Force Majeure by Foxymoron

The origin of the phrase force majeure is around 1820. The principles behind the force majeure clause originated in England. In Taylor v. Caldwell, an English court decided that circumstances beyond the control or fault of two contracting parties excused performance under their contract.

In bridge, force majeure should not really apply, as one or other partner is usually to blame for reaching the wrong contract. Disagreement on whether a bid is forcing is a common reason for a debacle and this is within the control of the contracting parties. As there are a mere (4*(22)^35-1)/3 distinct bidding auctions (around 10^50), comfortably less than the number of atoms in the universe (around 10^80), the keen student can agree which bids force partner to bid again. One of the contestants on BBC's Mastermind had a misunderstanding of what a "force" was when he responded (from Dumb Britain):

But I digress. In this week's duplicate, two strong players had a disagreement on whether 3H was forcing on the following hand:

The auction, uncontested, was 1H-1S-2C-2NT-3H-Pass. West thought he had limited his hand by 2NT, and East was showing a weak 6-4. East thought that 3H was forcing, showing six hearts. Readers might like to decide whether 3H would be forcing in their methods. My view is that it is non-forcing as that is how one bids with a weak 6-4, just worth an opening bid.

Nobody reached the reasonable 6H which will make if the heart finesse is right and has chances when it is not. However, only one person made 12 tricks in 4H. The right line, on the spade lead is to win and run the jack of hearts. South will win and exit with a trump, but declarer can run all the hearts and South is squeezed in the minors. In the six-card ending he has to keep four diamonds and three clubs and this cannot be done. The only better results for EW was when North injudiciously saved in 4S for -1400, an Owain - after the rebellion of 1400.  A clear case of monochromacy.

Cut the Link by Foxymoron

Four Musketeers from the Woodberry had a successful day at the London Metropolitan Bridge Association Teams of Four on 9th July. There were quite a few Woodberry members who also did well, in particular Andrew Clery and Bill Linton in the team that finished fifth.

One of the most interesting and complicated boards was the following:

Stefanie Rohan did well on this hand. East, Paul Lamford opened 1C and John Cox, also a Woodberry member, doubled as South. Stefanie, West, redoubled and David Willis, North, upped the ante with 2S. East and South passed and Stefanie made the practical bid of 3NT.

North led the seven of spades to the ace and South continued with the ace and another heart to West's ten (ducking works well) and North's queen. Now North switched to the eight of diamonds which South won with the king. At this point South needed to cut the link with a club shift, but instead missed his chance by playing a third heart. West won and cashed her red winners to squeeze North in the black suits. John, an expert who has won the Camrose for England, realised he had to play a club quite quickly afterwards.

As David Burn once said, "An expert is one who knows what he should have done just after he did something else".

The winning team, left to right, Paul Lamford, Stefanie Rohan, Chantelle Girardin, Ken Barnett.