This deal from last year’s World Youth Teams in China was originally reported by its victim, Australian junior Matt Smith.

North played the hand in three no-trump successfully at 16 of the 18 tables. After a friendly spade or club lead, the contract came home almost every time. But Maxim Chodacki was declarer as South against Australia on an auction where North’s one-club call had temporarily silenced East, whereupon the jump to two diamonds was natural and game forcing, keeping East out of the auction altogether.

Jamie Thompson led a safe low heart to the jack and queen. Declarer advanced the spade six and let it run to East’s queen. Back came a heart, and declarer won in dummy to lead a diamond to the queen and ace. Declarer now cashed a second top diamond, then crossed to the heart ace and advanced the spade 10. When Matt Smith ducked this, declarer let it run!

Now declarer could cash his winners in the red suits, ending in dummy, to endplay East with the fourth round of spades for the game-going trick. Had East covered the second spade, declarer would simply have taken his diamonds, then set up his spade winner. East could temporarily escape the endplay by exiting with the fourth spade to dummy, but dummy would then advance the club king and eventually collect a club trick in the ending.

Technically, a low spade to the seven at trick two would have been safer, since West could have covered the six and set the game.

When Poland played England in the World Youth Teams last year, we could watch the match on Bridge Base Online, with David Bird providing the spoken commentary, then the written in the bulletin the next day.

After a strong club and positive response, the English had done well to reach six diamonds — the optimal contract. Many pairs had failed the test and played three no-trump. Would the Poles be able to match that feat? Indeed, they did — and more — on the auction shown.

North got to show a strong hand with his repeated spade calls. When the diamond fit came to light, Mateusz Sobczak drove to a grand slam after finding two aces opposite. Since declarer was dead minimum in high cards and shape, the contract required very careful play, but Piotr Marcinowski was up to the task.

He won the top heart lead in dummy and immediately played three top spades, throwing his club losers. When he continued with a fourth spade, it was disappointing that it was East who produced the jack. Declarer followed the odds when he ruffed with the diamond 10, and he was relieved that West could not over-ruff.

Declarer now played the heart ace, diamond ace and club ace, ruffing the club jack with the diamond nine. It remained only to draw trumps and claim the established long spade for his 13th trick. The grand slam may have been against the odds, but the bidding had been spirited, and the play had justified the optimism.

The Daily Bulletins at the World Youth Teams often rely on input not only from the players, but also from the coaches and captains of the teams. Today’s exhibit, from the France-Finland match, was reported by Kees Tammens and provided to him by Christophe Oursel, the French coach and a strong player in his own right.

The deal features a delightful coup executed by Aleksi Aalto of the Finland team. You would certainly consider it a candidate for the shortlist of Best Play by a Junior.

North was playing a weak no-trump, so his rebid showed a balanced 15-17. South showed invitational values and could hardly refuse his own invitation at his next turn.

When West led the club jack, declarer won with the club ace and continued with the diamond queen, taken by the ace. Next came the club queen to dummy’s king. Declarer disposed of one losing club on the diamond king and carried on with a low spade to the spade queen and ace. When West played the master club 10, North followed suit, and what was East to do? If he had ruffed in, the deal would have been over, since one of declarer’s losing hearts would have disappeared, and the other would have gone on the diamond jack.

But without hesitation, East pitched a heart. Now declarer had a tricky decision in the trump suit. He played a spade to the 10, and East made his trump trick after all, with a heart still to come, for down one.

In today’s deal from last year’s World Youth Teams, Ida Gronkvist of Sweden reached four hearts from the short side, rather than the easier three no-trump.

She won the spade lead and played a heart. When West won the ace, the contract turned out to be simple to make. If West played two more rounds of spades, declarer could ruff in the short hand; nothing else would threaten trump control.

Had both defenders ducked the first trump, a second round of trumps would have been fatal. West would win his ace and play two more rounds of spades, with East winning the next heart to lead another spade and wrest trump control from declarer.

Instead of continuing trumps, declarer would have had to play three rounds of clubs, then pitch a spade as West ruffed in. South would ruff a second spade in dummy and again need to refrain from leading a trump. Instead, declarer would take two top diamonds in hand and lead a fourth club to discard dummy’s small diamond. A further spade play by East after ruffing this trick could be ruffed in hand, and the diamond queen discarded.

The contract can only be set on an initial low diamond lead by West. He then ducks the first trump; East wins and returns a diamond. West then wins the next trump and leads the diamond 10, ruffing out dummy’s queen and setting up a diamond for himself. Finally, East shifts to a spade, dislodging declarer’s entry to the clubs after drawing trumps — and declarer is sunk.

When the World Youth Bridge Team Championships started exactly a year ago today in China, Phillip Alder pointed out that on the first board of each session, players often aren’t warmed up; while on the last they are in a hurry to dash out and score. But Giovanni Donati of Italy proved that he needed no wake-up call.

Against four hearts, West’s lead of the spade king went to the ace. Donati led the club nine to the jack and ace. When West shifted to the heart jack, South took that with his king and played a diamond to the seven and nine. Back came a spade, ruffed in dummy, and now declarer made the key play, leading dummy’s diamond king. When East covered, Donati ruffed, drew trumps and conceded a diamond to East’s jack to make his game.

Why did Donati find this play? Bridge at this level is played with screens bisecting the table, and on his side of the screen East had paused noticeably over four hearts. Clearly, he was thinking about making a penalty double. Since he did not have a trump stack, the only reason to justify that decision would be good diamonds.

Finally, did you notice that East could still have set the game, even after declarer’s excellent decision? The contract still would have gone down if East had not covered the diamond king with his ace. Then, if declarer had drawn trumps, he would have lost one club and three diamonds. Alternatively, if he tried to ruff another diamond in hand, West would have been able to over-ruff declarer.

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.