New Zealand Listener – August 10, 2019

AUGUST 10 2019 LISTENER 95

BRIDGE by David Bird

TAKE 5

by Simon Shuker

BARDEN’S

CHESS PROBLEMS

Wordsworth

Readers were invited to submit a clerihew

about a person who was prominent

in 1939, the year the Listener was first

published. For those unfamiliar with the

form, clerihews have irregular length and

often take liberties with the facts.

John Clarke, Waikanae: James Joyce/

Is the author of choice/For the insightful few

who are able to make/Any sort of sense out of

Finnegans Wake.

To ny Cl e mow, Kamo: Michael Joseph

Savage,/when he heard Poland was

ravaged,/Said: “If little Britain’s bitten/

we’ll do our bit to pitch in so our future’s

underwritten.”

David Flaws, Whangārei: The

prominence of Errol Flynn/Left lots of kin/His

swash, unbuckled,/Made many a cuckold.

Poppy Sinclair, Karori: Pablo Picasso/

Painted many a lass-o/For a time his subjects

were blue,/Later, you could not identify who.

John Mills, Gebbies Valley: Herr

Ribbentrop/Was not much cop/Despite

adöring/Hermann Göring.

Rex McGregor, Auckland: Uncle Scrim/

Thought New Zealanders would always

remember him./But time pulled a swifty./Ask

anyone under the age of 50.

Heather Lindsay, Motueka: Coco

Chanel/Had a childhood from hell/But with

determined finesse/She sewed a little black

dress.

Peter Holman, Wellington: Neville

Chamberlain/Hoped for “peace in our time”

again/But by early 39/He’d quietly dropped

that line.

But the winner is Dale Clarke of

Waikanae: W Somerset Maugham/Liked the

short story form./Whenever he tried to write

at length/He had to lie down, as it sapped his

strength.

For the next contest, choose a tune

from one of the following musicals and

create a parody version to reflect some

aspect of modern life: Les Misérables, The

Phantom of the Opera or West Side Stor y.

You don’t need to write an entire song;

six to eight lines is enough. Entries, for the

prize below, close at noon on Thursday,

August 15.

by Gabe Atkinson

Zhou Weiqi v Kanan Izzat, Doeberl Cup,

Canberra, 2015.

Material is level, and Black hopes that White

will exchange off all the pieces for a quick

draw. Zhou Weiqi (White, to play) had seen

deeper, and his next three turns created a

classical zugzwang where Black, after using

up his pawn moves, was compelled to make a

losing move with a piece.

Can you work out White’s

instructive winning plan?

(Answer on page 96.)

Love all, dealer South

West North East South
— — — 2C
Pass 2D Pass 2S
Pass 3D Pass 3H
Pass 3NT Pass 4H
Pass 5H Pass 6H
All Pass

When South showed a five-card heart suit,
North was entitled to suggest a slam. West
led a trump, won in the South hand, and
declarer played a club to the king and ace.

How would you play the slam when East

returns a second trump, the suit breaking

3-2? It’s an annoying defence, restricting you

to one ruff in the dummy. If spades breaks

4-3, however, one ruff will establish the suit.

Suppose you cash the spade ace and ruff a

spade. Since you are hoping for a 4-3 spade

break, you will discard the diamond jack on

the queen of clubs. You then return to your

hand with the ace of diamonds and draw

the outstanding trump. When you test the

spades, they break 5-2 and you go one down.

What went wrong? There was only one entry

to dummy — a spade ruff — and when you

reached dummy you needed to know if the

spades were breaking. So, you should cash

two rounds of spades before taking a spade

ruff. When the 5-2 break comes to light, you

discard a spade on the club queen and take

the diamond finesse for the contract. Small

slam made!

BIDDING QUIZ

WEST West North East South

♠ 6 — — 1H 1S

♥ K J 8 3?

♦ Q 9 7 6 2

♣ A 10 4

What will you say now on the West cards?

(Answer on page 96.)

EAST

♠

♥

♦

♣

WEST
♠
♥
♦
♣

J 10 7 6 2

8 5 4

4 3

J 9 2

SOUTH

♠

♥

♦

♣

NORTH

♠

♥

♦

♣

9 3

7 3

K 10 7

A 10 7 6 4 3

4

J 10 2

Q 9 8 6 5 2

K Q 8

A K Q 8 5

A K Q 9 6

A J

5

WIN THIS

The new novel from the Pulitzer

Prize-winning author of The

Underground Railroad, in which

Colson Whitehead dramatises

another strand of US history.

Submissions: [email protected]

or Wordsworth, NZ Listener, Private Bag

92512, Wellesley St, Auckland 1141.

Please include your address. Entries

may be edited for sense or space

reasons.