ACES ON BRIDGE

North- South arrived in a perfectly sensible contract here, when South correctly drove to five diamonds rather than looking for three no-trump. His partner might have a singleton diamond, in which case there might be no entry to the long diamonds. There would be no such problem with diamonds as the trump suit.

On the club jack lead, declarer saw that he would certainly need the heart finesse. It seemed he could simply take the club ace, unblock the diamond queen and give up a spade, paving the way to ruff a spade to hand and pull trumps. Unfortunately, East would then play two more rounds of clubs, perhaps promoting West’s diamond jack.

One plausible counter was to duck the opening lead, win the second club and try the spade queen from dummy, hoping to keep East off play. But

West could hardly hold both top spades.

Instead of relying on a favorable diamond layout, declarer found a neat counter. He ducked the lead, won the second club and immediately played a third club, pitching his spade. East did the best he could by playing another club, but declarer carefully ruffed with the 10. It was then a simple matter of unblocking the diamond queen, ruffing a spade back to hand, drawing trumps and eventually taking the heart finesse.

It would have been no better for West to switch to a spade at trick two. That would open declarer’s communications, enabling him to win the second club and ruff a spade back to his hand.

ANSWER: It looks as if West has long clubs, and East long spades. If left to his own devices, declarer will have tricks coming out of his ears. This is one of the rare occasions when an aggressive lead is necessary against a no-trump slam. Try a diamond, hoping partner has the diamond ace, or the queen (though even the jack may suffice) and a blacksuit winner.