Evening Star Newspaper, December 7, 1930, Page 102

RIDGE crackerjacks from all points of the coempass are en route today to Cleveland, where the banner competition of the year will keep them busy from the Mon- day afternoon session clear up to the closing hour next Saturday night. It is the annual championship tournament of American Bridge League, and will for 12 months the status of seven national titles, five of them at auction and two at contract. There is bound to be a change in the possession of the Chicago Trophy, pre- sented by the Auciion Bridge Club of Chicago for the eontract team-of-four supremacy, for M. M. Cohen, one member of the 1929 championship team from the donor club, has passed to the great be- yond. His teammates—R. W. Halpin, L. J. Haddad and Nils M. Wester—are understood to be ready wilh a new star to take his place and put up a hard battle with other great Western players and these from the East and South who will seek the crown. s Since the last tournament there has been no clearly marked contract cham- pionship pair, for the 1929 event wound up in a tie between Mrs. Sidney Lovell and Mrs. Eliot Evans of Chicago, with Ralph Reed Richards, founder of the league, and its secretary, Wiliam E. Mc- Kenney. The tie was never played off, Present holders of three of the five aapction trophies are New Yorkers. Ely Culbertson and P. H. Sims possess the R. R. Richards Trophy for men’s pairs. Sir Derrick Wernher, George Reith, Comdr. Winfield Liggett, jr., and Sims hold the Cleveland Whist Club Trophy presented by Maurice J. Maschke for men’s teams of four. Mrs. Sims and Mrs, Emory Clement have the Charlotte Cot- ton Davis Trophy for women’s pairs. The mixed pair trophy given by Mrs. J. C, Beardsley is in the hands of Mrs. Jessie Dalton and R. E. Needham of Greenville, Pa. The Charles E. Coffin trophy for women's teams of four has been in the custody of Mrs. M. K. Alexander, Mrs, Sidney Lovell, Dr. Emma T. Dafter and Mrs. Rose Fleischer of Chicago. Auction events occupy the early days of the sessions in the Hotel Cleveland, the first contract play being Thursday evening. On Thursday morning comes the election of officers. Clayton W. Ald- rich of Cleveland has headed the league during a mcst active year. His successor may be guessed from the fact that Capt. Frederick G. French of Philadelphia is vice president, and that fact also may w where the 1931 tourndament is to be held. In the interests of fair play, the league fournaments are governed by rules that necessitate pairs explaining to their op- ponents in advance any arbitrary con- ventions or declarations they use which imply to partners other meanings than the words would naturally indicate. After any declaration—bid, pass, double or re- double—any opponent may ask if any conventional meaning is conveyed to ; Auction Problems. HOWMHyouNdandphytbeiol- lowing hand, South being the dealer? 831043 a8 VvAQTS . HKI0T4S 8 T R SR TR - v g UMITHL AW N “HLTMN TR ¢ 7uE BriDGE FORUM | Seven National Bridge Championskips Will Be Settled Within a Week. By Shepard Barcla);. The Passer. A foot ball star tore down the field; He’d ploughed through all the mass; The safety didn’t like his looks, So calmly murmured “Pass.” A fervent swain was oft in love And won each charming lass, > But when she said, “Now_see my dad,” Right out the door he’d pass. - Sane chances are a part of bridge, But dubs as green as grass Will often wait for sure thing games And otherwise say “Pass.” In bridge or foot ball, love or life, The one who shows his class Knows when to take a worthwhile risk Instead of crying “Pass.” North now shows his strength with three spades. East and South pass. If East had not shown the hearts. West can now bid four clubs opposite a partner who, unaided, went as high as three. If East had shown the hearts, West raises to four hearts. calls four spades, East and South pass- ing. West also passes and spades be- come the final bid when East had not shown the hearts, but in the latter case West goes to five hearts, which ends the bidding. It happens here that showing the hearts was a better move for East than trying to rebid his clubs first, which also was logical since the bidding of a minor before a major showed that the mimor must be a better suit and therefore did not require a rebid to reveal its nature, as would have been the case if the first suit shown were the higher ranking. Five hearts can, of course, be made very easily by dropping the trumps and then running the clubs, and six are assured if East will merely ruff the second spade of his hand with a trump in dummy. Played at spades, South has a ticklish job. West will lead the ace of his part- ner’s club suit, then the deuce, showing that he has no more. If he had a higher one, he would lead it to tell his partner he was not yet out of the suit. East, after taking the second club, knows that everybody can ruff the suit now, since he has all the rest of the clubs. As far as he can tell, the king of hearts is more South than In either ease, North average player he would have grasped the chance to get a heart discard, in- tending to ruff in dummy. This time, however, the declarer happened to be the skiliful Mrs. W. B. Winchell. She saw that she could later discard losing hearts oen dummy’s diamonds, so trumped with the ace in her own hand. This play, as she reckoned, could hardly cost her anything and might profit her. If West had the queen singleton, she would gain; if the queen and one little card, she might as well lose a trick in a later trump lead as the current trick; if the queen and two little * cards, she would lose a trick to West’s queen in any event. The only way the play could lose anything would be if West had just one little trump and Bast held the queen and another. So, with those odds heavily in her favor, she won the trick in her own hand. As it hap- pened, the lead of the king then dropped the gueen, s0 she had nothing left to do but run the trumps and diamonds, giving her a total of 11 tricks, or one more the comtract. : The New Problem. T would you lead from the follow- ing hand against a dealer’s original bid of one no trump? Of one spade? One diamonds? One club? Why? SQMNE32 ¥YQUEI2 (PEQ &5 A Good Partnership. TWO new books by the brilliant and sound Madeleine Kerwin constitute a balanced pair—“How to Bid Centract Bridge in 1931” and “Improve Your Card forcing methods of bidding, but reveals her genius for condensation and brevity. The second does a thorough job on the problems that arise after the bidding is ended—either contract or auction—cov- coat or in one of those fair-sised-ladies’ bhandbags, so the student may make use of his odd moments. h Have You Heard It ? JT has passed all around the circle' many parts of the country. Here’s the way it goes: ; “Where is the deuce higher than the Contract Systems. JF South opens with one heart, West bids one spade, North two hearts, East three spades, South four clubs and West passes, what should North now do? Regardless of what cards he holds, he must take the contract to game. South has guaranteed the stremngth for it by taking the bid to four, after partner sup- ported his first suit, and is simply offer- ing North a choice of two different declarations. With the benefit of in- formation about South’s heart-club two- suiter, North must bid either four hearts or five clubs—whichever seems safest from the standpoint of his own hand. He must not pass, no matier what he holds. How would you bid the following hand, neither side being vulnerable and South dealer? B R v1542 ¢58433 aK10 47100543 SK9872 vis ¢ AKS $3932 A Law a Week. cept In the case of a dummy intentionally seen .one or some other player—either