Defend with Your Life
by Terence Reese and Eddie Kantar

SQueeZe Books (www.vivisphere.com/squeeze/squeezebooks.asp), US$17, ISBN 1 58776 146 7

An American publisher, Ron Garber, has had the happy idea of making available books which have long been out of print, and the first batch has reached the Bridge Plus offices. Defend With Your Life was first written in 1981, with Terence Reese contributing the text to defensive problems collected by Eddie Kantar. Both Reese and Kantar will be well known to readers: Reese, whose career as an author lasted sixty years, is 'arguably the most highly respected and popular bridge writer of all time', as the publisher's blurb puts it, and was part of the only Great Britain team to win the Bermuda Bowl (in 1955); Kantar, as well as also being a world champion player, has a formidable reputation as both author and teacher, including regular contributions to this magazine.

The book consists of 75 defensive problems, with the solution to each being found on the next page. The problems are not easy but they are fair, and logical thought reveals the correct solution. As the Introduction states, this is not a book for reading straight through, rather one for dipping into. The original text has been revised and brought up to date, though in the process most of Reese's characteristic acerbity has disappeared.

The following deal (diagram in next column) does contain evidence of Reese's co-authorship, however. Consider the problem as East with North as dummy, though with all four hands shown for convenience.

South deals and opens 2, an American convention called "Flannery", showing four spades, five hearts and 12-15 points. As Reese comments: 'How some American tour-nament players can think it clever to devote a useful opening bid to so specialised and by no means intractable a type is a mystery to the rest of the world.'

6 4   K Q 5   Q 7 6   K J 8 3 2     10 9 3   8 7 2   A K J 10 9 8 5   -   K Q 8 5   J 3   4 3 2   Q 9 7 6     A J 7 2   A 10 9 6 4   -   A 10 5 4

West overcalls 3 and North bids 3, over which South finds the fine bid of 4. His 5-4-4-0 shape combined with his aces and useful tens means that he has the playing strength to justify bidding game, and it is possible that clubs is a better trump suit than hearts. The 4 bid improves North's hand enormously and he raises to 6.

Declarer ruffs the opening diamond lead and plays the ten of clubs next. What should East do? The answer is that East must refuse to win the ten of clubs! The analysis shows why: "It is clear that South has on top five hearts, the ace of spades, four top winners in clubs and, already, one ruff. That adds to eleven tricks, and if you take the Q he will have no difficulty in ruffing another diamond, using the K and Q for entries to dummy."

Declarer's best shot now is to play a heart to dummy, ruff a diamond, cash the ace of trumps and play another heart to dummy. Next, he plays the king of trumps and a third round of hearts, hoping that East will follow, so that dummy's last diamond can be discarded on a heart winner. Unfortunately, East ruffs and cashes a diamond.

Although, doubtless for reasons of space, the point is not made in the book, it is generally right for the defence not to do what declarer clearly wants them to. When he plays the 2 to trick two, declarer is obviously happy for the defence to win the trick. It follows that the best general strategy is to duck, even if it is unclear what will happen afterwards.

The only flaw in this book is a poor standard of proof-reading. Even the jacket contains an error, with a sentence left unfinished on the back cover, and it is difficult to formulate a defensive strategy when the ace of trumps appears both in dummy and in one of the defenders' hands. However, this should not detract unduly from the pleasure to be gained from reading the book, and its purchase is recommended. How Reese (a Bradfield alumnus) would have reacted to being described as 'Etonian' is another matter . . .

Richard Fleet

© Bridge Plus 1999-2006