Contract Bridge

Defense is considered by many players to be the most difficult part of the game, but it wouldn’t be as hard as it’s cracked up to be if the defenders availed themselves of every opportunity to help each other out.

Consider this deal from a tournament where only one pair found the way to defeat South’s four-heart contract. At every table, the defense started with West leading the king of spades. Some Easts mechanically signaled with the eight, and West continued with the spade ace. Declarer ruffed, led a heart to the ace, a club to the ace, drew trumps and eventually lost two diamonds to finish with exactly 10 tricks.

At some tables, East tried to discourage West from continuing spades by playing the deuce at trick one. West then either disregarded the signal and played the ace anyway, or shifted to a club. In those cases, South also made 10 tricks.

At one table, however, East found a most effective way of stopping West from leading a second spade while suggesting a diamond shift, the only return that defeats the contract. Instead of playing the deuce or eight on West’s king, this inspired defender played the queen!

This play could hardly be misconstrued by West as a singleton or a doubleton, since East had raised spades. Nor could East be attempting to show possession of the queen and jack, since West -- as East fully expected -- was looking at the jack in his own hand.

The meaning of the queen was thus eminently clear: East was suggesting that West shift to the higher-ranking of the two remaining side suits. So West led the diamond nine, and the Q-A and another diamond, ruffed by West, gave the defenders a well-deserved top score. Tomorrow: Eliminating the luck factor.