Sixty years ago, Alphonse “Sonny” Moyse, the curmudgeonly editor of The Bridge World, campaigned against the new “scientific” bidding. Among the methods he viewed with suspicion was “five-card majors.” Moyse was an advocate of 4-3 trump fits and thought that requiring five cards to open in a major would make them harder to locate.
The auction shown today is typical of Moyse’s era, when players freely opened in strong four-card majors. When North heard South open one spade, the only question was how high North-South would play at spades. Today, most Souths would open one heart, and I suspect that North-South might miss their strong 4-3 spade fit and land at no-trump.
The play at a “Moysian” fit is often demanding; the lack of an eighth trump may cause problems in keeping control. Suppose you’re declarer at six spades, and West leads a trump.
Say you win with the queen, cash the ace of hearts, ruff a heart and take the A-K of trumps. If trumps break 3-3, you can attack the clubs. Even if the suit breaks 4-2, you can ruff the fourth round and win four trump tricks, a heart, a heart ruff, four clubs and two diamonds. If trumps break 4-2, you succeed if clubs break 3-3. But if both black suits break 4-2, you lose control.
Play a low club from both hands at Trick Two. If the defense leads a second trump, you win, take the ace of hearts, ruff a heart, come to your king of clubs and draw trumps. With normal breaks, you have 12 tricks.