Goren on Bridge

Today’s deal is from an important team match between a team from Norway and a team from The Netherlands. North-South had the methods to diagnose their heart problem — shortness opposite strength — and stopped at the four level. Our grandmother would have reached the same contract with less drama. What would you lead from the West hand?

West was Dutch expert Joris Van Lankveld. The auction told him that his partner was short in diamonds, maybe even void. He decided to lead a diamond and chose to lead the two, catering to a possible singleton jack partner’s hand. A singleton ace was also possible, though less likely, and even a singleton 10 might be useful if the jack were in dummy and declarer played low. This proved to be a brilliant choice.

South rose with dummy’s ace of diamonds at trick one, as would every good declarer. South was hoping to dispose of both his club losers on dummy’s hearts. East, however, ruffed the ace and led a club. West won with his ace, cashed the king and queen of diamonds, and gave East another ruff. The king of clubs left declarer down three! Nice lead! 15 out of 16 tables in this event played in four spades, and 11 declarers made the contract — two with an overtrick. Three other declarers went down one. Van Lankveld and his partner were the only defenders to defeat the contract by three tricks.

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