This week’s deals are all about breaking up endplays. Defenders often have the chance to avert the embarrassment of a forced ruff-and-discard or leading into a tenace, but all too often the escape is only found in the postmortem.

Here, when South played three no-trump after a two-suited opening by East, West had been put off his natural (and fatal) heart lead. West led a third-and-fifth spade two, East’s jack holding the trick. East continued with the spade queen, West following with the five. Now East had a lot of choices, but he eventually cleared spades, leading the eight (his middle card) to advertise a diamond entry.

Declarer next ran off all his clubs. West could easily part with two hearts and a diamond, but the fourth discard was crucial. A heart would make it easy for declarer, so West shed a second low diamond.

That proved to be costly when declarer’s next play was a diamond. Had West played low, declarer would have little choice but to go up with the ace and throw West in with the diamond king for a heart lead. So West played second hand high with the diamond king. Declarer countered by ducking the king, then won the next diamond and ran the heart eight to West, forcing a lead back into the heart tenace.

Since West could tell that declarer had nine tricks if he had both the diamond queen and the heart ace, he should have discarded the diamond king on the last club to escape the endplay.

Omar Sharif played in the 1998 Macallan tournament with Paul Chemla, and in the spirit of true repentance, he revealed a painful mistake he had made in a column. I am passing it on so that you can learn from it. Save your trump on defense to ruff winners, they say; well, up to a point.

Against four spades, Paul Chemla led the club jack. Declarer Tony Forrester won with the ace and crossed to dummy in spades to lead the singleton diamond. What he intended to do if Sharif (East) had ducked smoothly, we will never know. In practice, Sharif must have given the show away, for when he ducked, Forrester put up the king. Next, he played the heart eight, ducking Chemla’s 10.

At this point, Sharif could see a cross-ruff looming. He carefully overtook the heart 10 with the queen to lead a trump, won in dummy. Forrester correctly led a club, and, following the general rule of not ruffing partner’s trick away, Sharif discarded. However, Forrester won his club king, ruffed a diamond, then played the heart ace and ruffed a heart. Another diamond ruff left him with the trump ace for his 10th trick.

If Sharif had trumped the second club and played his last spade, Forrester would have had only nine tricks. He would have had no extra club winners, and the defense would have simply eliminated a trump from both hands, saving a trick.

In the end, I suppose all we can say is that there is an exception to every rule in Bridge — except this one.

Some of the most interesting positions in bridge arise when declarer is trying to create an endplay. The following deal shows the defenders needing to determine the problem and then finding the best way to escape from declarer’s toils.

South has a straightforward jump to game when North supports his hearts. If he had the same values but more quick tricks in the side suits, he might consider angling for three no-trump. With three slow side-suit tricks, the heart game should be superior in theory, but as the cards lie, the no-trump game would be easier to play.

West’s natural lead is the spade queen. Declarer wins in hand and cashes the heart aceking, East discarding a spade. South next tests spades by leading a small one to the ace and ruffing the third round. West correctly discards a club on this trick, so South now exits with a trump to West, as East throws a small club.

What is West to do now? A club is immediately fatal, of course, and any diamond up to the nine also fails to do the job. South simply covers the card in dummy, and East’s goose is cooked. No matter what East does, South can now play the diamond suit for no losers.

But what if West exits with the diamond jack? (This is the right card whether or not West has the nine, since South cannot have four diamonds or he would have maneuvered to ruff one in dummy.) Now declarer cannot avoid losing three tricks in the minors.

North-South did not reach the best spot here, but careful play saw them home. Some Souths (including me) would raise one spade to two, but the featured declarer preferred to rebid his good six-bagger. North could have marked time with a three-club advance, but he judged the singleton queen to be ample support and raised straight to game.

When West found the best lead of a diamond, declarer won dummy’s ace and ran the heart queen. He then had to decide how to return to his hand. A diamond ruff might cede trump control, while a club might put the defenders a step ahead in the race to establish the setting trick from that suit.

South decided that even if the defense could take a spade ruff, it would probably be from trump length not shortness, leaving declarer with just one subsequent trump loser. So South called for a low spade from dummy. When his queen held, he cashed the heart ace and reverted back to spades, to try to establish his pitch for the club loser.

East took the spade ace and switched to a club, but declarer rose with the ace, keeping a late entry to dummy for the spades. East trumped the third round of spades and tried to cash the diamond king. Declarer ruffed, gave up a heart trick, and claimed the rest.

Had South played a club to the ace at trick three, the defense would have been a tempo ahead. East would win the second spade to set up a club trick, then ruff the third spade to cash the club.

Safety plays are all well and good, but it pays to know when to use them.

North-South did well to brush aside the strong no-trump opening to reach a perfect-fitting game on this hand from the White House Juniors. South’s two spades promised a minor suit, and North — expecting his trump support, side ace and fitting honor in either minor to be useful — inquired with two no-trump. South had extra shape and all of his honors in his long suits, so he correctly showed a maximum with clubs. That was all North needed to hear.

The heart lead was won in dummy, and declarer saw that, apart from the three top losers in the minors, there was nothing to worry about but the trumps. Needing to avoid a loser with this spade combination, one would usually play them from the top, but when the hand on your right is known to be balanced and strong, the odds are clearly in favor of a finesse. Still, declarer would like to cash one top spade before finessing, in case West has a singleton queen.

Declarer looked deeper into the situation, though, and saw that he could not afford this safety play, for he might not be able to get back to dummy conveniently. East could have the doubleton club ace; if so, he would duck the club queen, take the second round, then tap the South hand and later over-ruff the dummy on the third club.

Judging this club layout to be more likely than a singleton spade queen on his left, declarer ran the spade jack at trick two and scored up his game without a fuss.

When South responds one heart to one club, North jumps to three diamonds. Since two diamonds would be natural and forcing, it is reasonable to agree to play this as extra values with heart support and diamond shortness.

With excellent trumps and an ideal diamond holding, South can imagine a slam. He cue-bids four diamonds, then five diamonds when North signs off. This all but demands that North bid six with decent black-suit controls.

Against the slam, West leads a trump, both to protect his diamond honors and to cut down dummy’s ruffing potential. South’s best plan seems to be to trump diamonds in dummy, since taking spade ruffs in hand would promote winners for the defense.

He should aim to win two spades, his own four trumps, one top diamond, and two diamond ruffs in dummy. The problem is to make sure of three club tricks. How can South arrange to ruff a second diamond and guard against losing a club at a moment when the opponents could cash a diamond trick?

The solution is to give up a club early on while dummy can still ruff a diamond return. This solves the timing problem, even if it runs a small risk of losing to a club ruff.

He wins the trump lead, cashes the diamond ace, ruffs a diamond and leads the club jack from dummy. East can win and play another trump, but declarer wins and ruffs a second diamond. He can then use the club 10 as a re-entry to hand to draw trumps and run dummy’s clubs.

In today’s deal, North sensibly passes over West’s one-heart opening. A two- diamond overcall would be too aggressive, even at these colors. Since a protective one no-trump shows 11 to 14, South starts with a double, then tries the no-trump game when North jumps to three diamonds.

After the heart lead, South has three spade and two heart tricks. He needs four tricks from the clubs and diamonds. Which suit should he attack first?

It would be fatal to go after clubs, because they can generate only three tricks. Even if you sneakily lead the jack from your hand, West should take his ace and knock out the heart ace. Declarer would be able to run only eight tricks before leading diamonds, whereupon West could take his ace and cash out the hearts.

Declarer’s best shot is to lead a low diamond rather than the queen at trick two. West is marked with the ace, but he cannot profitably play it as the cards lie. To do so would give declarer four diamond tricks even if the suit breaks four-two. Nonetheless, West should probably take the ace and clear hearts, hoping his partner retains the guarded diamond queen. But declarer has his nine tricks without needing the clubs at all.

If West plays low at trick two, South has succeeded in stealing a diamond trick. He can then switch to clubs and will emerge with two hearts, one diamond and three tricks in each black suit, for nine winners in all.

North made a Michaels cuebid to show the majors over West’s light opener in third seat, and South judged his spade king and ruffing value in hearts to be worth a mild invite of three spades. This was sensible: Even though one of the minor-suit kings would probably be wasted, the other might be working overtime, as here. North had an easy raise to game.

West’s singleton heart lead went to dummy’s ace. Now declarer, seeking to ruff a heart in hand, correctly crossed to hand with the spade king to lead a second heart through the void. West intelligently pitched a diamond, unwilling to ruff thin air, and after scoring the heart king, South made another careful play when he called for the spade ace.

Only then did declarer ruff a heart in hand. The play of the spade ace had the effect of extracting West’s safe exit card, so he could no longer over-ruff and exit passively in the trump suit. Nevertheless, West chose to over-ruff immediately and found the best continuation of a small club.

With the clubs blocked, declarer could not immediately benefit from this, but he found a counter. He rose with dummy’s club ace, then led a club to his 10. That left West on lead without resource. He had to establish an extra trick for declarer in one minor or the other, along with an entry.

It would not have helped West not to over-ruff the third heart. South would have crossed to the club ace and thrown West on lead with a spade to produce the same ending.