Page 24 - ABF Newsletter February 2025

TEACHING
TIPS
with Ian Dalziel
THE INCOMING FINESSE
Every bridge teacher gives a lesson or two on finess- ing. However, the finessing usually taught is when declarer has the lead (outgoing finesses); have you ever thought to give a lesson on finessing by de- clarer when defenders lead (incoming finesses)? The techniques are a bit different and most learn- ers don’t do the right thing naturally. This important topic is rarely covered in bridge books or magazines.
Cover up the answers and try the quiz below. West leads a small card in notrumps, what do you play from dummy (North)?
How did you get on? If you are a bridge teacher, how many would your students get right?
These are not exotic plays, but basic combinations that come up all the time. My explanations are brief but I give a fuller explanation in class. The quiz is just to convince teachers that this is an important topic for your syllabus and to convince students that they might need to study it. The number of tricks lost by average players mishandling these combinations is
enormous. Even worse, they don’t know they have misplayed them; they think they were just unlucky. It seems to be assumed that if students are taught the basic concept of fi- nessing, then they will surely work out these ‘incoming finesses’ for themselves.
Believe me, very few do; it’s a different skill that needs to be taught separately. If defenders lead a suit which contains a finesse, they often give away a trick or save declarer a guess – but declarer needs to know how to take advantage of this. The second hand nesse is an honour played by second hand (nos. 2, 5, 7, 8, 11 above). The come to me nesse is when the second hand plays low and lets the lead
Ian Dalziel is a teacher and regular columnist for “Mr Bridge” magazine in the UK, where this column was originally published.
Page: 24
Australian Bridge Federation Ltd. Newsletter: February 2025