The USA under-21 team lost to Sweden in the finals of the 2014 World Youth Bridge Championships held in Istanbul. The gold medalists included three players who have already represented their country and won medals in the European championships open and women’s sections! Among the Swedish players were Ida Grönkvist and Mikael and Ola Rimstedt, all of whom won the junior title two years later, and who will be stars at world level sooner rather than later.

The USA silver medalists included Ben Kristensen, who played with Kevin Rosenberg. The latter is the son of Michael and Debbie Rosenberg, both world champions. Their teammates were Christopher Huber and Oren Kriegel.

Today’s deal came up in the final. In the first room, the Swedish East (probably rashly) sacrificed in five diamonds at his second turn to speak. This decision seems unsound because he was too balanced in the side suits, and he was not bereft of defense. This was passed around to the USA North, who doubled and collected 500.

In the second room, the auction was as shown: East (Huber for USA) bid just four diamonds. This passed to the Swedish North, who bid four hearts.

Kriegel, West, led the diamond ace, and on seeing dummy’s singleton, tabled the only card at trick two that could lead to the defeat of the contract — the club jack — a textbook surround play to ensure three club tricks for his side, whichever club declarer played from dummy.

The player with the South cards was looking forward to opening two no-trump when his reverie was interrupted by East’s pre-emptive two hearts. At this point, South’s options were a clumsy leap to three no-trump, which might miss a spade fit, or the more delicate approach that he followed at the table, of doubling and converting his partner’s constructive three-club call to three no-trump.

(Many people play that calls of three of a minor are constructive here, since they use a bid of two no-trump as Lebensohl, a puppet to three clubs if the overcaller does not have significant extras.)

West led the heart five, and South, ever suspicious, ducked the first heart, won the next as West reluctantly pitched a spade, and then had to decide how to play the rest of the hand. A reasonable approach would be to play for 3-3 clubs, but if you cash the top clubs, cross to the diamond ace and test clubs, you will almost be out of chances if they do not break.

South inferred from West’s reluctance to part with a spade that he had started with no more than four cards in that suit and a singleton heart, so a distribution of 4-1-4-4 seemed likely. Thus, South made a very thoughtful play when he cashed the club king and overtook the queen with the ace. When the 10 dropped, he could lead the club nine and establish four tricks in clubs to go with his five plain-suit winners, making nine in all.

After North’s Jacoby two-no-trump call, promising four-card spade support, South started cue-bidding, asked for key-cards, then confirmed that the partnership had them all by bidding five no-trump. When North showed the club king, South bid what he thought he could make.

West led the heart 10, and declarer counted 12 winners (five spades, four hearts, and three minor-suit tricks). If spades were no worse than 3-1, he could draw trumps and discard a diamond from dummy on the fourth round of hearts; then dummy would be able to take a diamond ruff.

Declarer played low from dummy at trick one, winning his jack in hand. Next, he carefully played a high trump from hand. When West discarded a diamond, declarer could see that trying to ruff a diamond was too dangerous a policy to pursue. Instead, he decided to ruff two clubs in hand without using the heart ace as an entry. He cashed the club ace and king, then ruffed a club low when East followed suit. Next, he led the trump queen to dummy’s ace and ruffed dummy’s last club with the jack. His remaining trump, the five, went to dummy’s nine. After drawing East’s last trump with the 10, declarer claimed thirteen tricks: four trumps, four hearts, a diamond, two clubs and two club ruffs.

Note that the bad heart break means that if declarer had been prodigal with his trump entries (by playing a low trump toward dummy at trick two), he would have gone down.

The Common Game in the U.S. allows for the same deals to be played all around the country. A good declarer was in the driver’s seat here, playing four spades after a typically aggressive auction, and if the defenders had simply led hearts, he would have needed to find the trump jack to make.

When West instead led the club queen, South could infer that trumps were likely to break, with the ace to his left. It was unclear whether he could afford to let East in early, so he led a spade to the king and a spade back to West’s jack.

At this point, West fell from grace: A heart switch would now leave (South him) with nowhere to go, but (West he) actually cashed the spade ace before exiting with a low heart. The defenders seemed sure to collect one trick in each red suit. It did not work out that way; after declarer took the heart king with his ace, he cashed one more trump and ran the clubs.

South had reduced to a four-card ending where dummy had two cards in each red suit, and he had three diamonds and a trump in hand. What four cards should West keep? If (West he) came down to one heart, (declarer he) could set up the heart nine by ruffing a heart in hand, while when (West he) actually came down to two cards in each red suit declarer took the diamond ace and ducked a diamond, and his last two cards in hand were high.

This position could perhaps be described as a ruffing squeeze, and it is certainly an elegant position.

Bridge skill often runs in families; where one or both parents play the game well, they often produce talented offspring. Paul Hackett of the UK and his two sons (plus Justin’s wife, Barbara) would make a fearsome foursome, and the Groenkvist and Rimstedts of Sweden are each able to put forward at least four top players. But the world’s strongest family team may be the Bessis family of France. Here are the Bessis brothers on defense, from a recent Junior European Championships.

Olivier Bessis led the diamond queen against five clubs; the Greek declarer won in hand and drew trumps in two rounds. Thomas Bessis, East, could now infer that declarer’s shape was 3-4-2-4.

After “stripping off” the diamonds, declarer advanced dummy’s heart jack. Thomas ducked in tempo, and declarer, naturally enough, ran the heart to Olivier’s queen. What was he to do now?

A spade return would let declarer pick up that suit for only one loser, while a diamond would allow him to ruff in dummy and pitch a spade from hand, then ruff out spades. So Olivier carefully returned the heart nine. Declarer discarded a spade from dummy; if Thomas had risen with the ace, there would have been two more discards from dummy on the heart king and 10. But Thomas ducked again, letting declarer win the trick.

Declarer now had no choice but to try to play spades for one loser, which was not possible on accurate defense. This deal won the brothers the junior award for best play of the year.

In today’s deal, when South accepted his partner’s invitation, West led the club jack against four hearts. East overtook this with the ace and returned the club three, with West’s nine winning the trick. After cashing the club king, West continued with the club 10, and East discarded a second diamond as declarer ruffed in.

Declarer now needed to locate the trump queen. If he chose to play West for that card, he would probably need to make four tricks in spades too. Since that seemed to require too much good luck, declarer decided to play East for the critical queen.

Accordingly, declarer cashed the top spades, then ruffed a spade. After taking the diamond ace and ruffing a diamond low, declarer ruffed a second spade in hand, reducing himself to the ace and jack of hearts plus a diamond. Now, after trumping his remaining diamond with dummy’s king, declarer led a low trump and covered East’s seven with the jack. When that held, declarer had 10 tricks: two spades, five trumps, a diamond and two diamond ruffs.

Notice that if declarer had decided to play the diamond ace and ruff a diamond before playing on spades, he would have had to lead dummy’s low trump next and finesse against East’s queen. Then declarer would cash the spade king and ace and ruff a spade, reducing himself to the ace-jack of hearts and a diamond — the same position as above.

Against South’s contract of six no-trump, the opening lead is the heart two, to East’s seven. When South takes his king, his goal is to generate six tricks in the black suits. Unless East is truly a desperado (which is entirely possible, of course), he should have one of the black queens for his opening bid. If East has the spade queen, declarer should be in decent shape, but the play in spades can wait. The best play is to lead a club to the jack at trick two. If this loses, declarer will later take a spade finesse against East. However, when the club jack holds, declarer can focus his energies on taking three tricks from spades. Take a second to consider what declarer ought to do.

While declarer may be able to set up an endplay on West — by “stripping off” the sidesuits and endplaying him — that might require some very careful card-reading. Instead, South can come home straightforwardly against almost any lie of the spade suit — except a real spade stack in West.

The safety play of the ace of spades guards against any lie of the suit except East having a small singleton. In fact, East follows with the nine, so declarer can now lead a low spade from hand and cover West’s card. If East wins the trick, the spades have broken, and declarer can take the rest. But today, East shows out and declarer’s eight holds, so he makes three spades, two hearts, four diamonds and three clubs, losing a spade at the end.

Today’s deal from the 2009 European Open Championships saw some very unlucky players — some from virtue unrewarded, some suffering a far worse fate.

How should you play five diamonds when West leads spades, his partner’s suit? Matthew Granovetter found an intriguing line to improve on his simple chances in the club suit. He ruffed the opening lead, crossed to the heart ace and led a low club from the dummy. This line would work if East had a singleton trump, whether he had one or both club honors. When West captured the club queen with his king, he shifted to trumps, but Granovetter saw his plan through and won in hand to lead a second club. Since East had no second trump to lead, declarer was home.

Good news? Alas, no! In the other room, South declared five diamonds doubled. Declarer played a low club from hand at trick two, and East and West each led trumps at their earliest opportunity. Declarer had to fall back eventually on the heart finesse — and it worked.

It was possible to be unluckier still, though. A multiple world champion in five diamonds won the spade lead and led the heart jack from hand. When West ducked smoothly, declarer put up the ace and ruffed a heart, led a club to the 10 and ace, won the trump return in dummy and ruffed a heart, then led a second club. West took the trick and played a second trump, and declarer was dead.

“Bad luck — your finesse worked!” was his unfeeling teammates’ reaction.