Contract Bridge

When you’re playing a grand slam, you should be willing to devote much more time and attention to the project than when you’re playing, say, two diamonds, trying to make an overtrick. Every means of protecting and ensuring the grand slam should be investigated and pursued. It is not enough merely to adopt a promising line of play when there may be an even better one available.

Take this hand where West led the king of hearts to declarer’s ace. South saw that the contract was in serious danger from the start, but his prospects improved greatly when he cashed the Q- J of trumps and both opponents followed suit.

Indeed, the hand now appeared to be a cinch, since South could play three rounds of spades, discard a heart from dummy and then ruff his only apparent loser, a heart. But when he led a spade to the ace and another one back to the jack, West showed out, and South was in deep trouble. There was only one trump left in dummy, and he could not ruff both a heart and a spade with it, so he finished down one.

A little more thought might have enabled declarer to find the winning line of play. After the trumps turned out to be divided 2- 2, South should have recognized that the only remaining danger was a 5- 1 or 6- 0 spade break.

He could have prepared for this possibility by first cashing the king of spades and then leading a spade to the ace. If both opponents followed suit, he could then claim the rest of the tricks.

But if either opponent showed out of spades, he would have still another possibility to fall back on. He could lead the king of clubs from dummy in the hope that East had the ace. In the actual deal, this added safety measure would have brought home the grand slam.