Contract Bridge

When disaster seems imminent, it is natural to do everything possible to avoid it. South did exactly that in this deal, and had it had not been for excellent play by East, he would have wound up making his contract.

West led the queen of spades, and East judged that there was very little hope of stopping four hearts if he adopted a passive line of defense. He therefore overtook the spade queen with the king and returned his singleton club.

East’s plan was to take the ace of hearts as soon as declarer led a trump, lead a low spade to West’s (presumed) jack, then ruff West’s club return to defeat the contract. But these intentions were not lost on declarer, who realized what would happen if he made no attempt to counter East’s plan.

South therefore took the club return in dummy and played the A- K-10 of diamonds. When East played the jack, South discarded a spade in order to prevent East from putting his partner on lead for the club ruff.

Declarer should have been rewarded for finding this fine countermeasure to East’s defense. But East, his original plan having been thwarted, now shifted his attack by leading a fourth round of diamonds. This forced South to ruff with the ten in order to prevent West from scoring the nine of trump.

When South then played the king of hearts to force out the ace, East won and led his last diamond. South had the Q-J- 5 of trump at this point and West had the 9- 6. Whether South ruffed high or low, West could not be stopped from scoring the setting trick with his suddenly powerful nine.