Mumbaikars have been
enjoying the monsoon magic
for the last week, and we hope
the rainy spell continues.
Almost a fortnight ago, one
of the great legends and fine
player, Shri Virendra Shah, left
this world peacefully. I would
greet him every Wednesday at
the weekly bridge tournament
at the Willingdon Club. When
I would ask him how he was,
very cheerfully he would say,
‘very fine and very fit!’ and then
break into contagious smile.
Often he would give me the
deals he played to review. The
above deal is one of the last
ones. He was very happy to
see it in print.
Sitting East, Virendrabhai
listened while his opponents
ignored his good hand in their
rush to bid 4♣.
West led the ♦8.
Virendrabhai played the ♦10
losing to declarer’s ♦K. South
played three rounds of spades
ending in dummy and called for
the ♥2.
Virendrabhai saw that West had
maximum of 2 points and might
have none at all. So he decided
to play low. He thought well. It
would cost a trick if South had
the ♥QJXX, but it would defeat
the contract if West would
be able to win the heart trick
and return a diamond. South
played ♥10, West won with the ♥J and returned the ♦4, down
one. It took a lot of courage
for Virendrabhai to play low
smoothly. We miss seeing him
in his favourite seat.
Blog : www.hemadeora.blogspot.in
Twitter ID :@HemaDeora
No comments:
Post a Comment