Contract Bridge

It is true that a defender does not have the great advantage — enjoyed by the declarer — of knowing the exact extent of his side’s assets. But this disadvantage can very often be overcome by proper play. Once the opening lead is made and dummy appears, the defenders should usually be able to find the best defense.

Take this case where South was in three notrump and West led a diamond. East took the diamond with the ace and continued with the queen, planning to eventually score four diamond tricks and the ace of hearts to sink the contract. Declarer then proceeded to reel off the next 10 tricks and wound up making four notrump.

However, East should have defeated the contract and would have done so quite easily had he not acted so impulsively by returning the queen of diamonds at trick two.

A moment of thought would have told East that he was handing South the contract by returning a diamond. He could see that declarer would score six club tricks, a diamond and at least two spade tricks (with the aid of a finesse, if necessary), so a diamond continuation was sure to prove fatal.

Instead, East should have shifted to the ace of hearts at trick two, hoping to find his partner with the requisite length and strength in the suit necessary to defeat the contract. In the actual case, the heart shift would have put South down one. West would signal with the seven on the ace, and East would then continue with the queen and another heart to put a quick end to the proceedings.