Contract Bridge

The fundamental approach for the defense is to assume that every contract can be defeated. To this end, both defenders shape their play to meet whatever conditions are necessary to meet that goal.

Take this case where South was in four spades and West led a heart. East knew from West’s lead of the three — fourth- best — that declarer had at least two hearts, so he could count on scoring two tricks in that suit. The question was where the defense could score two more.

South’s bidding indicated at least nine cards in spades and diamonds, leaving him with at most two clubs. Given dummy’s strong holdings in both minors, it was unlikely that the defense could collect any tricks in either of those suits.

The only realistic hope, therefore, was that the defenders could score two trump tricks. This would happen naturally if West had any two spade honors, but another possibility existed that required some assistance from East.

Accordingly, after winning the opening trick with the king of hearts, East cashed the ace, even though this established dummy’s queen. He then continued with a third heart into dummy’s Q- 9, handing declarer yet another heart trick.

The upshot of this unusual sequence of plays was that South could no longer make the contract. After taking the heart in dummy, he had no choice but to lead a spade to the jack, losing to the king. Following his partner’s defense, West then returned his last heart, which East ruffed with the queen.

Declarer overruffed with the ace and cashed the ten, hoping the nine would fall. When it didn’t, all he could do was congratulate East-West on a well- conceived and wellexecuted defense.