Another chair for declarer

Many years ago, I had a dinner party at my house. When everyone was seated, there was one empty chair, so Max, my male cat, jumped up and sat on it. I thought that was very funny, but one of my guests was horrified.

Yesterday, I gave a quote by famous architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, suggesting that a chair is harder to design than a skyscraper. Here is a tough declarer-play problem. How should South have tried to make six spades? West led the heart queen. Declarer won with his ace and cashed the top trumps, learning that he had an unavoidable loser there.

After North’s three-heart transfer bid, South’s jump to four spades was a superaccept, promising four-card support, a maximum (he loved all of his aces and kings) and a doubleton somewhere. North bid what he hoped his partner could make.

When the trumps broke 3-1, it looked as though South had an unavoidable loser in each black suit. However, if West had at most two clubs, declarer saw that he might have been able to get home by way of an elimination and endplay.

After the heart ace and spade aceking, South played the heart king. Then he had to hope that West couldn’t ruff in until the elimination was completed. As declarer was assuming that West was short in clubs, he cashed dummy’s three diamond winners before the club ace-king. When that all passed off peacefully, declarer exited with a trump.

Here, West had to return a heart or a diamond. South sluffed dummy’s last club, ruffed in his hand and sat back contentedly in his chair.