BRIDGE with Bob Jones

East made an excellent play at trick one by inserting his nine of spades when dummy played low. He continued with the queen of spades as West followed with the three. East went wrong at this point by shifting to a club. Declarer had no trouble scoring up five club tricks and four heart tricks for a total of nine. Had East shifted to a diamond, the defense would have taken the first eight tricks for down two.

Study the hand above for a moment and decide -- do you fault East or West for this defense?

It’s easy to say that it was East’s fault -- he was the one who led a club rather than a diamond -- but we don’t think so. When East cashed the queen of spades, West could see all 13 spades and should have known that his partner might have a problem in finding the correct shift. West should have played his 10 of spades under the queen, as a suitpreference signal for the higher ranking of the two possible suits that East might return. The hearts in dummy made it easy to eliminate that suit.

From East’s point of view, West might have held the king of clubs rather than the king of diamonds. Had West played his 10 of spades at trick two, East would have had a better chance to find the right shift. After West played the three, East was just following orders when he shifted to a club.