Puzzle 8K23   Main

Spot Card Jungle

by Richard Pavlicek

Last night at the Spotsylvania Bridge Club, I spotted a peculiar ending. South was declarer in 3 NT, a good spot despite some spotty play early on, and needed to win the last six tricks with South on lead. Amazingly, all the honor cards had been played. Declarer managed his spot cards with spotless technique to succeed, spot on.

NT win all	?  ?  ?  ?
7 6 3 9 8 4 —			— 4 7 3 7 6 5
South leads	?  ?  ?  ?

Now the spotlight is on you. Try to avoid a blind spot as you supply the missing spots.

Assign North and South each six spot cards (2-9) to win all six tricks against any defense.

Multiple solutions exist. Further goals (tiebreakers for the March contest) are for the spot cards to be as low as possible (judged by total rank sum), and for the North and South sums to be as close to equal as possible, in that order of priority.

My name is Spot Run, Spot, run!

Jonathan Mestel Wins

In March 2011 this puzzle was presented as a contest, with 117 participants from 33 locations. Thanks to everyone who participated, and congratulations to the 84 who entered spot cards able to win six tricks. Listed below are the solvers who achieved a rank sum of 63 or less. Ties are broken by the total rank sum, evenness of the N-S split, and lastly by date-time of entry.

No tiebreaker was needed for the top spot. Jonathan Mestel was the only one to find the optimal solution, which he submitted only a day before the contest ended, which spoiled my shutout (grrr) though it hardly came as a surprise. Jonathan, a chess grandmaster since 1982, was the 1997 World Chess Solving Champion. When his interests turned to bridge, the outcome was inevitable. Five years ago he won my Six Against The Rock play contest with 1056 entrants and topped the final Leaderboard of the series with a 59.25 average (60 max).

The United Kingdom rocks — gold, silver and bronze!

Winner List

Rank	Name	Location	Sum	N-S
1	Jonathan Mestel	England	61	31-30
2	James Lawrence	England	62	31-31
3	Wayne Somerville	Northern Ireland	62	31-31
4	Dan Baker	Texas	62	31-31
5	Aurelien Boutin	France	62	31-31
6	Benjamin Yip	Hong Kong	62	31-31
7	Manuel Paulo	Portugal	62	31-31
8	Licai Yeo	Singapore	62	31-31
9	Zla Khadgar	Ohio	62	31-31
10	Darek Kardas	Poland	62	31-31
11	Gonzalo Goded	Spain	62	31-31
12	Jim Munday	California	62	31-31
13	Peter Dutton	England	62	31-31
14	Hendrik Nigul	Estonia	62	31-31
15	Colin Schloss	Pennsylvania	62	31-31
16	Julian Wightwick	England	62	31-31
17	Reint Ostendorf	Netherlands	62	30-32
18	John Lindsey II	Massachusetts	62	30-32
19	Nan Wang	New Jersey	62	30-32
20	Tim Broeken	Netherlands	62	35-27
21	Charles Blair	Illinois	62	24-38
22	Jonathan Weinstein	Illinois	63	31-32
23	John Reardon	England	63	31-32
24	David Hodge	England	63	31-32
25	Andrew Bragin	California	63	31-32
26	Paul Nelson	California	63	31-32
27	Ufuk Cotuk	England	63	31-32
28	Jonathan Ferguson	Texas	63	31-32
29	Joshua Parks	Virginia	63	31-32
30	Simon Kearon	England	63	32-31
31	John Kropinak	Ohio	63	33-30
32	Horatio Chin	Hong Kong	63	29-34
33	Alan Ardron	England	63	29-34
34	Dan Israeli	Israel	63	29-34
35	Jacqueline Rapp	Illinois	63	34-29
36	Sam Needham	California	63	29-34
37	Dan Dang	British Columbia	63	29-34
38	Jeffery Jettison	Singapore	63	28-35
39	Lee Weiner	Georgia (US)	63	28-35
40	Thomas Haukland	Norway	63	27-36
41	Gene Owens	Michigan	63	27-36
42	Tim DeLaney	Indiana	63	26-37

Puzzle 8K23   Main

Top   Spot Card Jungle

Solution

Because honor cards (A-K-Q-J-10) are not allowed, only five winning cards — 9-8 9 9-8 — are available for North-South. Therefore, the sixth trick must come from a double finesse in spades or a squeeze. Most of the top solvers took advantage of both, finessing spades to gain one trick and squeezing out another, thus requiring only four of the five winners. This ending was typical:

NT win all Success	9 8 5 5 2 2			Trick 1 S 2 N 3 S 4 N	Lead 4 2 2 5	2nd 6 6 7 ?	3rd 8 8 9	4th 5 3 4	W-L W1 W2 W3
7 6 3 9 8 4 —			— 4 7 3 7 6 5
South leads	4 2 — 9 5 8 3				East then West squeezed

After a spade finesse (West splitting) declarer returns to the 8, on which West pitches a spade (he’ll be finessed anyway) then a second spade is won in dummy. Meanwhile, East comfortably pitches a club and a heart. The  5 then squeezes both defenders: East must pitch a diamond to guard clubs, South the 3, and West must pitch a diamond to guard hearts.

Wayne Somerville: Spade to dummy (say West splits, not that it matters); club back to hand (West throws a spade); spade to dummy. The last spade effects a double squeeze.

Manuel Paulo: South leads spades twice, returning to hand via clubs; the last spade squeezes both opponents simultaneously.

Jim Munday: Double finesse spades; double squeeze around diamonds.

Everyone who submitted a 62 sum evenly split (places 2-16) duplicated the above construction, excepting the optional swap of 5-4 and 3-2 to retain the 31-31 balance.

Guard duty

A completely different 62-sum layout was submitted by Tim Broeken (Netherlands), winner of my recent Yarborough Fair contest. While lacking in evenness (35-27), the incorporation of a double guard squeeze is noteworthy:

NT win all Success	9 8 2 9 5 2			Trick 1 S 2 N	Lead 2 8	2nd 3 ?	3rd 9	4th 3	W-L W1
7 6 3 9 8 4 —			— 4 7 3 7 6 5
South leads	2 3 2 9 8 3				East then West squeezed

On the first spade, suppose East pitches a diamond as shown. The next spade squeezes him in three suits: A club pitch is an instant loss, a heart subjects West to a red-suit squeeze, and a diamond subjects West to a finesse. East cannot alter his fate by pitching a heart on the first spade, as he must pitch a diamond next, allowing West to be squeezed. A similar guard squeeze was constructed by:

Charles Blair: I wonder… If Spot were a guard dog, could he check whether my ending is legal?

All entries in this contest were verified to be legal by software before submission. Legal endings must be reachable from a full deal without a revoke or other irregularity. The following table shows the test summary for the above ending, which is legal because the Max Tricks Total is equal to or greater than the number of previous tricks.

Suit	Hands With	Cards Missing	Max Tricks
	3	7	2
	4	9	2
	4	6	1
	3	6	2
Max Tricks Total			7

In the jungle, the mighty jungle…

The lion sleeps tonight. OK, OK, it’s a leopard, and its sleep was cut short by Jonathan Mestel (England) who saw through my red herrings of finessable spades and curious heart spots. He was the only solver to discover the optimal solution (sum 61):

NT win all Success	9 8 2 2 — 8 2			Trick 1 S 2 S 3 N 4 N	Lead 9 3 9 8	2nd 4 8 4 ?	3rd 2 8 3	4th 3 5 3	W-L W1 W2 W3
7 6 3 9 8 4 —			— 4 7 3 7 6 5
South leads	— 3 9 2 9 4 3				East is squeezed

The 9 must be cashed first, pitching a heart. When a club is next led to dummy, West must unguard a red suit to protect spades; and whichever suit he gives up isolates South’s threat against East, who is squeezed on the second spade winner. This rare form of compound squeeze does not require the usual common-suit entry because of its threats in all four suits, a condition known as saturation.

The above solution is unique, assuming evenness counts. Limiting North to a sum of 31 requires the lowest spot options ( 2 8-2) so any swap with South would increase North’s sum. Further, it cannot be mirrored (e.g., swapping hands or black suits) for positional reasons and the need to cash the 9 first.

Soft Spots

Jonathan Mestel: I’ve always had a soft spot for PavCo.

Good thing, as my company could take you out in a heartbeat with a Cell Phone Plant.

James Lawrence: Perhaps this should be called a “spot squeeze,” because it’s hard to spot.

Reint Ostendorf: I will let my bidding be inspired by your Yarborough Fair and this contest.
Interesting for you: “spotten” is a verb in Dutch meaning “to mock.”

Too late! I needed that word nine years ago when Rosalind Hengeveld told me that our “baseball” is your “honkbal.”

Spot: Arf! Woof-ersehen!

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© 2011 Richard Pavlicek