Test Your Play as Declarer (Vols 1 & 2)
by Pauk Lukacs & Jeff Rubens

SQueeZe Books (www.vivisphere.com/squeeze/squeezebooks.asp)
US$17, ISBN 1 58776 131 9 and 1 58776 132 7

These two books are updated reprints of books originally published in 1976 and 1982. The late Paul Lukacs, though an Isra-eli international player, was perhaps best known for his ability to construct problems and analyse hands. Jeff Rubens has edited the American magazine The Bridge World jointly or singly since 1967, and has represented the USA in the Bermuda Bowl world championship.

As the titles imply, both books consist of problems in declarer play. All of the hands originally appeared in The Bridge World, though some have been improved on the basis of comments made by readers. Since knowledge of the various forms of endplay (coup, elimination and squeeze) is taken for granted, these books are really only suitable for competent players who wish to improve their game. A particular feature is the attention to detail: it is all too easy for the reader to think that a problem has been solved until he reads the solution and realises that a nice point has been missed.

As an illustration of the standard of the deals, this is one of the easier ones. Of cour-se, when presented in problem format, only the North-South hands are shown, but for readers' convenience all four appear below:

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

South opens 2 and rebids 2 over the 2 negative. North supports spades and an exchange of cue bids results in South declaring the excellent 6 contract on the lead of the 9. Obviously, if the adverse trumps are 1-1, the contract is cold, so the object is to succeed against a 2-0 split. Declarer cashes the A and notes that West has a certain trump trick.

At first glance, it looks as though South will need to guess which minor-suit finesse to take: he does not have enough entries to dummy to eliminate diamonds (i.e. so that, with no red cards left in the North-South hands, he can throw West on lead and force him either to lead clubs, or to give a ruff and discard).

However, the key to the hand is to realise that declarer can succeed without a guess if either minor-suit finesse is working. After the first round of trumps, declarer must play a diamond to dummy's ace, and then play on hearts. Assuming that West does not ruff, a second round of trumps puts him on lead: he must either play a club into the tenace or play a diamond, allowing declarer to try dummy's queen without risk.

One aspect which I found slightly irritating was the unrealistic auctions. On one occasion, East-West keep silent with almost half the high cards and all thirteen diamonds between them (admittedly, vulnerable vs not at rubber bridge).

Both books are highly recommended for players good enough to benefit from them.

Richard Fleet

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