Alara Caravanserai                     (Antalya/Turkey)

     Appearing as fortresses on remote roads, caravanserais (merchants' inns) were  built along the Silk Road to receive travelers, traders and merchandise. They consist of courtyards to stable animals and rooms to lodge the travelers. Before the discovery of the sea route to India, Turkey was home to trade routes of the Silk Road. From China to the Mediterranean the Silk Road was the most important connection between the Orient and the West and  the symbol of the crossroads between civilizations, peoples and cultures. That is why the idea was raised to revive the Silk Road by restoring the inns and caravanserais. This project is aiming to transform the Silk Road into a route of love, peace and brotherhood..

     Alara Caravanserai is in Antalya Region. Bathing in sunshine 300 days of year, region combines sun, sea, nature and history. A single, simple picture would be high treason against this Paradise of Earth. That is why I posted two more pictures below from the vicinity of  Alara Caravanserai  that travelers and traders were visiting in the past.

Manavgat       (Antalya/Turkey) 


Side                (Antalya/Turkey)

     For further information about Antalya, search "Antalya" in: http://www.turizm.gov.tr

     Pictures on the wall of caves were also communication ways in the past. Compare below wall picture with other similiar paintings in the world, if you want to have some idea about the art capacity of Anatolian people.

A cave picture found in Anatolia which was painted 5000 years ago. (Anatolian Civilisations Museum-Ankara)

    
     Here are the ways to success in bridge:

1- Cut communication between defenders,
2- Maintain communication with dummy.

     Ducking, hold-up, loser-on-loser and unblocking are all the techniques for maintaining communications between declarer and dummy or cutting the communications between defenders. You will use these techniques automatically when you progress in bridge.. 

     In this lesson I will just show you how to maintain the communication which links your hand to dummy for transporting spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds, as past traders maintained routes which link the West to East for transporting silk, china, paper and spices..

     The suit with the solid honors in dummy or in your hand can be used effectively for communication.. If you don't have such solid honors, you must carefully maintain your communications.

Look at the below hand diagram in which declarer must play from the dummy and must win all the tricks:

     Almost all newcomers will reach to the queen of diamonds to start finessing the missing King.. Let us see where will it go: 

    Dummy played Q, East 3 and declarer played2. Declarer continued with 9 from dummy. East ducked again. Declarer won win 10. From that point on he had no more chance to keep finessing (lost communications). Later he inevitably lost a trick to King.. If declarer carefully played so as to maintain the communications between his hand and the dummy he wouldn't give any tricks to defenders:

When at the dummy declarer should play 9 (the last card of the sequence at the hand) not queen of diamonds for the first trick.. After winning with 9 he would continue with queen of diamonds:If East ducks again, declarer keep finessining until winning all the four tricks.

Here is another hand diagram in which declarer ruined his communication way, just for a penny:

Contract: 3 NT Op. Lead:5	K 8 4 6 4 Q J 10 9 7 4 8 4
J 9 7 5 K 10  K 5 2 K 10 7 5		Q 6 3 2 J 9 8 3 3 Q J 9 6
	A 10 A Q 7 5 2 A 8 6 A 3 2

       West led 5 for 3 NT contract. Dummy played low, South won with 10. Immediately unblocked A. Then switched to diamonds by playing ace. After winning with ace of diamonds he played 8. West played low and declarer won with dummy's queen. This was not what he expected. He was expecting the defenders to win with their King.. Later when he played J, West won with K. At this point declarer realised that he lost communication with dummy to enjoy the rest of diamonds.. West led a club and the contract failed..

     In order to maintain communications with dummy by way of spade suit, declarer should win the first trick with the ace of spades not ten of spades.. He would play diamonds in the same way. But now, he has ten of spades at the hand and king at the dummy to maintain communications. He can now cross to dummy to enjoy the rest of the diamonds.

     The below hand is taken from the page 8 of Bulletin-9 of 25th August 2002 of Montreal World Bridge Championship of WBF (http://www.worldbridge.org)

Contract: 5 Op. Lead:4	K A Q 8 5 2 A K Q 10 7 A 6
10 5 4 3 K 10  J 8 4 10 8 7 4		Q 8  J 9 7 4 5 2  K Q 9 5 2
	A J 9 7 6 2 6 3  9 6 3 J 3

     West led 4 and declarer took the ace. Unblocked K and played 6 from dummy, East win with Q and played5. South played low, hoping West to play jack. But West simply played 8. Why? If West  played J, declare could easily by way of diamond suit. By refraining to play J West cuts communication line of declarer. Declarer won this trick at the dummy but there was no safe way to escape from the dummy.  He lost two more tricks: Defenders ruff the third diamond and later they win a trump trick.. And contract failed.. 
     If the declarer cashed A and K of diamonds after unblocking K and exit with 6, he wouldn't be locked in the dummy.

Below I will give you a downloadable example hand from "World Championship" for practising Communication:

Communication

If you click,  you can play a hand which is taken from World Bridge Federation- World Bridge Championships, Paris, France, Bulletin- Issue2, 23rd October 2001, Page12.