At Shanghai in the 2007 World Championships, what seemed to be a routine diamond slam proved not always to be so easy to make. When Jeff Meckstroth and Eric Rodwell played Argentina, they bid to six diamonds (though not on this auction), and Pablo Lambardi led his singleton heart. Of course, Meckstroth won the ace. He led a diamond to the king, and Luis Palazzo dropped the queen!

Trusting this card, Meckstroth assumed Lambardi was left with a sure diamond trick. If that was the case, the slam could still be made if declarer could avoid a heart loser by throwing all three hearts from dummy on the winning clubs, then ruffing the heart two.

A possibility that would have succeeded today would have been to unblock the club queen, then cross to hand with a diamond to play winning clubs. However, that line would fail if West held only three clubs with the four diamonds. He would ruff the fourth club with the diamond nine and return the diamond 10, to draw dummy’s last trump and leave declarer with a heart loser.

Meckstroth instead crossed to hand with the spade ace after cashing the club queen. Now, should West ruff the fourth club and return a trump, there would still be a trump in dummy to ruff the heart.

But now, although dummy’s hearts duly went away on the clubs, Palazzo ruffed the fourth club with his surprise trump. When he played a heart, Lambardi could ruff in front of dummy with the diamond nine for down one.

Continuing from yesterday’s report of the face-off between Norway and USA1 in the 2007 World Championships, held in Shanghai, Zia Mahmood got his own back on this deal. A swing was guaranteed when the Norwegians bid up to three no-trump, since Garner and Weinstein had settled in three diamonds in the other room.

Zia’s (West) two-spade call was wide-ranging facing a passed partner. You or I might not bid it on this hand, but I suspect the partnership agreement for East-West here was that it would always be a decent hand at this form of scoring when vulnerable.

So, how would you rate declarer’s chances in three no-trump? The match was being broadcast in front of a live audience, and the Vugraph commentators had noticed that the contract would be simple on a spade lead. After either a low club lead or an unlikely heart lead, declarer would almost be forced to rely on the heart finesse, but there was no doubt that declarer would take it and bring home his game.

However, they had not counted on Zia’s ability to occasionally conjure IMPs out of thin air. He did indeed lead a club, but he selected the king! Do you blame declarer for assuming that West had started with the club kingqueen?

Declarer won in hand, took six rounds of diamonds and played a club. Zia had already disposed of the club 10, so East took three tricks in the suit and played a spade. One down, minus 100 and a remarkable six IMPs to USA1.

At the Bermuda Bowl in Shanghai in in 2007, the end of the RoundRobin match between USA1 and Norway featured two good reporting opportunities for the assembled reporters.

In the first, North felt his hand was far too strong to splinter in spades at his first turn, so he jumped in his side suit, then decided to bid slam over the value-showing rebid by his partner.

As you can see, despite the 4-1 trump break, six hearts is cold because the club king is onside. Say West leads a diamond. Declarer can win the ace, draw two rounds of trumps to uncover the split, ruff a diamond and throw two diamonds from dummy on the high spades. Then he finesses the club jack, ruffs another diamond to hand and repeats the club finesse. That produces 12 tricks; two of dummy’s four diamonds are ruffed in South, and two pitched on the winning spades.

However, Tor Helness (West) had his own idea about that. He gave declarer a difficult guess when he led the club five! After much internal cogitation, declarer went up with the club ace, and down went the contract. Only the bad trump break would have defeated him, so it is hard to criticize him unduly.

Although the Norwegian North-South failed to derive the maximum benefit from their teammate’s excellent lead, as they had rested in game, Norway still picked up 11 IMPs.

Curiously, on the very next deal, USA1 had a chance to turn the tables, but this time the opportunity arose in the other room. More tomorrow.

At the World Championships in 2007, Chip Martel reported this play, found by Ralph Katz in the round six match of USA1 against India.

Both tables played four hearts, Katz defending in the West seat after a strong no-trump and Stayman. After a low spade lead, one might have thought that the natural line was to win in hand and lead a trump to the queen, guarding against a significant trump singleton with West. It is not so clear who might be short in hearts on the lead of the spade 10. As the cards lie, this line would almost certainly lead to success.

Both declarers actually chose to win the spade ace and lead a heart to the king, ducking a trump on the way back. At one table, West won his jack and exited with the diamond jack, but it did not matter what he did at this point. Declarer could strip away the spades and diamonds, exit with a trump and claim. When East won the trick, he was forced to open up clubs for declarer, thereby ensuring the defenders could take only one trick in that suit.

Katz was defending in the other room, where he threw a wrench in the works for declarer by unblocking the heart jack under the king. Now when declarer played a second trump, the unblock meant that Katz’s partner, George Jacobs, was able to draw two rounds of trumps and exit with a diamond. Declarer was forced to find the club jack to make his game, and it was poetic justice that he guessed incorrectly and went down.

At the 2007 World Championships, Sweden lost its round robin meeting with Brazil, but right at the end of the encounter, Fredrik Nystrom got to show off as declarer — and his teammate Anders Morath had a chance for a crafty defensive play.

Against five spades, Miguel Villas Boas started with the diamond jack. Nystrom won the ace and put the spade jack on the table. Villas Boas won perforce and continued with the diamond king, then a deceptive club queen. Nystrom took the club ace, ruffed a club, played a spade to dummy’s king and ruffed a diamond. He then cashed two more trumps. The key to making the contract was figuring out how to play hearts for no losers, if indeed it was possible.

The bidding did not eliminate the possibility of West holding a doubleton heart queen. Nystrom eventually played a heart to dummy’s king, following it up again after some thought, with the jack. When Gabriel Chagas followed low, Nystrom ran it. That was good for plus 650.

Morath started with the club king, and play followed a line similar to that in the open room. (Morath played the diamond 10 when in with the spade ace.) At the critical point, however, when declarer played a low heart from hand, Morath produced the heart 10, pretending that he had started with queen-10 doubleton. Indeed, declarer fell for it, winning the heart king in dummy and playing the jack to his ace. When the queen did not fall, it was one down and 13 IMPs to Sweden.

This week of tournament deals is taken from the 2007 Bermuda Bowl, held in Shanghai. Today’s deal was played in an early round-robin match between Italy and Poland.

The contract is uninspiring here, since unless the major-suit kings are well placed, you are not favored to make your game — and maybe not even then! Four spades by South is more challenging than by North, where East is likely to lead a diamond and clear up your problems. On Vugraph, declarer (who shall remain nameless for reasons that will become apparent) received a trump lead.

After drawing trumps in three rounds, the correct technical play is obvious — you need the heart king onside, so lead a heart to the ace, then another back toward the queen. You can then strip away the hearts before exiting in clubs. The defenders will then have to open up diamonds. This gives you a 75% chance to avoid a loser, as opposed to the 50-50 chance you would have without their help.

Declarer missed this and instead exited with a low club after the third round of trumps. East won this trick cheaply and could have set the hand by returning a club. But he assumed declarer needed discards for heart losers, so he shifted to the heart jack — close, but no cigar!

Declarer could now revert to the winning line. This resulted in a flat board because the Italian pair in the other room had reached the superior three no-trump.

This was the most intriguing flat board from the 2001 World Championship match between Italy and USA, where in each room South reached an apparently hopeless slam. Consider how it came home at both tables before I let you in on the secret.

Lorenzo Lauria and Alfredo Versace bid the hand as shown here. North first showed a sound spade raise. Then the auction escalated fast, with Lauria’s final jump to slam on the pushy side — but why shouldn’t partner have had the diamond 10?

As you can see, making 12 tricks requires you to lose just one diamond trick. Playing for both the king and queen to be onside seems obvious — but will not work today.

However, both Versace and Bob Hamman had heard West bid clubs. Both won the club lead and led a diamond at once. When West followed low, they decided to go up with the diamond ace. Then, they cashed the top hearts and ruffed a heart, ruffed a club, ruffed a heart, and ruffed a club. This eliminated the clubs and hearts from both hand and dummy.

At this point, both declarers drew precisely one round of trumps and exited with a diamond. In the three-card ending, West was left with only clubs to lead. On the forced ruff-and-discard, dummy could take the ruff, and declarer the discard. Contract made, for a remarkable flat board.

Had either West managed the spectacular play of unblocking the diamond king on the first round of the suit, the slam would have been defeated.

On today’s deal, suggested by Michael Rosenberg, North-South reach the normal spade game, but even with the hands fitting well, finding a “sure tricks” line is difficult.

You might reasonably assume this was one of those textbook hands where after cashing the spade ace, you cross to dummy in hearts (which the defenders must duck), then lead a spade to the jack when East follows. This way, you have a re-entry to dummy in spades for the 13th heart if trumps are 2-2, or trumps will play for no losers if they are 3-1.

Alas for you, it is West who has the spade length. Now, when the heart ace is held up, you will have no way to pick the club suit, since the defenders can exit in diamonds at their every opportunity. A slight improvement would be to ruff a diamond at trick two and follow the same plan, which might give you a chance to make on the actual layout.

The best line, though, is to win the diamond ace and ruff a diamond, take the spade ace, lead a heart to the jack (which must be ducked) and ruff a diamond. Next, lead the heart king. If the defenders duck, play another heart. Should they take a heart ruff at any stage, you have a sure discard coming on the hearts, plus a trump entry to reach it.

As the cards lie, East has to choose between providing you with an entry to dummy’s long heart and being endplayed to lead into the split tenace in clubs or give you a ruff-and-sluff via a diamond exit.

South demonstrated how much his side-suit shape was worth when he pushed to game opposite a simple raise.

At trick one, declarer realized that he might need to bring the clubs in without loss, since even if he could score three diamond ruffs in hand, he wouldn’t have 10 tricks. However, another, better approach might be to set up dummy’s diamonds instead.

So South won the second heart and led the diamond nine to dummy’s queen, in an attempt to ruff down honor-third diamonds on his left. He would also succeed against East holding aceking-third. East took his ace and forced dummy with a heart. Then declarer ruffed a diamond and switched horses by playing the trump ace and king and another trump.

The danger in ruffing another diamond was that if the king did not come down, declarer would need to bring the clubs in. By conceding a trump trick at this stage, he retained the chance of ruffing the diamond king, should the club queen be onside, but it also increased his chances of squeezing the defenders.

(Declarer could not afford to ruff a diamond, then give up a spade; East might win and run hearts.)

Had West taken the third spade, he would have had to open up clubs for declarer and leave him in good shape. As it was, East took the third trump and continued the heart force. However, that was too much for West to bear. He had already let go of a diamond and now had to spare a club. Declarer could then finesse the club jack and run the suit.