Contract Bridge

LUCK VERSUS SKILL

There are many hands where the outcome is a foregone conclusion because declarer has the overwhelming balance of strength. But there are also many other hands where skill is the sole determining factor.

Take this case where West leads the queen of hearts against three notrump and South must exercise great care to get home safely. Let’s say he wins the heart with the king and plays the Q-K-A of diamonds, hoping for a 3-3 split. West discards a heart on the third round, and South has to choose between persevering with diamonds or playing for a 3-3 spade division.

Either way, three notrump goes down. South fails by sheer force if he tries the spades first, and he also fails if he plays a diamond to establish dummy’s fifth diamond as a trick. In the latter case, East wins the diamond and returns the jack of clubs, allowing the defense to collect four club tricks and put the contract down one.

However, South can make three notrump by crossing to dummy with a spade at trick two and leading a low diamond, intending to play the eight if East follows low.

In the actual case, West wins the eight with the ten but is helpless. With West on lead, there is no way the defenders can collect four club tricks. At the same time, South is sure to score three spades, two hearts and four diamonds to finish with nine tricks.

In effect, declarer shapes his play so as to avoid losing a diamond trick to East. By adopting this approach, declarer makes it impossible for the defense to score four club tricks before he can establish and score four diamond tricks.