ACES ON BRIDGE

Another simple deceptive maneuver declarer should have in his arsenal is the Kempson Coup, named after the British star from the 1950s, Ewart Kempson. By winning a trick with a higher card than is necessary, you can sometimes convince the opening leader that his partner has the key missing honor in the suit. This way, the defenders may helpfully plug away at their first suit.

West leads the spade four against three no-trump. Declarer can see that a successful diamond finesse is all he needs, but if the finesse loses, West may easily find the killing club shift.

Declarer should try to divert West's attention away from clubs by taking East's spade jack with the ace. He then leads the heart six to dummy's king to run the diamond queen.

After scoring the king, West will be hard-pressed not to continue spades to his partner's hoped-for queen.

Most players would continue with a low spade, whereupon declarer would be back to 10 tricks.

West might have resolved his problem by continuing with the spade king, but this would cost the setting trick if East began with queen-jack doubleton. The idea is that East would unblock the queen if he had it.

Whatever the case, declarer gave his left-hand opponent a losing option by taking the first trick with the spade ace. Had he won the queen and proceeded as before, West would have been able to count declarer for nine tricks. His only chance would have been to switch to clubs.

ANSWER: If two diamonds is a transfer, make a lead-directing double. You would not like partner to kick off with the diamond ace against four hearts when declarer holds the king, but that is the only likely losing scenario. You would much prefer a diamond lead to a black suit on most layouts, especially against three no-trump.

“In self-trust all the virtues are comprehended.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson