Contract Bridge

Some situations that appear to be an outright guess actually don’t involve a guess at all. Today’s deal provides a case in point.

South arrives at three notrump after East has overcalled in spades. Declarer wins the opening spade lead with the ace and must then decide whether to attack clubs or diamonds first.

The only threat is East’s spades. If they become established and he gains the lead before South can score nine tricks, the contract will fail, with declarer losing a club, a diamond and three spades.

It can be seen that if, in the actual deal, South attacks clubs initially, he will go down. West takes the club ace and returns a spade. When South eventually tries the diamond finesse, East wins and cashes his spades for a onetrick set.

If instead declarer attempts the diamond finesse at trick two, the contract is made. After taking the king, East can establish his spades, but he cannot regain the lead before South makes his contract since West has no spade to lead after winning the club ace.

The question, therefore, is how should declarer know to attack diamonds rather than clubs at trick two? The solution can be arrived at by a series of logical steps.

First, South should reason that the contract cannot be made if East has both the club ace and the diamond king. This possibility is therefore excluded from consideration.

Second, the contract will always succeed if West has the diamond king, regardless of which suit is broached first. So this case is also dismissed from consideration.

The only case that matters, therefore, is the one where West has the club ace and East the diamond king. In that event, diamonds must be attacked at trick two in order to knock out East’s entry before his spades are established.