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2023 Youth Bridge Weekend. Zarias Werder (far right) was one of the winners of events at that weekend and unsurprisingly is starting to make an impression on the tournament scene. 

A Journey to Gold.

When one starts one’s bridge career, getting to Gold Grand Master seems a huge way off…and for most players a level of attainment to which they will never achieve. So, today, we can feature a player who recently did reach gold and another who started off on that long route of A Point achievement, scoring their first A Points this past weekend.

Let’s see whether you think the defence our new player found is common-place. I do not think so.

 

You open 1 and after your partner bids 1, the opponents take over the bidding with a strong no-trump, Stayman and game invite (3). You lead A and seeing the diamond singleton in dummy, switch to partner’s suit, 5. Partner contributes 9 and declarer wins the trick with A.

Out comes Q which you cover with K, ruffed in dummy. Declarer plays 5 to their Q and your K. You exit 2 to your partner’s J and declarer’s K.

At trick 6, South plays 9….and you?

West, Zarias Werder, a young player from Hawera, put in Q. With limited entries to dummy, or indeed to their hand, declarer ducked, hoping to finesse Zarias with the supposed K later in the play. That was not quite the situation.

 

  South was never going to make their contract because they could not handle the 4-1 trump break. Even had they successfully finessed 10, they would have been stuck in dummy and could not return to hand without either giving West a heart ruff or else abandon what they hoped would have been a favourable club lay-out. However, Zarias' defence made it that much harder for South who was soon to be cut off from dummy's clubs. 

On winning Q, Zarias exited a diamond with South playing 2 rounds of trumps, finishing back in the South hand. They tried a club to the jack and that lost to East’s K. They could never get to dummy's clubs and actually finished down 4.

The end result is not the point here. Had the spade break been 3-2, South would still have been cut off from dummy and would have failed in their contract, though less dramatically.

Had Zarias played a low club at trick 6, South would have eventually, through a double club finesse, disposed of their losing heart and diamond on established clubs. The defence would have taken 2 trumps and a club,as well as A, 4 being one down. It is, though, the principle of what Zarias achieved which is so good for such an inexperienced player.

Zarias realised that her partner had to hold more than QJ for their 1 response and that that their remaining high card points were likely to be K.  

This deal occurred at last weekend’s Taranaki Congress when Zarias won her first ever A Points, just over 8 in total.

Meanwhile, Wellington's John Patterson was presented at New Plymouth with his Gold Grand Master plaque.

Zarias is now on her way.

Richard Solomon

 

 

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