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The Thirty-second Stratagem: Empty City

This deal happened in RR7 China vs Turkey of 17th World Youth Team Championships.

Board 10
Dealer: East
Vul: Both
North    East    South    West
              Pass    Pass      Pass
  1♢        Pass     1♠        Pass
  2♢        Pass    2NT      AP

Lead: ♠8



The leading signal is attitude which means higher is more discouraging, lower is more encouraging. This signal is quite different from the 4th best leading. So that both West and East will know there's no any hope on ♠ after first trick. You just have 4♠, 1♡, 2♢ 7 tricks. The structure of ♢ is real ugly. Even if doubleton QJ exists, there is still a ♢8 outside. Setting ♢ is impossible because the loser will up to 6 first.

So how to play now?

I don't why the stratagem of empty city by Zhu geliang suddenly emerged in my brain that time. So I won with the ♠J and played a small ♣ quickly from the table. She would not continue to attack ♣ in a high rate. There's only one chance for me that West won the second trick and shifted ♡ with A. And then I would get 2♡ and brought contract home. Everything happened as expected.

The full deal
Board 10
Dealer: East
Vul: Both
Actually, West didn't calculate the points carefully. I already had ♠AKQ, so it was for me to hold ♣A. And West had ♣KQ and it quite strange that the declarer didn't set up ♢. 

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