BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

YOU are South, declarer in 4 ♥ , against which West leads the ♦ Q. Plan the play. THIS is a difficult one because all your instincts will tell you to win with the ♦ A and return to your own hand via a trump in order to lead towards the ♠ K. But if you do and east is able to win with the ♠ A, he will spot what you are up to and return a trump.

That will be two trumps gone from dummy, and the opposition will knock out the third when you lose the second spade. It isn’t difficult to count that you must get in a spade ruff to make your tenth trick.

The answer is to win the opening lead in dummy and immediately lead a spade. Now you have the tempo and the defence haven’t time to draw three rounds of trumps before you are ready for your spade ruff.