Bridge

Opening lead — queen of clubs.

Trump control is extremely important in the play of suit contracts. Many contracts fail when declarer loses control of trumps before he can collect all his winners.

Consider this deal where South failed to make four spades because he lost control of the trump suit. He took the club lead with the ace and played the king of spades. East won and returned a club, ruffed by South.

When declarer next played the queen of spades, he learned that West had started with J-x-x-x and found himself in a hopeless position. At this point South had the 10-8 of trumps, West the J-5, and dummy the nine.

If South led a trump, West would take the jack and continue clubs to force out declarer’s last trump. If South discarded his heart loser instead of ruffing, West would play still another club to defeat the contract.

Declarer did as well as he could when he abandoned further trump leads and played four rounds of diamonds. West ruffed, and South finished down one, losing three trump tricks and a heart.

South would have made four spades had he taken a bit more care during the early play. His first three plays were certainly reasonable, but instead of cashing the spade queen at trick four (when he had the Q-10-8), he should have led the eight!

If the trumps were divided 3-2, he would easily make 10 tricks, but, more importantly, if they were divided 4-1, he would still make 10 tricks.

Thus, in the actual case, if West won the trump eight with the jack at trick four and returned a club, declarer would simply discard a heart to assure the contract. Dummy’s nine of trumps would then stand guard against another club lead, while no other return could prevent South from getting home safely.