This type of squeeze was first published by Mr. Geza Ottlik in the magazine The Bridge World in December 1967. This article by Mr. Geza Ottlik was entitled The Quest and won the first International Bridge Academy Article of the Year award in 1968.
He described a type of squeeze, the goal of which is to force a defender, or both defenders, to discard a seemingly worthless holding so that the declarer can create an extra entry to the dummy or to the declarer's hand by overtaking a card of winning rank.
table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
 |
|
|
The following illustrations are taken from
his published article in The Bridge World.
Example 1
East is the dealer and opens the bidding with 1 Club. South becomes the declarer and the contract is 3 No Trump. West leads the Jack of Clubs, which constitutes the top of a sequence. East overtakes with the Queen of Clubs and South declines and ducks. East returns the King of Clubs and South ducks again. East then leads the three of Clubs and South wins with the Ace of Clubs. Testing the Ace and Queen of Diamonds, South discovers that West has a singleton Jack of Clubs, and a 4-1 split. South realizes that he can fulfill the contract if he concedes a Club to West. Whatever West leads, West squeezes his partner East.
East cannot discard a Spade. If East discards a Heart, then one lead from the dummy establishes two Heart tricks for South. The best discard for East is now a Diamond. South has then established two Diamond entries to the dummy, the ten of Diamonds to the King and the four of Diamonds to the six of Diamonds, in order to lead twice to his King and Queen of Hearts and fulfill the contract.
Example 2
The contract is 6 No Trump and South is the declarer. West leads the Jack of Spades. South realizes that West could hold both missing honors in Hearts, but instead of taking the chance, South wins the lead with the Queen of Spades in his hand and runs all five Clubs, discarding a small Diamond and a small Heart from the dummy.
The play of the three of Clubs squeezes West. If West holds fewer than three Hearts, South can lead a Heart from his hand to establish two tricks in Hearts. However, if West has fewer than three Diamonds, South can win the Ace and King of Diamonds, the Ace and King of Spades, and then finesse the Hearts from dummy, which fails and West wins the trick.
West has only Hearts left and must return a Heart into South's tenace. East is also squeezed on the three of Clubs. At this stage of the play, East must hold no more than three cards in Hearts and three cards in Diamonds and one Spade. South has successfully squeezed both opponents in a suit, in which he started with three top winners and then fulfills the contract by overtaking the King of Spades with the Ace of Spades for the final Heart finesse. The six of Spades serves as an entry to the dummy for the second Heart finesse.
If you wish to include this feature, or any other feature, of the game of bridge in your partnership agreement, then please make certain that the concept is understood by both partners. Be aware whether or not the feature is alertable or not and whether an announcement should or must be made. Check with the governing body and/or the bridge district and/or the bridge unit prior to the game to establish the guidelines applied. Please include the particular feature on your convention card in order that your opponents are also aware of this feature during the bidding process, since this information must be made known to them according to the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge. We do not always include the procedure regarding Alerts and/or Announcements, since these regulations are changed and revised during time by the governing body. It is our intention only to present the information as concisely and as accurately as possible.