A Clash Squeeze was first described by Mr. Chien-Hwa Wang in a series of articles appearing in The Bridge World in 1956 and 1957. After analyzing several holdings, he discovered that any player could squeeze in three suits, if the situation were distinguished by the presence of a special type of long menace. He authored the publication Practical Bridge Endings, published by B.T. Batsford, Ltd., in the year 1997, ISBN 13: 9780713481433.

Other Publications and Name

Note: Mr. Chien-Hwa Wang was also the author of the publication The Squeeze at Bridge, published by Everyman Publishers in the year 1993, ISBN-13: 978-1857445077. He also authored Unusual Squeezes at Bridge, published by L. Rex Offset Printing Company, Ltd., Hong Kong, in the year 1986.

Note: The name of the author in question is written differently on his publication titled The Theory of Games, published by the Oxford Science Publications in 1988 as the First Edition. The name on the front of the publications is written as Wang Jianhua. ISBN-10: 0198535600. It cannot be authenticated at this time whether the different spellings of the name refer to one author or to two separate authors. And assistance in this regard would be greatly appreciated.

There are many examples that Mr. Chien-Hwa Wang studied and analyzed, but we hope that the following examples supply a fundamental understanding of the principle and concept of the Clash Squeeze.

	North
	A2
West		East
K		J10
	South
	Q

The Queen in the hand of South is a clash menace against the King held by West.

	North
	A75
West		East
QJ		974
	South
	K10

The 10 in the hand of South is a clash menace against the Queen and Jack held by West.

In order for a Clash Squeeze to be present, basic conditions must first exist. Mr. Chien-Hwa Wang described in his articles three different pre-requirements.

A. The Simple Squeeze Positional

	North A2 AJ
West K KQ A		East J10 42
	South Q 3 K A

South leads the Ace of Clubs. This play clash-squeezes West in three suits. If West decides to discard a Spade, South then plays the Queen of Spades, enters the dummy by playing the Three of Hearts to the Ace of Hearts, and plays the Ace of Spades. In the case that West discards a Heart or Diamond, South plays accordingly.

A.1. The Delayed or Secondary Simple Squeeze Positional

	North A2 K10 K4
West K QJ Q65		East J10 A3 87
	South Q 2 A32 A

Again, South leads the Ace of Clubs. This play clash-squeezes West in three suits. In this example, West must discard a Heart. South discards the Two of Spades from the dummy. In this situation, South then leads the Two of Hearts, West plays his last Heart, South plays the King of Hearts from the dummy, and East wins the trick with the Ace of Hearts. However, South has established a Heart trick in the dummy with the Ten of Hearts. This play is very similar to the Vise Squeeze analyzed and named by Mr. Terence Reese.

B. Double Squeeze
A Double Squeeze as described by Mr. Chien-Hwa Wang can be non-simultaneous and positional. The Double Clash Squeeze consists of two parts. First there is a clash-squeeze against one opponent, and then a Simple Squeeze is performed against the second opponent.

	North A2 K43
West K A Q65		East J10 K 87
	South Q Q A2 A

South leads the Ace of Clubs. This play clash-squeezes West. West must discard the Ace of Hearts. East is forced to choose a discard. South then plays to the King of Diamonds in dummy. South returns to his hand by leading a Diamond to his Ace of Diamonds. East is then squeezed in both Major suits. If East discards a Spade, then the Two of Spades in dummy becomes a winning trick. If East discards the King of Hearts, then the Queen of Hearts in the hand of South becomes a winning trick.

C. Double Squeeze - Simultaneous

	North A32 A K
West QJ K3 A		East 987 Q4
	South K10 J2 A

South leads the Ace of Clubs. West must discard a Heart. South discards the King of Diamonds. West is clash-squeezed in both Major suits.

C.1. Double Squeeze - Secondary

	North A2 K10
West K QJ Q		East J10 A3
	South Q 2 3 A

South leads the Ace of Clubs. If West decides to discard a Heart, South discards a Spade from dummy. East discards a Spade. South then leads the Two of Hearts to the King of Hearts in the dummy, East wins the trick, but South has now established a Heart winner in the dummy.

If West decides to discard the King of Spades, South discards the Ten of Hearts from the dummy, and East discards his Three of Hearts. South then plays the Queen of Spades, playing the Two of Spades from dummy. South then leads the Two of Hearts, plays the King of Hearts from dummy, East wins the trick with the Ace of Hearts. East is now forced to lead a Spade, giving the last trick to the Ace of Spades in dummy.

Note: As an editorial to the magazine The Bridge World, Mr. Xiaobo Zhang of Riverside, New Jersey, United States, authored in October, 2002, A New Approach to Double Clash Squeeze.

 

 

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