Contract Bridge

Bridge is much too difficult a game for anyone to always play perfectly. Mistakes are fairly frequent, even at the highest level. The most that anyone can realistically hope to do is to hold their mistakes to a minimum.

Consider this deal from the 1977 world championship match between the United States and Sweden. When the U.S held the North-South cards, the bidding went as shown. North’s two-club bid over one notrump showed length in both major suits.

West led a diamond against four hearts doubled, and the American declarer took East’s king with the ace. A trump to dummy’s queen, West following low, revealed the 3-0 trump division. South then returned to his hand with a diamond and this time led a spade.

West followed low, as most defenders would, and declarer went up with the king, since West was marked by the bidding with the ace of spades. Next came a low spade to West’s ace, after which it didn’t matter what West played next. With proper play, South was bound to make the contract.

However, West could have defeated four hearts by going up with the ace of spades at trick four and exiting with a spade. South would then have found it impossible to stop West from scoring two trump tricks with the A-J no matter how he continued.

It is not difficult to prove that the correct play at trick four was for West to go up with the ace of spades and return the suit. But in the heat of battle — when a defender does not have the time to analyze a situation completely and instead reacts instinctively — it is easy to make a mistake. West was only doing what came naturally.