North took the scientific route on today’s hand, responding one diamond and continuing with two spades over his partner’s twoclub rebid. North was showing a concentration in spades and some concern about hearts. In auctions like this one, the third suit shows values in the suit bid, while the fourth suit asks for a stopper.

Three no-trump was thus reached the right way up to protect the heart tenace, and West chose to lead dummy’s second suit, with the idea of leading to declarer’s weakness. This attack would be more attractive from a five-card or even a three-card holding (hoping to hit partner’s five-card suit). All too often, four-card suits set up winners, but not quickly enough to beat three no-trump. Then again, our recommended heart lead would give declarer no problems.

Today, though, the spade did pose a difficult challenge. Declarer could count eight tricks once the club ace was removed. The heart suit posed a threat, however. If West held the heart king and East gained the lead to shift through declarer’s heart tenace, the game would be defeated.

It followed that declarer had to keep East off lead at any cost. South therefore called for the spade king. This was safe even when West had led from the spade ace-queen. After all, the spade two lead was a strong indication that the suit was splitting evenly.

When the spade king held, all declarer had to do was knock out the club ace. The defense could score only three spades and a club trick.

In today’s deal, North-South found their way to the no-trump game. At his second turn, South sensibly elected to emphasize his spades because of his suitoriented honor structure and his small doubleton in clubs, but still ended up in no-trump when North tried for the nine-trick game rather than raising his partner — a good idea today. But declarer still needed to decide which suit to go after and how to avoid blockages to bring his game home.

West’s lead of the heart queen removed dummy’s only outside entry to the diamonds. With seven sure tricks, a 3-3 spade break would suffice; however, diamonds seemed to offer a sounder chance.

A close examination of the diamond pips showed that even some 4-1 breaks might not present an insuperable problem. South focused on West holding the four-card suit with East a singleton honor.

Accordingly, at trick two South cashed dummy’s diamond ace and, when the queen dropped from East, he was careful to play the nine to this trick to keep the suit fluid. Next came a low diamond to South’s eight. If West took this trick, declarer would later finesse dummy’s seven. So West played low to cut declarer off from dummy.

Nicely defended, but it was not quite good enough. South switched horses and played low spades from both hands to make sure he could untangle his winners. With four spade tricks to come when that suit behaved, he was home.

We end our week of deals from the 2014 European Team Championships with what turned out to be the pivotal board in deciding the top spot in the open section. The featured match was between Israel and Monaco.

In both rooms, North opened three diamonds, but only the Monaco North-South ended in five diamonds. There were no problems in the play in that contract. Even on the spade king lead, declarer could unblock the heart king, cross to dummy in clubs and throw his losing spade on the heart ace before drawing trumps — plus 400.

The three no-trump contract at the other table was a more exciting affair. Declarer took the club jack lead in hand and conceded a diamond to East’s queen. Tor Helness returned the spade king. Declarer won with the ace, unblocked the heart king and reached his hand with a club.

The moment of truth had arrived, as the fate of the contract depended on a heart guess. After the heart ace, should declarer play for an opponent to have started with queen-third or with 10-third? The penalty for guessing wrong would have been 10 IMPs, but South got it right by leading out the jack to pin the 10, and Israel earned a push. They beat the reigning European champions by just enough to take the gold medal.

Had West hit on a spade lead, declarer might have gone after diamonds first, which would have conceded a vital tempo. That would have rejigged the final standings.

This hand from the 2014 European Team Championships in Croatia demonstrates the importance of constructing the unseen hands.

Geir Helgemo’s one-club opening did little to keep his Norwegian opponents from reaching the heart game. Espen Lindqvist doubled for take-out, and Boye Brogeland set up a forcing auction with his two-club cue-bid. South showed his spades first, then bid three hearts over the two no-trump advance, raised to game by North.

Tor Helness led the club three, and Helgemo took two winners in the suit before cashing the spade ace and continuing with a spade to declarer’s king. Lindqvist ruffed a spade with the heart 10 and drew trumps in three rounds, ending in hand. He then cashed the spade queen, confirming the layout of that suit.

Declarer needed to avoid a diamond loser. As if by magic, Lindqvist led the diamond jack and ran the card, pulling off a backward finesse! Plus 620 and 12 IMPs were his.

Why did he make this play? He knew Helgemo from his days of playing for Norway before transferring his loyalty to Monaco, so he was aware of his predilection for opening one no-trump at the slightest drop of a hat. If East held the diamond queen as part of a 3=2=2=6 hand containing the black-suit honors already shown, he would have been in range for a slightly off-center one no-trump opening bid. It is hard to argue with success, isn’t it?

On today’s deal from the 2014 European Team Championships in Croatia, the final contract was the same in each room, but the outcomes were very different.

Both Norths drove their partners to game in hearts, and each West led a low diamond. Easts Gabor Winkler for Hungary and Vladimir Mihov for Bulgaria both won with the king and switched to a club honor.

Mihov led the club 10 to the queen, king and ace. Declarer cashed the spade king, ruffed a diamond and threw a club loser on the spade ace. Next, he ruffed a spade, before conceding a club to Mihov’s jack. South ruffed the diamond return, ruffed a club and led a heart to the queen. When Julian Stefanov (West) won with the king and returned a heart to the ace, declarer was left with a diamond loser and was one down for minus 50.

In the other room, Winkler switched to the club jack, and declarer Georgi Mihailov withheld his queen. He won with the ace, cashed the spade king, ruffed a diamond, and cashed the spade ace, pitching a club from dummy. Next came a spade ruff, a diamond ruff, and another spade. When West produced the 13th spade, Mihailov discarded dummy’s last club rather than risking an over-ruff.

East also threw a club, and West led the club king, which declarer ruffed. When Mihailov took the losing heart finesse, he could ruff the club return with the jack and cross to the heart ace. The 2-2 trump split meant that he could cash the spade 10 for his game-going trick, and a big swing to Bulgaria.

All the deals this week come from the 2014 European Team Championships in Croatia. This one comes from the match between Bulgaria and Israel, the eventual winners of the event.

After East’s natural opening bid, Bulgaria’s Rossen Gunev (South) elected to double — despite his flawed holding in a minor — as his safest way into the auction. This isn’t gilt-edged, but it kept his side from being frozen out of the auction.

The North-South spade fit was thus located at once, and the Bulgarians even reached game, each of the players stretching just a little to get there. West duly led the heart nine to the queen and king.

Had East immediately continued with the diamond king, we would not have a story. Even cashing a second top heart and shifting to diamonds would have set the contract, since declarer would not have had the communication for an effective endplay against East. But when East played a third round of hearts instead, hoping no doubt to promote a trump for his partner, declarer seized his chance.

South ruffed high, crossed to dummy in trumps, ruffed the last heart high and drew West’s remaining trump, squeezing East out of his 13th heart in the process. After that, Gunev simply conceded a club to East and claimed his contract, since the diamond loser could be discarded on the clubs.

That was worth 12 IMPs to Bulgaria when their East-West pair bought the contract in two diamonds in the other room after a strong club opening, making nine tricks.

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.