ALWAYS BE READY TO CHANGE YOUR PLAN

  Pietro Forquet (Italy)

Pietro Forquet of Naples, Italy, banker World Bridge Federation Grandmaster. In 1992, many years after retiring from international events, he was still ranked third in the WBF master-point standings. One of the greatest players of all time, and considered by many to be the best player in the world. Won World Team Olympiad 1964. 1968, 1972 and World Championships 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1973, 1974. Perhaps the greatest Italian players during the Blue Team’s remarkable string of ten consecutive World Championships from 1957-1969. Forquet established a reputation for calm, unruffled performances, apparently immune from the nervous tension which often affected his opponents. Using the Neapolitan System, he played equally well with three different partners, Siniscalco, Chiaradia and Garozzo. In 1972 he adopted the Precision Club System which he used with Garozzo in the Olympiad, and then in partnership with Benito Bianchi in the 1973 and 1974 Bermuda Bowls. He won the European title in 1951 when making his first appearance in the event and won the title again in 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959. Many Italian successes include Open Teams 1951, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1963. 1967,  1968.

Even if you have made a good plan, you should always be ready to change your strategy if, at a certain moment, you discover that it cannot work. Here is an Example; you are West and you play in Four Spades.

                     West                                                        East

                ª A 9 7 6                                                ª J 10 5 4

                © Q 3 2                                                 © A J

                ¨ K 7 5                                                 ¨ A 10 6 3

                § A Q 8                                                 ¨ 7 6 5

Both sides vulnerable, the bidding went:

                West                    North                      East                    South

                1NT                              Pass                                2§                          Pass

                2ª                               Pass                                4ª                          Pass

                Pass                        Pass

North leads Heart five and you play the jack, which holds the trick. You then play Spade jack and you let it ride to North’s queen. He continues with Heart four won in dummy, and now you play Spade ten which wins, North and South following suit. On the Spade ace North discards Heart eight and South drops the Spade king. You can count nine tricks sure. What is your plan to make the tenth?

   If the club finesse succeeds, there is no problem, but if it loses to North’s king, you must attack the diamonds now in order to create a discard for a club. If the diamonds are 3-3, everything is easy. But if South has a doubleton honour, the correct approach is to play to the ace, then small to the king and then to dummy’s ten. Then the Diamond ten will provide the tenth trick.

   Having made this plan, you play the king and ace of Diamonds on which North, and not South, drops the queen.

   Now you must pause. What can you deduce from Diamond queen played by North? It is unlikely that North holds ¨Q-J-x because on the first round he would have split the honours and he also might have preferred an initial lead from touching honours instead of leading from an unsupported king. There is another possibility to consider: North may be clever enough to unblock the suit to ensure that his partner will win the third Diamond trick with the jack. But using your judgement you conclude that North is not of the calibre to find such an excellent defence. Here is the full hand:

This is the position with six tricks to go:

At this point, because you have abandoned the hope of a third Diamond trick, you must change your original plan.

   So you decide to play the Heart queen and on North’s king you discard a club from dummy. North continues with Heart ten. If you ruff in dummy and play a club, intending to put in your eight, South will definitely spoil your manoeuvre by playing Club ten.

   So on the Heart ten you discard another Club from dummy and the losing Diamond from your hand.

   Now North will regret the Heart discard on the third round of trumps for he must return a Club, giving you the tenth trick and contract.

   This example proves the value of my Bols Tip: Even if you have made a very good plan, always be ready to change your strategy once you have discovered that it cannot work.

In this case, I must admit my tip worked mainly because of good card reading and play.

    Forquet’s tip: ‘Always be ready to change your plan’, reflects the analytical power of the author. It also reflects his alertness at the table. He used all the information available and was ready to change his plans as play developed.