BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

South can see at a glance that he has two losing spades, a losing heart and a losing diamond — too many, so one of them must be eliminated, which is possible.

Winning the opening lead in hand, South must immediately play the ♦Q and, if the opposition holds up the ace, he continues with the ♦5 to dummy.

Provided both defenders each have at least three diamonds, all will now be well. Assume east wins the second diamond — a heart will come back.

South wins and enters dummy via the ♥K to discard his ♣2 on the top diamond. Now he will only lose the two top trumps.