Katowice Round of 32

Our Round of 32 board comes from the second hand of the final quarter. It's not hard to see why: due to the presence of a grand slam, the board made huge swings in 11 of the 14 matches (2 teams withdrew). But what I want to discuss is the play of the grand: North overcalled 1H over West's opening, and, at most tables that reached 7C, the HK was led.

The play is the main problem: North's 1H overcall cautions us to guard against a potential overruff from South. If we use two diamonds as entries back to our hand to ruff hearts, we will get overruffed and go down. But since we need to ruff hearts twice, the CA would prevent us from going back to either finish drawing trumps or cut off our entry to the DQ. The solution: ruff a heart, diamond back, ruff a second heart HIGH, club back, draw trumps, cash DK, pitch a heart on the DQ. Most tables played it this way and made it.

Against a grand slam, popular wisdom is to lead a trump. By doing so, declarer now has much more trouble since one entry has been cut. If declarer still tries to ruff 2 hearts, he is either 1 entry short or he must use a second diamond entry, allowing North to ruff. However, the contract is still makeable from a single dummy perspective. If diamonds are 3-2, the running diamonds will provide more than enough pitches; otherwise, the original plan would've never worked anyways. We can also succeed when diamonds are 4-1 and the SK is on, such as on this deal. Win the CA, ruff one heart, then draw trumps and cash DAK. If diamonds are 3-2, the hearts go on the diamonds; otherwise, you will just need to finesse a spade. Most tables that got a trump lead still made it, but with much more challenge.

This board created huge swings, mostly because a grand was bid at one table and missed at the other. Also, some people were in 7N with the EW cards, which did not bode well...(though one table did manage to make).