ACES ON BRIDGE

When England and Latvia met in the open teams event of the 2016 European Bridge Championships, honors were more or less even until the last two boards of the encounter. England had picked up one swing after a fine lead from Jason Hackett; this was followed by some more thoughtful defense here.

Against three no-trump, Justin Hackett as West led the spade three, fourth-highest from what was now known to be a four-card suit, and promising an honor in the suit. Dummy contributed the two, and East, Jason, knowing that his own play was irrelevant if his partner had the 10, nonetheless read the position very well when he inserted the eight. Declarer won with the 10, then ran seven rounds of clubs. The Hacketts had each kept all of their spades plus their red-suit aces, so that when, at trick nine, a heart was led from dummy, Jason could take his ace. His lead of the spade queen pinned dummy’s jack and allowed the defenders to run that suit and hold declarer to eight tricks.

The contract was also three no-trump in the other room, played this time by

North and doubled by East, who thought it would be a good idea to attack by leading the spade queen. If declarer (North is the closed hand here) had held two small spades instead of the jack and another, this would have been a fine lead. Unfortunately for Latvia, it led to two quick spade tricks for declarer. That represented a doubled overtrick and a 14-IMP gain for England.

ANSWER: Go passive with the spade three. To underlead one of the minor-suit aces is unthinkable, especially when partner did not double two diamonds for the lead.You could try a heart, but just because you heard a response in that suit does not mean your partner has strength there. Your chances of beating this look reasonably good if you sit back and lead a safe trump.