More squeezes than Tiger Woods

Around the world there are a handful of writers who make a living out of bridge books – Ron Klinger and David Bird spring to mind. For other writers and their publishers it is a struggle to sell more than a few hundred copies so it is a labour of love rather than a commercial venture.  An extreme example of this is Anthony Moon whose work on squeeze positions is a little reminiscent of Casaubon in Middlemarch. Moon’s long-term project is to catalogue all possible squeezes in exhaustive detail but he has little chance of finding a commercial publisher and must cherish a tiny, almost equally dedicated readership.

Triple Squeezes (Pressure Point Press) is the third book in Moon’s series and considers the positions where one defender is squeezed in three suits. Over 426 A4 pages, 168 positions are analysed. These examples show how the basic position was reached and the preparation needed to achieve it. The author uses his mnemonic TOWEL (threats, over, winners, entries, losers) to categorise and analyse each position and describe its essential characteristics.

Moon tells us that triple squeezes exert a fascination over enthusiasts which is unequalled by any other form of squeeze. I’m not sure why this should be so but the deal below is an example of a two-loser non-progressive squeeze.

South plays in 6ª after East has given away the fact that he holds most or all of the outstanding points with a take-out double early in the auction. West leads §J – how would you plan the play as declarer?

Declarer won §A and ran six rounds of trumps and then cashed ©A. He delayed cashing the heart winner as it reduced the information West could give to East but that was not very important as East was already under intolerable pressure. Declarer next cashed ª8 and discarded ¨10 from dummy. East could see that a heart or club discard would be hopeless so discarded ¨Q, hoping West had ¨J.

But declarer was able to cross to ¨A, return to ©K and cash ¨J for his twelfth trick.

Although this is a relatively straightforward squeeze against just one opponent, it is still important to take care of entries. Cashing ¨A or a second heart honour too early would have resulted in certain defeat, for instance.

If you too would like to become a world expert on squeezes, I can thoroughly recommend Anthony Moon’s definitive texts on the subject!