Lebhar Imp Pairs at North American Championships MEMPHIS - At the North American Championships here the two-day Lebhar Imp Pairs was decided on Saturday evening. The winners by a convincing margin were Hailong Ao of Herndon, Va., and Jian-Jian Wang of Clarksville, Md. They ended plus 140.55 international match points, 63.08 ahead of Alexander and Irina Ladyzhensky, a husband and wife from Ellenton, Fla. Third were two brothers, John Potter of Panama City, Fla., and Richard Potter of Black Mountain, N.C. When asked for a good board, Wang modestly commented that he and his partner should supply an instructive one in which they had done badly. But after struggling unsuccessfully to think of an example, they provided the diagramed deal from the final session. Ao (South) could not open one no-trump because, as he was nonvulnerable, that would have shown 10 to 12 points. After West made a weak jump overcall and Wang (North) produced a negative double, South wanted to describe the strength of his hand, so he rebid two no-trump, promising a good 15 to 17 points, instead of showing his spades. This got them to three no-trump. Four spades could have been made, but most declarers understandably failed. Against three no-trump West led the club king. When declarer ducked in the dummy, West shifted to the heart eight. South won with his king and ducked a club, losing to East's ten. Back came the diamond jack. Declarer won with dummy's ace, played a spade to his queen, led a club to dummy's ace (East discarded a heart) and cashed the heart queen. Now West's hand had counted out. He was known to have started with 1=2=6=4 distribution. South played a heart to his ace and cashed the diamond king, bringing everyone down to four cards. Declarer had the A-6-3 of spades and a losing club. Dummy had J-7-5 of spades and a diamond. East held the K-10-9 of spades and the heart jack. South led a low spade from his hand and played low from the dummy. East won with the nine and cashed the high heart but then had to lead away from the spade king. Ao took three spades, three hearts, two diamonds and one club. Plus 400 gained 7.60 imps en route to a first national championship for both players. Note the big assist West gave to declarer. If he had passed throughout, Ao probably would not have found a winning line of play.