ACES ON BRIDGE

All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.

— W.B. Yeats

Our final deal from the 45th World Teams Championships was played in the round robin phase.

South declared three no-trump here, posing West an opening lead problem. I would have picked a spade, but since he had no fast entry, West eventually chose his partner’s suit and led the diamond eight, a fine choice as the cards lay.

Declarer had seven fast tricks, with East likely to hold both the spade king and heart ace. Given time, declarer could lead toward both the spade queen and heart king for two more tricks, but he was a tempo behind after the diamond lead.

Declarer won the first diamond, crossed to dummy in clubs and led a heart toward hand, which East took with his ace to continue diamonds. Declarer won, and next came three more rounds of clubs, forcing East to discard twice. He could shed a heart and a spade easily enough, but when declarer cashed the heart king, East came unstuck.

A spade pitch would bare the king, while a diamond discard would allow East to be thrown in with the third diamond for an eventual lead away from the spade king. Since West had shown out on the second diamond, declarer had no way of going wrong.

It was vital for South to retain an exit card in diamonds, and to start on hearts, not spades. Preserving the major tenace in spades enabled declarer to work the throw-in in the endgame. Leading toward the spade queen instead would have seen East discard down to the heart ace and diamond winners.

ANSWER: Bid one spade. This is not without risk, of course, but your partner could easily have a shapely hand with support. Picture him with ace-king-fourth in spades, ace-king-fifth in clubs, and the heart king. That makes for a reasonable four-spade contract. However, the real reason for action is that responding might also make it harder for the opponents to enter the auction. Elegance takes second place to obstruction here.