616 



KNOWLEDGE 



[May 1ft, 18&2. 



Alfrod B. Palmer. — Games recervod ; will find you an oi>ponent 

 ns KoonAS possible. Solutions of Nos. 10 iiiul 11 correct. 



nriffht ((ieiioa). — Solution of I'rolilum No. .'tS correct. 



JiOOMorU 1'. Ileus. — Thanks for analysis, whiili will ro;;eive our 

 best attention ; our services are always at your disposal. 



H. A. N.- -Problem received with thanks. Solutions of Nos. 40 

 «nid 41 correct. 



Henry I'lanck.— Solutions of Nos. 38 and 39 correct. 



(!. W. — Solutions tO ami tl correct. 



Jlronton.- -.SnJution of No. 3D correct. 



4^iir Wl\)iit Column. 



By " Five of Ci.ubs." 



Pi.AY Tiiiiii> Uanii (P[.ai.\ Suits). 



MAX \' players seem to think the only rule necessary for third 

 hnnd is to pl.iy the highest card, unless the suit is licaded 

 in the hand by a seriuencc, when, of course, they do not carry the 

 rule to so absurd a length as to play the highest of the sequence. 

 If to this rule they make one exce])tion, in finessing the Queen with 

 Ace, Queen, they suppose they know all that need be known about 

 third hand play. 



Ill reality, however, play third hand requires considerable judg- 

 ment, and a thorough knowledge of the leads and of play second hand. 

 In two-thirds, perhaps, of the cases that arise it may suffice to know 

 that third hand should play his highest, unless, ot course, he cannot 

 play higher than his partner, or only a card which is the next in 

 sequence above his partner's, when he plays his lowest. If his suit 

 i« headed by a sequence, he plays the lowest of tlw sequence (with 

 the same exception that if his partner's card is higher, or belongs to 

 the same sequence, he plays his lowest, unless he has such strength 

 in the suit that he may with advantage take his partner's trick). 

 But in other cases, the player third hand has to consider the lead, 

 the play second hand, and the score. 



Suppose, for instance, your partner has led Queen, and that the 

 lead is original, or at any rate that there is no reason to suppose it 

 forced. Thus, the lead is presumably from Queen, Knave, ten, 

 with probably one small card at least. Then, if you have the Ace 

 and one or more others, third in hand, how should you plaj' if 

 second hand does not cover ? You know in this case that second 

 has not the King, and the first idea would be that, since fourth 

 player must hold the King, you should play the Ace. But in 

 general this would be wrong. The state of the score might 

 I'ender it advisable to take the trick lest second round 

 should be ruffed. But usually it is best to let the 

 trick go the fourth player. By putting on Ace, yon 

 sacrifice Ace and Queen lor one trick, and leave the best card 

 in the adversaries' hands. Apart from ruffing — which, be it 

 xemembered, always means a trump drawn from the adversary — ■ 

 the King will make ; that is, the adversaries will have one trick in 

 the suit in any case, and it is far better for you that that one trick 

 should be in the first than in the second round. Consider the effect 

 ■(1) of putting on the Ace and (2) of passing the Queen, apart fi-om 

 ruffing. In case (1) Ace makes first round, King makes second 

 round, and another suit is immediately led — as likely as not the 

 :suit is not led .".gain ; in case 2, King makes first round, Ace takes 

 the second trick, the suit is probably led a third time by holder of 

 Ace, and in that case two more tricks are made in it, or trumps are 

 forced from the enemy. 



Again, suppose ten is led and passed by second j)layer, you know 

 (see our account of the leads in Parts J. and 11., or our synopsis of 

 them in No. 14, p. 310), that the lead is from King, Queen, Knave, 

 ten, or from King, Knave, ten, with or without small ones. If, third 

 in hand, you hold the Ace, when ten is led, you put it on, leaving 

 .vour partner to finesse (if he holds King, Knave) on the return of 

 the suit. If you hold Ace, Knave, you know that the ten is led as a 

 strengthening card ; you pass it, and even if the finesse fails, as is 

 probable (for if King, Queen wore both with second player the 

 Queen would be put on unless he were long in the suit), you remain 

 with the tenace. If when ten is led you have nothing above it 

 but the Queen, you pass it : for whether it has bi-en led (as is must 

 probable), from King, Knave, ten, lic, or is a strengthening card, 

 the play of the Queen would be bad ; in the former case, obviously ; 

 lu the latter because by playing the Queen you give up at once the 

 command of the suit. 



These illustrations suffice to show that the general rule, Third in 

 hand play your highest, is as insufficient as we have already seen 

 that the general rule is for second play. Second in hand play your 

 lowest. \Vo shall, therefore, proceod'to consider the play third in 

 hand, — first on general principles, and then in detail, as we have 

 already considered the play of the first and second hands. 



G. D. Brown remarks on the increased interest of Whist whan 

 honours arc not counted, and gives the following short way of 

 describing the double method of scoring. 



" In addition to the usual score of the games another is kept of 

 the balance of tricks throughout the rubber, which balance is paid 

 for at the end, each trick counting one point in addition to (orsome- 

 times in subtraction from) the points of the rubber." 



In jilay the effect " is that instead of a hand being thrown np' 

 when a game is seen to be lost, the hand is played out in order that 

 all the tricks possible may bo made." 



To the true lover of the game, who desires to see the element of 

 chance as far as possible eliminated, counting honours, espociallyj 

 full honours in short whist, is always objectionable. But for one 

 true lov(-r of whist there are ten who love the excitement better 

 which the element of chance introduces. For my own part, if it 

 were not for the extra time it would involve, I should like to have 

 all the houours of all the suits set together in a group of sixteen, 

 and this .set shuffled ; the remaining cards being also shuffled ; then 

 the two sets being put together, and tlie cut made withont 

 further .shuffling, every player would have four honours from amontr 

 the four suits, and nine plain cards, in every hand. There wonld 

 then be very seldom those cases of overwhelmingly good or bad 

 cards between two partners which render good play either unneces- 

 sary or useless. This, of course, is hercsj- in the eyes of those who 

 care more for the stakes than for the game, and more for the ex- 

 citement of chance than for the ^aiidia ccrtamijiis. 



Five of Cia-bs. 



PROBLEM IV. (p. 50G.) 



The Great Vienna Coup. 



The key to this problem, interesting as having occurred in actual 

 play — though we venture to demur to the statement that the holder 

 of the winning hands said he should make every trick as soon as he 

 had seen the hands — consists in forcing the opposite hands to discard 

 fi'om one or other of the suits w lich seem to be perfectly guarded. 

 A takes out three rounds in U imps, then leads his small trump. 

 If now second player discards e' per a Spade or a Diamond, there is 

 no difficulty, as he thereby ungu n"ds the suit from which he discards. 

 If second player discards a Heart at the fourth round, he eijually 

 unguards that suit ; but, owing to the position of the other two suits, 

 it would not do for A now to lead a Heart. He must first lead the 

 Ace of Spades, then a Heart, discarding Queen of Spades at the first 

 opportunity. The rest is obvious. All the solutions we have re- 

 cei^'ed have been correct — indeed, one of the features of this 

 double-dummy puzzle is that it is not easy to suppose one has 

 solved it when one really has not. 



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