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Genghis – the King of Diamonds

Genghis based his persona on the historical Mongol leader and, like his namesake, he demanded unquestioning discipline and dedication from his troops.

At birth the original Genghis was named Temujin, which translates as "blacksmith" from the Turkic words temur (iron) and jin (smith). After capturing the leadership of his clan he became Temujin Khan, that is Temujin the ruler. When in 1206AD he subsequently became Emperor of the Mongol people, he was given the title 'Genghis Khan'. The precise meaning of the word "Genghis" is unknown but it is suggestive of a superlative power.

One of the historical Genghis' strengths was his innate understanding of the need for communication. To this end he created a system of riders, equivalent to the latter-day Pony Express. These imperial messengers carried letters of state from the Pacific to the Danube at speeds of three hundred miles a day.

In appearance, the Pack's Genghis was eastern European with a ruddy complexion, reddish hair, grey eyes and a subliminal tang of the stable. Occasionally, when he wasn't playing cards he could be seen staring into space, as though scanning a far horizon and dreaming of a previous existence.

Now a delicate point… personalities who do not suffer fools gladly. Let's be honest, there are always one or two such players in every bridge club. Whereas real world curmudgeons may rue a harsh word spoken in haste, Genghis suffered from no such character defect.

EW Vul. Dealer North:

		Askia
	Srinivasa		Thoth
			♠ 10765
			♥ 762
			♦ 42
			♣ QJ42
		Genghis
		♠ Q94
		♥ 94
		♦ KJ5
		♣ K10876

	West	North	East	South
	Srinivasa	Askia	Thoth	Genghis
		2♥1	Pass	Pass
	Dbl	Pass	2♠	Pass
	3NT	All Pass

1. Weak-two 5-9 points.

Askia led the queen of hearts and Thoth tabled his three-point hand. Srinivasa took the first trick with the king and after a little thought led the three of diamonds to north's six and dummy's two.

Before he reveals his thinking, see if you can duplicate the reasoning of the master tactician.

According to their system, west has shown a very strong hand with his double and rebid of 3NT. Askia's weak-two bid promises 5 to 9, adding dummy's and my points leaves between twenty and twenty-four for declarer. If partner has the heart ace Srinivasa stands as much chance as the rider of a drunken donkey in a Buzkashi game so, logically, I should place that card in the enemy camp.

It doesn't take a genius to deduce we need to continue our attack west's weak point - that's the heart suit. Once we've removed declarer's last heart stopper, Askia will hold more than enough defensive tricks to beat the contract.

But I had better survey the field before blindly committing my forces. So far, I've placed declarer with the ace-king of hearts, and I expect he has three spades. He didn't raise the suit when Thoth bid them and Askia doesn't open weak-twos with an outside four card major. In diamonds I can tell partner has played his lowest card which normally shows an odd number of cards. It can't be a singleton because Srinivasa wouldn't play small from AQ109xxx in case one of us held the singleton jack. So Askia has three diamonds, or possibly two if he elected not to play the queen from queen-small.

Declarer can't hold the AQxxxx of diamonds either, as in that case Askia would have shown a doubleton by playing high – which leaves…Axxxxx, AQxxx or Axxxx.

Now to consider each of these in turn…

With Axxxxx, the shape of declarer's hand is most likely to be three spades, two hearts, six diamonds and two clubs. Counting tricks he'll have two in hearts and four in diamonds. So he'll make the contract if he has three top cards in the black suits, namely the ace of clubs and the ace-king of spades. If he's missing one of these, partner will have a chance to signal which high card he holds on the second round of hearts.

With AQxxx west's shape ought to be 3-2-5-3. In this case, unless partner has an ace, I don't think there's much we can do. Even the king of spades will not be enough to beat the contract. Srinivasa will force an entry to dummy in clubs after winning the second heart trick. Then the finesse in diamonds will give him four diamond tricks, making a total of nine when added to his two hearts, two clubs and ace of spades.

Lastly, what of Axxxx? With diamonds 3-3 declarer can make three tricks in the suit. But partner will defeat the contract; even if west has the top three black suit winners. That's providing I unblock the king under the ace of diamonds so north can win the third round of the suit. Except, wait! For a second there I thought I heard someone whistling in my ger!

This will be the layout of the diamond suit after the first round.

		Askia
		♦ Q9
	Srinivasa		Thoth
	♦ A1086		♦ 4
		Genghis
		♦ KJ

Srinivasa's a good enough player to go to table in clubs before leading diamonds from dummy. When I play the king he'll duck and let me hold the trick, and if I play the jack instead he'll win with the ace and then concede the next trick to me. Either way Askia never gains the lead.

Funny, when dummy went down I sensed this was going to be a communication problem. And the answer's not hard to find. I simply win the first diamond trick with my personal card, namely the King of Diamonds. In this way, partner can always take the second or third round of the suit when west started with Axxxx.

Will it cost a trick in the other cases? Let's think, if declarer started with Axxxxx it won't matter as we'll still have the queen opposite the jack-five, and if west holds AQxxx we were only entitled to one trick in the suit and won't change the final outcome if I take that trick with the king.

As the hand below shows, once Genghis had captured the first diamond trick with the king, there was no way to deny Askia an entry to cash his heart winners. In fact Srinivasa went two down when he played for south to hold the KQx of diamonds.

The full deal:

		Askia
		♠ J83
		♥ QJ10853
		♦ Q96
		♣ 3
	Srinivasa		Thoth
	♠ AK2		♠ 10765
	♥ AK		♥ 762
	♦ A10873		♦ 42
	♣ A95		♣ QJ42
		Genghis
		♠ Q94
		♥ 94
		♦ KJ5
		♣ K10876

While the players were reviewing the play, Confucius walked by and asked, "Have you heard what happened when a priest and a bridge player died and went to heaven? No? Then I'll tell you. First St. Peter led the bridge player to a luxurious mansion. 'Wow, that's fantastic,' said the bridge player."

Next, he led the priest to a dusty hovel. "Wait, I think you might be a little mixed up," complained the priest. "Shouldn't I be the one who gets the mansion? After all, I went to church every day, and preached God's word." 

"That's true," replied St. Peter. "Unfortunately during your sermons everyone slept. But whenever the bridge player played, his partners and teammates prayed mightily."

Note, it's considered very unlucky to whistle inside a ger.