BRIDGE

The 160-deal semifinal match between Brazil and the United States at the 1985 Bermuda Bowl in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was one of the most exciting in world team championship history. After a nip-and-tuck battle that the Brazilians led most of the way, the Americans trailed by just 6 IMPs going into the last two hands. This was the penultimate deal.

In the Open Room, with a large partisan audience watching on Vu-Graph, the Brazilians, seated NorthSouth, reached six clubs doubled as shown. The declarer was Marcelo Branco, and the cheering throng could see that the slam was unbeatable, provided Branco guessed how to play the clubs.

After ruffing the opening heart lead, Branco tabled the club queen, on which West smoothly followed low. With the audience -- far removed from the playing area -- shrieking "finesse, finesse," Branco pondered the situation and finally called for the ace. Down one for a loss of 200 points.

At the second table, with a Brazilian pair now holding the East-West cards, the bidding went as follows:

Here, the American NorthSouth pair didn't even enter the bidding and the Brazilians climbed to five hearts under their own steam. The critical bid was West's leap to four hearts on minimal values, which encouraged East to try for slam with a cuebid of five clubs.

Five hearts might have succeeded on another day, but on this occasion, declarer found it impossible to overcome the bad breaks in hearts and diamonds, and finished down one.

Thus Brazil, with chances to gain significantly at both tables, instead lost 250 points -- exactly 6 IMPS -- to throw the match into a dead tie with one deal remaining. We'll see what happened on that deal tomorrow.