Problem 222

composed by Adrian Putley and Richard Granville, 1975

Possibly the most difficult problem of all time
(or possibly not - is Competition Problem #1 even tougher?)

DR8	♠ K1032 ♥ AQ32 ♦ 654 ♣ A5
♠ Q654 ♥ K654 ♦ 87 ♣ J87		♠ J87 ♥ 1098 ♦ AQ109 ♣ Q96
	♠ A9 ♥ J7 ♦ KJ32 ♣ K10432

South to make five no-trumps against any defence.

To send me your solution, click here.

Successful solvers to date:  Jean-Marc Bihl becomes only the second person (after myself, in 1975) to solve this one correctly.  The two composers failed because they thought a diamond lead, ducked by East, would defeat the contract!  Kunal Sengupta then cracked it in March 2007 and Sebastian Nowacki joined this élite band on the last day of 2010.

        © Hugh Darwen, 2002

Date last modified: 31 December, 2010