The International Bridge Press Association (IBPA) nominates and selects winners in a number of bridge categories each year. This year's "Precision Award for Best Defense" went to Zia Mahmood of New York City. The nomination was made by Alan Truscott, bridge columnist for the New York Times. What follows is Truscott's description of the actual play from his column.
The most brilliant defensive play at the American Contract Bridge League's Summer Nationals, held in San Diego, CA, in July, 1994, will very likely prove to be the best of the year. It occurred on the diagrammed deal from an early round of the Spingold Knockout Team Championship, and the hero was Zia Mahmood, a colorful Pakistani expert who lives in Manhattan but is usually playing bridge somewhere else.
West led the diamond three. Zia held the East hand, and defended three no trump. North's two diamond bid at his second turn was "new minor forcing", asking South for information about his major suit holdings. West, therefore, led a diamond, since that was the only suit that had not been genuinely bid.
First, consider how the play would proceed with normal defense. South plays low from dummy. East wins the king and returns the suit. South sees that he can make at most eight tricks unless he brings in at least three spade tricks, so he plays for West to have the spade queen and finds he has ten tricks. That sequence was followed when Zia's teammates held the North-South cards.
As East, Zia knew that the spades were favorably placed for South, so he tried to confuse the issue for the declarer. When the diamond six was played from dummy he played the unexpected jack instead of the routine king. This play was not going to cost anything, whoever held the queen.
When South won the queen he was convinced that the diamond king was on his left, which meant that he could take three diamond tricks, not two. This offered the prospect of taking seven tricks in the red suits plus two spade winners, so he played the three top hearts. When the jack failed to drop he confidently finessed the diamond ten, and was considerably deflated when Zia produced the diamond king and shifted to the club queen, defeating the contract.
The thoughtful queen play made no difference in this case,
though it would have paid off if West's holding had been A-J-9.
But it was the deflection play of the diamond jack at the first
trick that led South down the garden path to defeat.
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