nigul	Estonia	167
2	Tim Broeken	Netherlands	170
3	Dan Gheorghiu	British Columbia	170
4	Leif-Erik Stabell	Zimbabwe	175
5	Charles Blair	Illinois	176
6	Tina Denlee	Quebec	177
7	Tom Slater	England	177
8	Grant Peacock	Maryland	181
9	Nicholas Greer	England	200
10	Jamie Pearson	Ontario	221
11	Leigh Matheson	Australia	221

Puzzle 8M49 Main

Top Two Turtle Doves

Solution

The first task is to determine a reason for ruffing the opening lead twice in a grand slam, which certainly can’t be to develop a throw-in play as in the examples. The standout answer is to initiate trump reduction for a trump coup, and every solver but one pursued such an approach. Nonetheless, I was delighted with the following unique theme from my longtime cyber friend, Charles Blair. His two turtle doves are required to avert a one-suit squeeze against declarer.

7 South	3		Trick	Lead	2nd	3rd	4th
	10 6 5 4 3		1. W	J	3!	2	2!
	8 7 6 5 4 3 2		2. N	10
	—			Win the rest
—		J 10 9
7		K 9 8
—		A K Q J 10 9
A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3		2
	A K Q 8 7 6 5 4 2
	A Q J 2
	—
	—

Charles Blair: West, a bearded man dressed in red, leads fourth-best, [eschewing] the heart lead that would allow an easy make.

Declarer must ruff the club lead in dummy, else never get there; then any heart pitch from hand allows East to score a heart trick — ducking the 10 if the two is pitched, or covering if an honor is pitched. Only the double ruff allows the heart suit to be picked up.

As Charles alludes, the grand slam is makable against any lead. Though not a requirement, only one other solver (Jamie Pearson) produced a deal with this feature, so they earn style points — which accumulate free miles for any PavCo Airlines destination.

During this contest some solvers submitted deals with West having 13 clubs. This alone was okay, but
my requirement “must ruff the opening lead twice” was intended as unconditional; i.e., not depending
on whether East ruffs or discards. I sent these people a message to clear up the ambiguity. Note that
a valid solution is possible with 13 clubs based on Charles’s theme, if North held 10-9 and East J-3.

Coup me now, or coup me later

Our two most prolific solvers, Tim and Dan, constructed essentially identical layouts. While based on the popular trump coup, they include a squeeze element that dictates precise timing of the final trump reduction.

7 South	A 3		Trick	Lead	2nd	3rd	4th
	A Q		1. W	K	3!	2	2!
	10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2		2. N	2	A	4	J
	—		3. S	2	K	A	8
K		J 9 8	4. N	3	Q	5	K
K		J 10 9 8	5. S	6	K	A	8
K J		A Q	6. N	10
A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6		5 4 3 2		Declarer succeeds
	Q 10 7 6 5 4 2
	7 6 5 4 3 2
	—
	—

Dan Gheorghiu: A club lead gives declarer two turtle doves (first trump reduction) retaining the lead in dummy; then a yo-yo between dummy and hand, ruffing diamonds, attains two more reductions. From Trick 6 on, East is under pressure: If he ruffs, declarer pulls the remaining trump and returns to dummy which is good, so the best defense is to discard useless cards. But wait! There is one more trump reduction to be made, and the crux is to delay this until East discards his next-to-last heart; then ruff and cross to the Q (which makes South’s hearts high) to continue diamonds. This twisted trump coup is like a spade-heart squeeze against East.

Tim Broeken’s layout was rotated 180 degrees, so declarer held A-3. Transfer bids must be the trend in Dutch country.

Hail the crossruff coup

The best solution reduced the North-South total to only 167. Moreover, it achieves the goal in spectacular fashion without a single side-suit winner at the start. Hats off to Hendrik Nigul, whose construction tops my own best effort in preparing this contest.

7 South	A J 9 7 6 2		Trick	Lead	2nd	3rd	4th
	—		1. W	A	2!	2	3!
	Q 7 6 5 4 3 2		2. S	2	K	6	J
	—		3. N	2	8	4	K
Q 10 8		—	4. S	3	A	7	Q
A K		Q J	5. N	3	9	5	A
A K		J 10 9 8		continued below…
A K Q J 10 9		8 7 6 5 4 3 2
	K 5 4 3
	10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
	—
	—

After the ruff-ruff start, declarer crossruffs the next four tricks as West follows suit, establishing the heart suit and the Q — but not the diamond suit, which is the key factor that necessitates the double ruff. This leaves the following position:

win 8	A J 9		Trick	Lead	2nd	3rd	4th
	—		6. S	10	9	4	3
	Q 7 6 5 4		7. S	9	8	9	4
	—		8. N	5	10	K	10
Q 10 8		—	9. S	8
—		—		Declarer succeeds
—		J 10
K Q J 10 9		8 7 6 5 4 3
	K
	10 9 8 7 6 5 4
	—
South leads	—

On heart leads, West has no answer. If he discards, so does dummy, and the process continues. If he ruffs, dummy overruffs, and a diamond ruff establishes dummy’s suit; then hearts are led until West ruffs, after which trumps are drawn and dummy is good.

Indeed, the need to ruff twice at Trick 1 is hardly obvious; but if declarer ruffs only in hand, dummy’s trumps cannot be reduced for the coup; and if he ruffs only in dummy, he cannot return safely to hand with West poised to overruff the third diamond.

Happy new year!

Leigh Matheson: I think the Grinch inspired this puzzle.

Jamie Pearson: I found this quite difficult. Great puzzle!

Grant Peacock: I love the simplicity of the puzzle statement; it’s like the Goldbach’s conjecture of bridge puzzles.

Dan Gheorghiu: Two doves to everyone who participated in the 2015 series, and a huge camel to the professor!

Tim Broeken: You made all my train rides the last few weeks a lot more fun.

Puzzle 8M49 Main

Top Two Turtle Doves

© 2016 Richard Pavlicek