DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

My friend the English professor asked me if I knew the origin of the word “quintessence.” Medieval philosophy postulated four essential elements: earth, air, fire and water. The fifth and ultimate element, of which the heavenly bodies were composed, was the quintessence. The word has come to mean the most perfect manifestation of a quality.

The quintessence of the defenders’ art is to defeat a contract that can’t be defeated. In today’s deal, West led the deuce of hearts against South’s contract of four spades, which looked unbeatable. The club finesse and heart finesse would lose, but the trump finesse would win, so South would have only three losers.

Declarer played dummy’s queen on the first heart, and East took the king. What do you suppose East led at the second trick?

East was certain that he couldn’t win four tricks with straightforward defense. He switched to ... the eight of clubs!

South won with dummy’s jack and was sure East had led a singleton. If South finessed in trumps, West might win and give East a club ruff. But South thought he didn’t need to pick up the trumps to make his game since West surely had the king of clubs.

So South next took the A-K of trumps. When the queen didn’t fall, he let the 10 of clubs ride. South was stunned when East produced the king, cashed the queen of trumps and led a diamond to West’s ace for down one.