Bridge WHAT IS THIS DEAL’S DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY?

Thomas Babington Macaulay, a 19th-century English historian, wrote, “Time advances: Facts accumulate; doubts arise. Faint glimpses of truth begin to appear and shine more and more unto the perfect day. The highest intellects, like the tops of mountains, are the first to catch and to reflect the dawn. They are bright, while the level below is still in darkness.”

Perhaps that is the perfect quotation to sum up learning bridge.

This deal was labeled as an intermediate play problem, but I feel it is advanced, and only those who have reflected the dawn would get it right.

West leads the heart king against four spades. What should South do, given that West probably has the diamond ace for his overcall?

If South had rebid three notrump, would East have led a heart — dawn for declarer — or the diamond queen — darkness?

If East gets on lead, he will shift to the diamond queen, and declarer will lose one heart, two diamonds and one club. South must stop East from winning a trick with either his club queen or heart nine.

To do that, declarer has to duck the first trick. Let’s assume West shifts to the club jack. South wins with dummy’s king, draws two rounds of trumps and continues with the heart jack, ducking again in the dummy after West covers with the queen. South wins the next club with dummy’s ace, discards his last club on the heart ace, ruffs a club, plays a trump to dummy and discards a diamond on the established club seven. (If the clubs aren’t 3-3, declarer hopes that East has the diamond ace.)