Christmas Conundrums

A couple of conundrums for Christmas. First a question I was asked was why snowmen always appear in Arsenal colours. Well, one obvious answer is that if they had Spurs colours, the white scarf would not contrast with the snow. On the other hand, the red of the Arsenal scarf is typical of Christmas. The holly berries and the robin are both red after all.

A colleague suggested that another reason is that Arsenal look good at Christmas but have melted away by the spring ... Whatever the reason, red and white does seem to be the snowman's traditional garb. And, while I remember, what is the word for a fear of chimneys?

Another conundrum was the following puzzle, which I gave to some on Christmas cards. You reach 6H after a poor auction. But the play's the thing. What is the only layout which allows you to make?

As some will have not seen it yet, I will wait until the 1st January to give the solution. It remains to wish all blog readers a Happy New Year.

And, as promised, the solution. The layout has to be exactly as follows:

West leads the jack of diamonds against 6H. You must cover with the king. East wins and returns a diamond (there is nothing better). South must win and draws trumps in three rounds, ending in dummy. Now he cashes the ace of clubs, then the queen and jack, and leads the remaining two hearts. West is squeezed in spades and diamonds. You need West to have exactly JT98 of diamonds so that the seven is a threat against him. You need East to have the stiff jack of spades for the squeeze to operate. If he has a singleton king you cannot make it.

Oh, and I nearly forgot, SANTACLAUSTROPHOBIA is the fear of chimneys.

Combinations by Foxymoron

One of the most valuable books in my bridge collection is one I reviewed for International Popular Bridge Monthly in 1999. It is long out of print and is on sale on Amazon at $300. It is the Dictionary of Suit Combinations and is inscribed: "To my friend Tony Sowter. Signed Jean Marc Roudinescu". When I reviewed it, Anne Catchpole correctly described my article, which listed the 30 or so mistakes I had found, as the most boring article she had ever read."

I quickly reached again for my copy when a very interesting suit combination occurred last week at the Woodberry, as I certainly did not know the right line.  Most Easts played in Three Spades as did Anne Catchpole, and her (presumed) failure to buy and read the above title did not matter as she played the right percentage line. The defence started with three rounds of diamonds and dummy ruffed. Now the two possible lines are to cross to the ace of hearts and lead a spade to the queen, or to play a spade to the ace and then a second spade. The Dictionary showed me that, for four trump tricks, the former line is 71.22% and the latter, which Anne chose, is 71.78%. On this occasion virtue had to be its own reward as she had to lose two trump tricks and scored an average, whereas the first line would have succeeded.

If you do play a spade towards the queen, when South plays the ten and North the king, you should finesse the nine on the second round, because with JT doubleton South might have played the other honour. And there is another issue that cashing the ace might lose three trump tricks, so the 100% safety play of low to the nine of spades can be considered. The Dictionary gives the best play for maximum tricks as low to the queen, as you can avoid three losers when South shows out, but you are in trouble if spades are 4-0 so I think the line chosen is right.

I was also surprised when I checked the origin of the phrase "Virtue is its own reward" which stems from Cicero. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.), orator and lawyer, believed government corruption would lead to the downfall of the Roman Republic