Journalist Kees Tammens has just retired from his duties with the Dutch team as coach, reporter and cheerleader. This was one of his last contributions to the bulletin. As West, when your lead of the spade king against four hearts holds the trick, you must decide what to do next.

A spade continuation may seem harmless, but it would give declarer the chance for a brilliant maneuver. He could play the spade ace and ruff a spade, lead a heart to the ace, then draw trumps in three rounds, cash both top clubs and endplay East with the third club.

The endplay holds the diamond losers to one and makes the contract. We all wanted to know which declarer if any had played like that. Aarnout Helmich, coach of the Dutch girls’ team (and himself a junior world champion in 2011 and 2012), was proud to announce that after the defense of repeated spade leads, Juliet Berwald of the Netherlands had executed this very neat endplay in her debut in international bridge.

But now you ask: Was there a defense, and if so, did anyone find it? Yes — a diamond shift by West at trick two beats the contract. And, indeed, Brad Johnston from New Zealand found the killing diamond shift when Dutch declarer Thibo Sprinkhuizen ducked the opening top spade lead. While this only led to a flat board (since game was far easier to defeat in the other room after a spade lead, where North was declarer), kudos to Brad here.

North-South would probably have arranged to play this deal in a part-score if the opponents had not competed. But when West got involved by overcalling then competing to four hearts, the auction became highly competitive. North can hardly be blamed for pushing to five diamonds as a sort of two-way shot.

The heart lead went to the king and ace. Declarer, expecting the diamond king and club ace to be on his left after the bidding and final double, sought to eliminate the hand. He ruffed a heart at trick two, making the most of his entries to hand, and returned with a diamond to the ace.

The spade queen came next, covered by West. Declarer came back to the spade 10 to ruff his final heart before cashing the spade jack. Had West ruffed, he would have been endplayed, so he discarded. This only delayed his demise, however. Declarer exited with a trump, and West had to grant declarer his gamegoing trick with the club king.

Had he been able to see all 52 cards, West might have done better to play small on the spade queen, but declarer, perhaps imagining West with a doubleton spade after that auction, would have stuck with his original plan by ruffing a heart and cashing the spade ace.

Note that if West had begun with three spades to the king, he could beat the game legitimately by ducking the first spade and covering the second. Declarer would then be unable to eliminate the majors.

Should North use Stayman here? His square shape suggests four hearts will rarely be much better than three no-trump, while the direct route to game gives less information away to the defenders.

In any event, when South arrives at three no-trump, West leads the club queen, giving South an eighth trick at once. An even diamond split or favorable layout in hearts will provide another, but South must beware of losing the lead, since the defenders may be able to cash four club tricks.

Instead, hoping West has not led from a six-card suit, declarer returns a club at trick two. Even if West can cash four tricks, this play is unlikely to lose and lets declarer test the red suits later on.

As West plays his clubs, dummy lets go a heart and a spade, declarer two hearts, and East two spades and a heart. West exits with a heart, and declarer guesses to take the ace rather than risking everything on the double finesse.

When declarer cashes three diamond tricks and West shows out, things might look bleak. But declarer returns to dummy with the spade king and takes the heart king, reducing everyone to two cards. With the sole guard in both spades and diamonds, East must pitch before declarer and let him score his ninth trick with either the diamond seven or spade nine.

Note: If declarer tests diamonds before exiting with a club, the defense can prevail — but only if West does not cash all his clubs to squeeze his partner.

With 25 points between the two hands, stoppers in all suits and no major-suit fit, the tendency is to subside in three no-trump. But sometimes the contract can be tenuous, to say the least, and assumptions, even far-out ones, must be made for it to come home. This deal arose in a trial to select the team to represent the USA some years ago, and declarer was the late Michael Seamon. Seamon died shockingly young, but his talent was undeniable, and he was elected to the Hall of Fame last July.

Against three no-trump, West led the spade 10, which went to the jack and king. East returned a low spade, and Seamon put in the queen, which held. Declarer was aware that in order to fulfill his contract, he needed to rattle off eight quick tricks; if the defenders got in, they surely had three more spade tricks to take, in addition to the one already in the bag, plus the club ace.

Specifically, Seamon needed five tricks from the diamond suit, plus three from hearts — a tall order. So, at trick three, he cashed the heart king and noted the fall of the eight from West. Needing this to be from Q-8 exactly, Seamon had to assume that, being short in one red suit, West was likely to be longer in the other. So he cashed the diamond king, then successfully finessed West for the queen. The heart ace saw the queen drop, and Seamon had his nine tricks for plus 400 and a well-deserved swing.

When you have a combined eight-card holding in a suit, the missing five cards will split 3-2 some two-thirds of the time. But they will split 4-1 a little over a quarter of the time. The second declarer in today’s deal allowed for this possibility, while the first did not — and the results were about what you would expect.

In each room, South ended in the routine spade game after opening two no-trump and going through Stayman. At both tables, South took the lead of the diamond king. After this, the play diverged.

The first declarer immediately did what I suspect at least half of my readers might do — if they hadn’t been warned that there was a trap! He drew all the opponents’ trumps, ending in North. Then he ran the club 10, and when that held, he continued by finessing the jack. But the 4-1 break meant there was no chance for a further finesse, because the second club had to be won in hand. So he had to lose a club trick eventually, and his chance to make the contract had vanished.

The second declarer saw that the club finesse was inevitable. He was aware of the possibility of a 4-1 club break and the club suit becoming blocked, so he carefully led dummy’s club five to the jack at trick two, which held the trick. Only then did he extract all of the defensive trumps, ending in dummy.

His next move was to play the club 10 from dummy and let it run. When this held, he could finesse the club queen and claim.

When South balances with one spade, West rebids his suit, then North makes a responsive double to show a good hand with spade tolerance. (Some would play this as penalty, but in hand-frequency terms, the other meaning makes much more sense.) After South shows his second suit, North reverts to three spades; South then raises himself to game.

West leads out his top hearts, declarer ruffing the second. There is no advantage to be gained in discarding a club loser instead, although it doesn’t hurt. Declarer’s first move is to unblock the spade king-queen; he then crosses to hand with a diamond and cashes the spade acejack, dummy matching West’s discards of a heart and a club.

If diamonds break or the jack falls doubleton, declarer is home, but West shows out on the third round, marking him with precisely a 2=6=2=3 distribution. However, all is not lost, as the final diamond winner brings West under pressure. In the three-card ending, if West comes down to a single heart, declarer puts him on lead with that suit and awaits a lead into his club tenace at trick 12. If West instead bares his club king (never a bad strategy in these positions), South calls for the club ace, and his club queen is the game-going trick.

South knows West holds the club king because if East had started with the red jacks and the club king, he would ‘probably’ have responded to the opening bid. Also, West would ‘really have ‘been’ (really) over (extend)bidding to ‘act’ (bid) twice with only a 10-count.

In today’s deal from a recent knockout match in England, North-South got too high, but it still required good carding to maximize the defensive trump tricks — the theme of all this week’s deals.

South thought he was facing a mild invitation to game, so he bid on. West doubled because he had trump tricks; he led out the club queen, then the jack.

Declarer could mark West with four hearts to the queen for his double, with East presumably holding the black top cards. Leading a low trump at trick three would limit his trump losers to one, but West would take the heart queen and play a third club to force declarer down to trump parity. Declarer could then draw trumps and run the diamonds, but would no longer be able to set up a spade for his 10th trick while East still had the spade ace and the master club.

So declarer had to knock out East’s spade ace, the entry to the long club, at once. He could not cross to the diamond ace, since that was dummy’s late entry to the diamonds, so he led the spade king from hand, hoping for a club continuation, which would have seen him home.

However, East could see that a further club lead would be no good, so he changed tack. Looking to promote a trump trick for his partner, he returned a spade.

Declarer took the spade queen and led a low heart toward dummy, but West took his queen and forced dummy to ruff with a third spade, promoting his heart 10 to the setting trick.

Today’s deal from the European Mixed Teams Championships defeated most defenders. It focuses on this week’s theme of the defenders needing to promote trump tricks for themselves.

East feared wasting one of partner’s trump tricks if he overtook the spade queen, so he let it hold the first trick. West can now visualize five tricks for the defense: two spades, a diamond, a club and a promotion for the heart king on the third spade. While declarer might finesse in hearts even if his side doesn’t maneuver a trump promotion, South won’t finesse once he knows East has the spade aceking.

However, continuing spades at trick two won’t do. East would overtake and play a third round, but declarer could discard his diamond loser. East could lead a further spade, but declarer would ruff in hand and pitch dummy’s club king, losing just three spades and an over-ruff.

West should follow the normal practice of taking the side-suit winners that aren’t needed for communication purposes before trying for a trump promotion. He must cash the club ace before playing a second spade.

Now West’s heart king will be good for the fourth defensive trick if declarer ruffs in on the third spade, with a diamond still to come. And if South discards, then the fourth round of spades will do the trick.

At other tables, some Easts overtook the first spade and shifted to diamonds. Declarer could now succeed by taking his red-suit aces.