Bridge

Timing is everything

Opening lead — three of hearts.

Notrump contracts often feature a race between the defenders and the declarer for the establishment of tricks. That is why the opening leader usually leads his longest suit at the start of play.

The defenders have a built-in advantage because they get the jump on declarer in the race to develop tricks. If they have enough high cards and a sufficiently long suit, the tempo they gain on the opening lead frequently proves to be decisive. But declarer can sometimes offset this advantage by choosing correctly which of his own long suits to play first. Here is such a case.

West led a heart, and South won East’s king with the ace. Declarer then played a diamond to dummy’s jack, taken by East with the ace. Back came a heart to South’s ten and West’s jack, and another low heart by West established his suit. When the opposing diamonds turned out to be divided 4-1, declarer could score only eight tricks, and he eventually finished down one. Timing is everything

However, South should have made the contract. He should not have attacked diamonds first. Instead, he should have crossed to dummy with a club at trick two and returned a low spade.

If East has the ace and takes it, South has nine tricks — three spades, two hearts and four clubs. And if East doesn’t go up with the ace, South wins the spade with the queen, then shifts his attention to diamonds. After forcing out the ace, he again has nine tricks — one spade, two hearts, four clubs and two diamonds.

If West has the ace of spades, as in the actual case, he is stymied after he wins the spade queen with the ace. A heart return into the Q-10 hands South an extra trick, while any other return allows declarer to attack diamonds, assuring at least 10 tricks.