A Complexity Four Example
A 7 5 4
J 9 7 2
3
Q 6 4 2
Q 9
K 4
K 10 4
J 10 9 8 7 5
J 8 6 3 2
10 8 6 5
A Q 2
A
K 10
A Q 3
J 9 8 7 6 5
K 3
Notrump
North/South can set up two clubs, three hearts, and two spades.
East/West can set up three spades, one heart, three diamonds, and
a club. The key, then, is timing.
North/South
If North/South declare notrump, the defense starts with a diamond to
East, followed by a spade lead (spades cannot be effectively
established by leading from West.)
East/West
If East/West declare notrump, the defense starts with a club. The
best declarer can do is lead a spade to try to break up the
communication between the North/South hands. South takes the
♠ K, and cashes the
♣ K.
What does East pitch? If East pitches a heart, then South can play
the
♥ A and then the
♥ Q, setting up two
hearts in dummy, along with the three tricks taken and the
♣ Q and
♠ A in dummy.
If east pitches a low diamond, south plays the
♥ A and the
♥ Q. West wins, but what does West play?
Spades
North/South
????
East/West
????
Hearts
North/South
????
East/West
????
Diamonds
North/South
If North/South declare diamonds, the defense starts with the
♣ A, then a heart shift. Whatever declarer does,
he cannot avoid a heart loser, a club loser, and five seperate trump
losers in a cross-ruff.
East/West
If East/West declare diamonds, North/South start with diamonds,
keeping East/West from cross-ruffing diamonds.
Clubs
East/West
If East/West declare clubs, North/South start with diamonds. The goal
is to score four trump tricks via ruffs, in addition to a heart
and two spades. Say declarer wins in the East hand, and cashes the
♣ A. Unfortunately for East/West, there is no entry to the West hand to continue clubs:
If a spade is led from dummy, South wins the king, gives North a diamond ruff,
a heart is returned to South's ace, and North ruffs another diamond. North
cashes the spade ace and then leads a spade at this position:
South ruffs high, and West can either pitch his heart king or
underruff. In any event, the defense scores two spades, a heart, two
low diamond ruffs, a spade ruff high, and North's
♣ Q.
North/South
If North/South declare clubs, the defense starts with the
♣ A,
then a heart. Say South wins and leads a diamond, won by West. South loses a trump to the king in South, and North can get one diamond ruff, but
declarer is held to two top trumps, a diamond ruff, two spades, and a heart.
Comments
What does
complexity four mean? Essentially this means that none of the individual suits are parzero. For example, if we take the spade suit:
and construct a symmetric deal from this distribution:
A 7 5 4
J 8 6 4 3
K 10
Q 9
Q 9
A 7 5 4
J 8 6 4 3
K 10
J 8 6 3 2
K 10
Q 9
A 7 5 4
K 10
Q 9
A 7 5 4
J 8 6 4 3
this resulting deal is
not par-zero.