Contract Bridge

Assume you’re East and that partner leads the queen of clubs against South’s four-heart contract. You win with the ace, and the question is what to return at trick two. When the deal occurred, East returned the five of clubs. South won with the king and led a diamond toward dummy at trick three. West followed low, hoping declarer would misguess and play the jack from dummy. But South went up with the king and wound up making four hearts, losing only a spade, a heart and a club.

East berated his partner for not putting up the ace when the diamond was led. West defended himself by contending that South might have held two diamonds instead of only one, in which case rushing up with the ace could have handed declarer the contract.

In fact, East was at least as much at fault as West. East could see three sure defensive tricks in his hand, and so needed to find West with one trick, most likely to be the king of spades, the ace of hearts or the ace of diamonds.

East should therefore have shifted to a diamond at trick two to head off a possible mistake by West. The diamond return by East could do no harm if South had the ace but could do a great deal of good if West had the ace.

The secret of good defensive play lies not only in avoiding mistakes yourself, but also in attempting to minimize the chance of your partner making a mistake. Good defense is usually a matter of close partnership cooperation, and the diamond return by East at trick two certainly falls under that heading on this deal.