Contract Bridge

The subtleties of defense available to a pair in tune with one another can sometimes convert impending defeat into victory. The messages exchanged need only be correctly interpreted for the optimal result to be achieved.

Consider this hand from a team match. At the first table, nothing much happened. South got to four spades on the bidding shown, and West led a diamond. East took the king and continued with the ace. Declarer ruffed, led a trump to West’s ace and eventually lost a club to the ace to make exactly four spades.

At the second table, the same contract was reached on similar bidding, but here the defense functioned more effectively, and South went down one.

West led the four of diamonds, just as at the first table, and East also won with the king. But at this table, East did not continue the suit. He realized from the bidding and opening lead that South almost surely had started with a singleton diamond.

So at trick two, he shifted to the ace of clubs. He was hoping to find West with the king of clubs, in which case a club continuation and a ruff would defeat the contract.

West didn’t have the king

and might have played the deuce on the ace to deny it, but he did have the ace of spades, a card his partner had no idea he had. Since East seemed interested in obtaining a club ruff, West played the nine on the ace, requesting another club lead.

East happily obliged, and though he was temporarily disappointed when declarer showed up with the king, he got his club ruff a short time later when West won the spade ace and returned a club to sink the contract.

Tomorrow: Test your play.