Contract Bridge

In the great majority of deals, declarer attempts to shape his play so that he will make the contract if the adverse cards are divided favorably, while at the same time keeping his options open in case they are divided unfavorably. He might not be able to achieve this double- edged position in all hands, but that is what he tries to do. He hopes for the best, but prepares for the worst.

Take this deal where South wins the diamond lead with the queen and plays the A- K- Q of trump. He sees that the slam is in the bag if the clubs are divided 3-2 and then asks himself what he can do to protect against a 4-1 (or 5- 0) division.

If he considers the matter carefully, South should conclude that the contract is impregnable regardless of how the clubs are divided. Accordingly, he adopts a line of play that eliminates the element of luck.

He continues at trick five by cashing the A- K of diamonds and ace of hearts, then ruffs the queen of hearts. The ace of clubs is next cashed, after which South leads the five of clubs!

In the actual case, West wins and must concede a ruff- and- discard or return a club. Either way, South makes the rest of the tricks. The outcome is the same if East has the club length.

It is true that by playing in this way, South might lose 30 points by giving up the chance to make four club tricks instead of three. But this is a trifling loss when compared with what he could lose — 1,430 points for the vulnerable slam and another 100 for down one — if he neglected to invoke the safety play.