Contract Bridge

It may seem impossible to make six hearts on this deal, which comes from “Right Through the Pack” by Robert Darvas and Norman de V. Hart. But the slam can be made, though the solution is not easy.

West leads the spade queen,

on which declarer plays low from dummy as East discards the jack of clubs. East’s failure to ruff tells South that East has 13 minor-suit cards, and furthermore suggests the slam cannot be made unless East has four diamonds and nine clubs, rather than five diamonds and eight clubs.

Declarer therefore assumes

the 9-4-0-0 distribution and proceeds accordingly. After playing a heart to the queen, South leads dummy’s queen of clubs and, when East covers with the king, discards a diamond!

The slam is now in the

bag, whatever East returns. Let’s say he plays another club. South ruffs, leads a diamond to the king, ruffs a diamond, cashes the A-K of trumps and ruffs another diamond. He then returns to dummy with a spade and discards both his spade losers on the A-8 of diamonds to make six.

Note that the slam cannot be made by playing the A-K and another spade, planning to ruff the fourth round of spades in dummy. That would establish a trump trick for West.

Nor can the slam be made

by attempting to establish dummy’s diamonds by leading the A-K and another diamond early in the hand. West would overruff the third diamond and return the jack of spades, leaving declarer with no way to make the slam.

It is only by leading the queen of clubs and discarding a diamond early in the play that South can discombobulate the defense.