In bridge, a Chinese finesse is a "pseudo", or fake, finesse:
| | Dummy | | |
|  A5 | |
| West | | East |
| K643 | | JT92 |
| South | |
| Q87 | |
In this layout, South is in hand and has decided that West likely has the
K.
The normal play of a spade to the dummy's ace, followed by a spade toward the queen, will therefore fail. So South tries a Chinese finesse instead.
The
Q is led from hand. West might duck out of fear of blowing a trick if the actual layout is:
| | Dummy | | |
| A5 | |
| West | | East |
| K643 | | 9872 |
| South | |
| QJT | |
As another example:
| | Dummy | | |
|  K53 | |
| West | | East |
| Q86 | | AT97 |
| South | |
| J42 | |
South is on lead and needs a heart trick. This is impossible double-dummy, but a Chinese finesse might work. South can lead the
J toward dummy, intending to play low if West fails to cover.
From West's perspective, the layout might be:
| | Dummy | | |
| K53 | |
| West | | East |
| Q86 | | 9742 |
| South | |
| AJT | |
In that case, West must duck to leave South guessing the whereabouts of the
Q.
