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.

It is easy to pay lip service to the idea that juniors are the future of the game, but over the last few decades we have rarely seen our organizations putting their money where their mouths are.

Getting bridge teachers into schools is one very important way to introduce children to the game. Getting them to learn the rules of bidding may take second place to allowing them to play cards and get a feel for the game. Once that starts to happen, who knows where it may take them?

I’m pleased to say that today’s deal, sent to me by Suleyman Kolata, comes from a junior event: a Swiss teams tournament at the 20th Iskenderun Bridge Festival in Hatay, Turkey. Sitting West was Tuana Altun, age 8, playing with her brother Toygar Tuncay Altun. Tuana heard the auction as shown, to six hearts. What would you have led?

Tuana found the killing club lead for an 11 IMP gain, since her teammates had played in game rather than slam. Consequently, this victory helped them win the under-16 teams. When her father asked Tuana about her lead and continuation of a club after winning the heart ace, Tuana said that the bidding had told her that the opponents held a big club fit. She felt confident that if her partner could not ruff at the first trick, her trump control would give her a second chance.

For the record, 23 out of 31 tables made the heart slam here.

Follow the play in today’s deal carefully — there will be a question at the end of the report. South first forced to game, then took control and used Blackwood to drive to six spades. When dummy came down, South saw that he had two possible losers; but the best plan to avoid a club loser would be to establish dummy’s long hearts.

So South won the club lead, led a heart to the king and ace, won the diamond return and drew one round of trumps with the ace.

Declarer now cashed dummy’s remaining top heart and ruffed a third heart with a high trump. When hearts split 4-2, declarer led his small trump to dummy’s 10, putting the lead in dummy to allow him to ruff hearts for a second time.

The second ruff established dummy’s last heart; only now could South could afford to draw West’s last trump. South now led a diamond to dummy’s ace and cashed dummy’s last heart, pitching his remaining club loser.

South had his 12 tricks; could he or the defense have done differently — or better? First, West had a blind lead, but a diamond would have worked out better in disrupting the entries to dummy. Second, and key to the defense, was that West needed to give count in hearts at trick two, letting East duck his ace. That has the effect of preventing the establishment of the hearts. If you don’t believe me, try it for yourself!

The elegantly named steppingstone squeeze makes an appearance in today’s deal. South refused to stop short of six spades, and West led the diamond 10 against the slam.

Declarer won with the ace, drew trumps in four rounds and tested the clubs, West showing out on the second round. All would have been well had diamonds been 3-3, since declarer could have overtaken on the third round. But if West held four diamonds alongside the heart ace, South realized that he might come under pressure on the last trump.

If West threw a diamond, declarer would be able to overtake his jack with the queen, scoring his 12th trick with dummy’s fourth diamond.

If, instead, West threw the heart queen, declarer would cash his remaining top diamond and throw West on lead with a heart to the ace, to force him to lead to dummy’s diamond queen. West’s only other option would be to pitch the heart ace. This would beat the contract if East held the heart king, but as the cards lay it would allow South to score his heart king.

Oddly enough, if East had held four diamonds and four clubs, declarer could have caught him in the stepping-stone squeeze instead! The fifth round of trumps would have forced him to throw his last heart, retaining four diamonds and his club guard. South could then have cashed the diamond K-J and thrown East in with the fourth round of clubs to give dummy the diamond queen. Yes, in that instance, a simple minor-suit squeeze would work as well.

In the first session of the Yokohama Open Pairs last February, this deal presented an interesting problem for both declarer and the defenders.

West’s heart lead let the defenders cash out that suit; playing standard signals, East could encourage with the 10 under the ace to simultaneously unblock the suit. It would be much easier on a low heart lead, but I prefer the top heart.

Dummy had to find two discards and let go a diamond and a club, while East pitched a suit-preference spade two. East’s accurate shift to a low club went to the king and ace.

Declarer Dawei Chen now ran four rounds of spades, East discarding the club eight and the club five, and West the diamond seven. Chen diagnosed that the diamond queen had to be guarded and offside, and that East had reduced to a four-card ending where he had all three diamonds and the club jack left. Chen then crossed to his diamond ace and led a sneaky low club from hand.

To defeat the contract, West had to rise with the club queen (the right play whether South or East had the jack) to exit with a diamond and ensure a diamond trick for his partner. When West failed to imitate the crocodile and swallow up partner’s jack, East had to overtake his partner’s club 10 and was endplayed to concede the rest.

Incidentally, for all of us inclined to cast the first stone and blame West, notice that East could have discarded the club jack at his previous turn to help partner get it right.

Upon hearing East’s weak jump overcall in hearts and learning of North’s spade support, South drove to slam in spades after using Key-card Blackwood.

West led a third-highest heart two, confirming that hearts were indeed 3=6. After winning his ace, declarer drew four rounds of trumps, throwing a low heart from table. Meanwhile, East also discarded hearts. Next, declarer cashed the club king and queen, then led a club toward the table. West had to throw a heart, or else declarer would simply set up a long diamond for his 12th trick.

At this point, declarer could count West for an original 4=3=4=2 shape, with one heart and four diamonds remaining. So he ruffed a heart, then played a diamond to the king and a low diamond toward his hand, intending to cover East’s card cheaply. When East produced the nine, South inserted the jack. West took this with the queen but then had to lead from the diamond 10 into declarer’s ace-eight tenace.

Note that if West had followed to the first three clubs, with the jack not having put in an appearance, declarer would have risen with the ace. If East had produced the club jack, declarer would have cashed the 10, then taken the diamond finesse for the overtrick. If West turned up with jack-fourth of clubs, then his original distribution would have been 4=3=2=4. Now declarer would ensure three diamond tricks by cashing the ace and king before leading a low diamond toward his jack-eight.