Bridge

Opening lead — jack of clubs.

A reader sent this hand in which he bid and made seven spades. North’s three-diamond response to South’s strong two-bid promised the ace of diamonds, and South wasted no time bidding the grand slam.

It’s not easy to see how declarer made the contract, and if you would like to test your skill before reading on, stop right here.

Declarer ruffs the club lead in dummy, ruffs a heart, then ruffs a club, a heart, a club and a third heart. He next draws three rounds of trumps, creating this position:

Declarer now plays his last trump, and West is squeezed. If he discards the king of hearts, dummy’s eight becomes a trick, and if he discards a diamond, declarer’s diamonds all become good. Either way, South wins the remaining tricks.

At first blush, it does seem overly dramatic for South to trump the A-K-Q of clubs in dummy, but if he doesn’t do this, he goes down.

The purpose of these plays is to try to exhaust one defender of all his hearts and thus place the burden of guarding against dummy’s eight of hearts on the other defender. Nothing can be lost by this effort, even though it might turn out to be a waste of time if the hearts are divided 5-4.

If that proves to be the case, declarer can always fall back on a favourable diamond division and will not be any worse off for having given himself an extra chance to make the contract.