When the two Chinese teams met at the Hua Yuan World Women’s Elite Bridge Tournament, the match featured eight world champions, six of whom had won the Venice Cup a few months previously.

Both Easts pre-empted here to three clubs, and both Norths reopened with three hearts, rejecting what would have been a sizeable penalty from three clubs doubled. Both Wests obediently led the singleton club, and when East guessed poorly by putting in the 10, it lost to declarer’s queen.

In the open room, one declarer advanced the diamond queen, holding the trick. She then cashed the top hearts to find the bad news. She could now have made her contract if she had played the ace and another diamond to endplay West into cashing out her red suits. After that, West would have had to lead a spade and concede the balance. Instead, though, she tried a spade to the queen and king. When West won and played another spade, the game went three down.

In our featured room, Wang Ping played a heart at the second trick. After two rounds of hearts, she played a diamond to her queen, won by West. (Ducking would have led to her being endplayed in that suit.)

Now West could not cash out her hearts without setting up declarer’s ninth winner, and a spade would give South the game-going trick with the queen. So, she exited with the diamond 10. Wang won with dummy’s ace, cashed the diamond eight, then exited in hearts. She eventually reached her hand with the spade queen for her ninth trick.

Against four spades, West led the club king to the ace. How would you plan the play? Declarer decided he needed the heart finesse to be working, so he played that suit at trick two. East hopped up with the ace, marking West with all the other critical high cards, and accurately shifted to a trump.

Since the spade queen surely had to be with West, South cashed the spade ace-king and the heart king before playing a spade to West’s queen (carefully pitching clubs from dummy on the spades).

Since a diamond would have been fatal as the cards lay, West exited passively with a top club. It might appear logical for South to ruff and run the trumps, but if he does, West will abandon clubs and come down to two diamonds and a heart winner. Now declarer can score no more than one of the last three tricks.

Instead, South discarded a diamond on the club queen. West could now do no better than exit with his last club. Declarer ruffed and ran the trumps, coming down to a two-card ending with the doubleton diamond queen in hand and the doubleton diamond ace and the heart 10 in dummy. West had still to discard from his master heart and doubleton diamond; whichever he let go, declarer would discard from the other suit in dummy, and take the last two tricks.

Had West played a top heart after winning the spade queen, South would have needed to discard a diamond to achieve the same ending — a curious symmetry.

At teams, South’s decision to bid game was influenced by his partner’s voluntary raise to three hearts, plus the expectation that relevant missing high cards were more likely than not to be onside, as East had opened the bidding. Still, it was an overbid, and it led to a fairly poor contract, but one that was not without play, given the favorable lie of the opponents’ cards. Against four hearts, West led the diamond 10. When East won with the ace, he had a choice of defenses, but only one winning move.

If East had unthinkingly returned a diamond, declarer might have found his way home. When South wins the diamond king, he next leads a spade. West must rise with the ace, and he can do no better than exit with a diamond. South ruffs, then leads a low heart to dummy’s eight or 10. East wins, but will be endplayed. Either a club or heart lets South reach dummy, allowing both finesses to be taken in one order or the other.

So, with that said, can you see the defense? Sitting East was my former partner Bob Hamman, who found the ingenious return of a spade, preserving diamonds as the suit in which the defense could exit at a later stage. West won with the ace and exited with a diamond to South’s bare king. Now, when declarer led a heart to the 10, Hamman won his queen and still had a safe diamond exit. South could ruff, but was stuck in hand and had no way to avoid losing at least one more trick.

Following a one-no-trump opening call, what do transfer breaks mean after a red-suit transfer? Some use the jump to three as a maximum with four trumps, and a call of two no-trump as three good trumps and a maximum. Additionally, though, new suits can be used to show a source of tricks (or a doubleton, if you prefer). Regardless, you’d expect South to play in four spades here.

After the diamond queen is led to the king and ace, the defenders have two choices, each producing an elegant winning line for declarer.

Say East continues with a second diamond. Then, when West wins and shifts to a spade, declarer draws trumps and plays the club king, a club to the ace and a third club. If East follows, declarer puts in the 10 and claims 10 tricks, because if West wins, he is endplayed to concede a ruff-sluff or to lead a heart into the tenace, and declarer can discard a heart from dummy on the master club. If East shows out on the third club, declarer takes the queen and leads a fourth club, discarding from dummy to endplay West again.

What if East shifts to a heart at trick two? Declarer takes the ace, draws trumps, ruffs out the clubs if necessary, then leads his second diamond from hand, to endplay West in a different way.

East’s best defense at trick two is to lead the diamond nine. If the 10 and eight were switched, East could retain the lead and exit in either hearts or clubs to have a chance to defeat the game.

When North opens one diamond and immediately raises spades, an optimistic sequence leads South to declare a slam that would be impossible to bring home on a heart lead.

However, when West opts to lead a fourth-highest club, East wins and can do no better than continue the suit. South wins and must now go after diamonds to establish that suit for a heart discard.

Cashing the top diamonds and ruffing a diamond will establish the suit if it is 3-3 or an opponent has a doubleton queen. Then dummy’s trumps will serve as the entries for the good diamonds.

But what if diamonds break 4-2? Declarer will need two trump entries to the board. It is logical to cash one top trump at trick three, and see East follow with the 10. Then declarer plays the diamond ace-king and ruffs a diamond high. When the suit breaks 4-2, as feared, how should declarer plan the play thereafter? Declarer needs two entries to dummy: one to establish diamonds and one to cash them.

Is it better to play spades to be 2-2 or 3-1? The fall of a high spade from East makes it more likely he started with a singleton than with the 10-9 doubleton. So, lead a spade to the eight rather than to the king, then ruff another diamond high. You can draw the last trump with the king and cash the 13th diamond to pitch your heart loser.

For the record: On an initial diamond lead, declarer must play a club himself at trick two in order to come to 12 tricks.

In today’s contract of three no-trump, declarer has only seven top winners outside the majors, but unless the defense can get either spades or diamonds going very fast, South will be able to establish the hearts for the two extra tricks he needs.

When the spade 10 is led, South plays low from dummy and can take the first trick and go after hearts at once. But if he wins the spade and crosses to a club in dummy to play a heart toward his hand, East will fly up with the ace and clear spades. West will be in position to cash out three spades when he gets in with the heart king, and there is nothing declarer can do about it. Cashing the clubs will not succeed as long as West pitches one diamond and one heart.

So what can declarer do about this possible scenario? The solution is rather unintuitive, but it is both elegant and logical. Simply duck the first spade (a play that would be easy to find if South had king-third of spades rather than his actual holding). West will probably continue spades, but declarer can win and drive out a heart honor. If West wins, he has no re-entry; if East wins, he has no spade left to lead.

The question of whether to duck the opening lead in a suit where you have two stoppers is not an easy one. Typically, the play is sensible when there are two high cards that need to be driven out, with no second danger suit.

Reaching slam on today’s deal is not hard; making it is quite another matter. On the lead of the heart jack, you realize that the blockage in communication in clubs makes cashing all your winners rather hard. The weakness in dummy’s trump spots poses an additional risk of a ruff or over-ruff as you try to reach dummy.

At first glance, it appears you must rely on clubs being 4-3. However, there is an extra chance: You may be able to come home against a 5-2 club break if you time the play perfectly.

After the lead of the heart jack, let’s see what might happen if you win the ace, then go after the ruffs in dummy at once. If declarer cashes the club king, then the heart king, then ruffs a heart, he must next play dummy’s club winners. East ruffs in, and though South can over-ruff, the contract must now fail. When declarer leads his fourth heart, West ruffs in with the nine and will score the king later.

This outcome is avoided by leading one of your minor honors in spades at trick two. Suppose West ducks: You cash the spade ace, unblock your club king and take the heart ruffs. You can then safely discard your remaining losers on the clubs, losing just one trump.

Should West take the spade king, you win the return, draw a second round of trumps, and proceed as before. Since East, the hand short in clubs, has only two spades, he can no longer ruff away your club winner, and the contract comes home.

The U.S. scored decisive victories in both the pairs and teams events at the Hua Yuan women’s tournament last October in Beijing. Today’s deal shows a spectacular play by a member of the American team — with a rather unexpected outcome. The deal came up in the round robin, when USA faced France.

At our featured table, Pam Granovetter (North) could not open a weak two diamonds, but sensibly chose to pass, influenced by her excellent support for either major suit. Benedicte Cronier could open one heart, but nonetheless Sylvia Shi ended up declaring three no-trump.

As West, Catherine Mus found the best opening salvo when she led the spade two, which went to the six, eight and three. Cronier returned the spade jack. Shi won and took stock. Her left-hand opponenet was known to have led from a suit that was only four cards long, and was also known to have at most one heart. It made sense, therefore, that Mus’ distribution was exactly 4=1=4=4. So, Shi cashed the diamond ace and finessed the diamond 10. Well done, for a sparkling plus 400. How many IMPs do you suppose she gained for her play?

In the other room, the French North opened three diamonds; can you blame Irina Levitina for overcalling three hearts? I cannot. Anne-Laure Huberschwiller found an incisive penalty double and led the ace and another diamond. When declarer missguessed the location of the spade 10, she could do no better than take four trump tricks and a club for down 800 and a 9-IMP swing to France.

One of the more basic elements of technique required in squeeze play is called a Vienna Coup. The idea is that, occasionally, communication problems between your hand and the dummy require you to cash a high honor from one hand or the other to allow you to exercise a squeeze.

Mons Iver Hestnas of Norway was playing in Tenerife (in the somewhat surprisingly named Norwegian January Bridge Festival) when he had the opportunity to make such a play. Note South’s restraint in the auction: His sequence was invitational to game facing a minimum overcall, and clearly North had nothing to spare.

South combined his discretion in the bidding with a nice play. West led a low club to East’s ace, and the run of the clubs meant that declarer and dummy each had to discard a heart and a spade.

Declarer needed to bring in the rest of the tricks, and when West exited passively in diamonds, South won in hand. He knew the spade finesse would fail in view of West’s opening bid; but similarly, West was marked with the heart king.

Had declarer run five diamond tricks immediately, he would have cut communications between his hand and dummy, and West would simply have kept the same length as South in the majors. Instead, declarer unblocked the heart ace before running the diamonds, pitching hearts from hand. When the heart king did not appear, Hestnas led a spade to his ace and dropped West’s king, scoring his queen at trick 13.