France made a good start at the 2014 European Team Championships, but then lost heavily to Monaco, the eventual silver medalists, in the third round.

Having agreed hearts as the trump suit, East, Tor Helness, tried for a slam, but was happy to defend against five spades doubled. Geir Helgemo led the club king, which was won in hand by declarer Michel Bessis, who drew trumps in two rounds ending in dummy. Now came the critical point. The diamond nine hit the baize, and Helness showed his class by ducking in tempo. Now Bessis had a decision to make. When he rose with the king, he no longer had a way to make his contract.

Had he run the nine, he would have been home free — he could come to hand by ruffing a heart, then establish a diamond with a double loser-on-loser play in that suit, thus making 11 tricks.

Of course, had the diamond nine lost to the queen, South would almost certainly have been two off, but Helness’s strong bidding perhaps indicated the diamond position. You could certainly argue that gambling plus 850 against minus 500 is better odds than a guaranteed minus 200.

In the other room, again the five-level was reached, and the first three tricks were identical; but this time when the diamond nine was played from dummy, East hopped up with the ace. That was a pardonable error, but one that made life easy for declarer. France had not doubled the contract, but it was still 13 IMPs to Monaco.

The 2014 European Team Championships were held in Opatija, Croatia, to determine the six teams who would go on to vie for the Bermuda Bowl, which was held in Chennai, India, while the women’s and seniors’ events decided the European representatives at the Venice Cup and d’Orsi Bowl, respectively.

Our first deal of the week was played in round one, between France and Iceland. It is rarely a good sign when the same team declares the hand in the same strain at both tables, but the French proved one should never say never. In one room, the French East opened a strong no-trump and played there, drifting two down.

In the other room (shown), when Thomas Bessis opened his patchy 11-count in third chair. East chose to double, treating his hand as too strong for an immediate one-spade overcall and South, Michel Bessis, had a crack at the no-trump game, gambling on finding two quick tricks opposite to go with the club suit.

West led an attitude diamond four to East’s queen. The spade shift gave declarer no problems. He ran it to dummy, crossed to his hand in clubs and played a diamond to the 10, establishing his ninth trick.

East should shift to a heart at trick two. If declarer ducks, East drives out the spade ace and has five tricks, but if declarer wins and finesses in diamonds, the defenders now have the communication to take two diamonds and three heart tricks.

The French gained nine IMPs for their enterprise.

At his second turn, North correctly judged his hand to be worth a double raise of spades. After some cue-bids and the application of Roman Key-card Blackwood, South invited a grand slam with five no-trump, but when North could not do more than respond at the six-level, South ended in six spades.

West led his club singleton. Declarer saw that there would be 12 easy tricks if trumps were 3-2: He could draw trumps, concede a club to East and then take a ruff in a red suit for his 12th trick (he would make nine tricks in the black suits and the three additional red-suit winners).

So, declarer turned his mind to what could be done if West had four trumps. After realizing that it would be best to ruff a heart in hand if that were so, declarer began by carefully calling for the club eight from dummy at trick one.

After winning the club ace and drawing two rounds of trumps with the ace and jack, discovering that West did indeed have four trumps, declarer cashed the heart king and ace before leading a low club toward dummy. West discarded a diamond; declarer won with the club king and continued with the club nine to East’s queen. East exited with the heart jack, but declarer could ruff this with the trump queen.

Next, he led a low trump and covered West’s eight with dummy’s nine. After drawing West’s last trump, declarer led dummy’s carefully preserved club six to his seven to cash the club five. The diamond ace was declarer’s 12th trick.

After South’s strong opening and North’s nebulous response, East’s two-spade intervention was meek at best. With so much offense, East should have aimed to take up space with a jump to three spades. As it was, South was able to name his suit at the three-level. When North raised to game, promising nothing, South took a punt at slam. Might North have considered temporizing with three spades? If so, I’m not sure whether South could have done more than bid four hearts.

Against the slam, West led the spade eight. On the sight of dummy, declarer could count only 11 tricks. Fortunately, dummy’s major-suit spots gave declarer a slim chance of maneuvering into an additional trick.

The opening lead was headed by the nine and king (East’s best attempt at a false card). Declarer won the club return in hand, cashed the heart ace and reached dummy with the heart eight to take the first of his ruffing spade finesses, leading the spade nine to try to pin the seven-doubleton or -tripleton in West’s hand.

Declarer ruffed East’s spade ace high, delighted to see the seven fall, returned to the heart 10 and called for another spade, ruffing out East’s queen. All that remained was to reach dummy with the diamond queen, to park the losing club on dummy’s established spade six.

Yes, South needed help on lead as well as some luck in the spot-cards, but he took advantage of his best chance to make the slam.

South’s inelegant (if practical) two no-trump opening saw North show four spades and longer hearts, but South insisted on no-trump, which led to a challenging declarer-play problem for him.

Declarer won the club lead in dummy with the 10 and called for dummy’s spade king. When East let it hold, declarer started on diamonds, and the 5-1 break came as a huge blow.

Declarer now needed a third trick from the majors. He led the heart king from hand, but East was wide awake and, after winning the heart ace, returned the heart jack to kill the dummy. He won the next spade, cashed the heart 10, West throwing a spade, and exited in diamonds. West let go of his last spade, and the defense had to come to two more tricks.

Once West had showed out on the second diamond, South should have dislodged the spade ace before touching hearts. East would win the second spade and would probably return a diamond, but declarer would be in the driver’s seat. He would win and lay down the heart king, which East would have to duck, in order to prevent South from accessing dummy’s winning spade.

However, declarer could now counter by cashing the club aceking (East pitching a spade) and throwing East on lead with a diamond. After taking his diamond winners, East would have to lead around to a major-suit winner at trick 13. Note that in this line declarer would have to guess whether to pitch a spade winner or unguard hearts on the last diamond!

West led a diamond against today’s heart slam from Britain’s Gold Cup, and East won his diamond king as declarer followed low.

Declarer was planning to squeeze West in the black suits after running all the diamond and heart winners plus the club ace. Alas for him, East smartly switched to the spade queen at trick two, attacking declarer’s entries. This maneuver could hardly lose, as declarer would not have played small from dummy if he were missing the club ace and could run the spades.

This defense cut declarer off from the diamond ace. If he wanted to cash it to tighten the end position, he would have to unblock the diamond queen and use up his final spade entry to dummy, killing the squeeze. Declarer tossed and turned, but could not find a way to counter this fine defense.

At trick one south might have unblocked the diamond queen under the king. He could then finesse the diamond 10 and cash the ace while the spade entry was intact. Now West would come under the desired pressure.

But if declarer had simply won the spade shift and run all six of his trumps, West would have had to bare his diamond jack in the six-card ending to keep the black suits guarded. That lets declarer overtake the diamond queen and cash the .

He reduces to a top spade and club queen-doubleton in dummy opposite the club ace and two spades in hand. West would be unable to keep two clubs and two spades, and declarer would come home if he read the position.

Even without a sixth diamond, South’s two-level overcall seems normal on today’s deal. North contented himself with a simple raise to five diamonds after West bid pre-emptively to four hearts. If four no-trump had been available to show a slam try in diamonds, he might have considered that.

When West led a heart, declarer saw that East and West had just 16 points between them, but he failed to follow through with this thought. He ruffed the opening lead in dummy, then crossed to hand with a trump to ruff his second heart. Declarer then continued with a low club from dummy, expecting East to hold the ace.

However, West captured the king with his ace and unkindly sent back a second club. East covered dummy’s 10 with the jack, and South won his queen. Declarer knew that East held the spade king for his opening bid but still desperately tried the finesse. As expected, it lost, and the club nine was the setting trick.

South played the black suits in the wrong order. For East to have an opening bid, he needed to hold at least one of the spade king or the club ace. After eliminating hearts and drawing trumps, declarer does best to lead a low spade from dummy. If East rises with the king, declarer has three spade tricks as home for two of his losing clubs.

If East plays low, South has no spade losers and can afford to concede two clubs. If West takes the spade jack with the king, then the club ace must be onside with East.

Today’s hand comes from the finals of the 1999 U.S. trials and shows Peter Weichsel in action, making a thoughtful assumption in the trump suit.

The final contract at both tables was two hearts by South, East and West having passed throughout.

At the first table, West led the club 10. East took the king and ace and played a third club, won in dummy with the queen. Declarer then led a heart to the jack, which looks to be the normal play. However, West won with the ace, cashed the spade ace, then played a fourth round of clubs, which East ruffed with the queen. This promoted an extra trump for the defense; they could now take three trump tricks in addition to their three black-suit winners, which spelled one down for declarer.

At the second table, the defenders cashed all three of their black-suit winners before playing a third club. On winning in dummy, Weichsel came to the conclusion that, after East had produced 7 points in clubs, he would not have both the heart ace and queen as well, because then he might have entered the auction. Weichsel realized how the fourth round of clubs could lead to the demise of his contract, so he continued on the assumption that East held the heart nine or 10 (or both).

Declarer called for the heart eight from dummy, and when East played low, he let it ride. West won with the 10, but now a club return could no longer lead to a trump promotion. Contract made.