A magazine with 100-plus pages

Bridge Magazine is the oldest on the game, having started in May 1926. (The Bridge World began in Oct. 1929, but has more issues because it continued throughout World War II.)

A few years ago, though, Bridge Magazine (bridgeshop.com) went e-mail only, and its size rocketed over 100 pages. So it is obviously the best value going.

This deal was posed in Problem Corner by Ron Tacchi. It occurred during the world championships in Lille, France, last August and was mishandled by three world champions. How should South have played in six diamonds after West led the diamond two, and East discarded a club?

Two clubs was fourth-suit gameforcing, three diamonds was a welljudged raise, four hearts was a control-bid, four no-trump was Roman Key Card Blackwood, and the reply by partnership agreement showed two key cards and a void.

The popular line was to win in hand, ruff a spade, cash the heart ace, ruff a heart, ruff a spade and ruff another heart. But West overruffed and shifted to a club: down one.

True, the bad heart break was a tad unlucky, but much better was to play a club to the king at trick two. If West unexpectedly took the trick with his ace and led another trump, declarer would have needed to ruff only one spade. Here, East would have taken the trick with the club ace and returned a club. South could have ruffed, trumped the spade eight, ruffed a club, trumped the spade ten, cashed the heart ace, ruffed a heart, drawn trumps and claimed.