At Yokohama last year, this deal pitted Jack Zhao of China against one of his former partners. Zhao, North, reached three no-trump after opening one heart then jumping to three clubs. You can hardly blame Fu Zhong for leading a diamond rather than a club, but that meant 12 tricks for Zhao — a near-top.

However, David Bakhshi and Kazuko Tsumori bid to six spades by North on the deal, and they also received a diamond lead. When Tsumori ran that to her hand, she had 12 tricks … and an even better score.

Six spades by South seems to have too much work to be done on a club lead, but an astute declarer can find his way home even then. Win the club ace, play a low heart to your ace, and trust the defenders’ count signal in hearts. Take just one top spade, then cash two top hearts, pitching clubs from hand. Now ruff a club, go back to the spade king and face the critical decision.

The fall of the spade honors makes it more likely that East holds the spade queen than that West began with precisely Q-J-10 of trumps. It would be right to cash hearts now if East began with a 3=4=4=2 pattern, but if you believe the carding, you should play East for only three hearts. The point is that if you play the fourth heart at once, East can ruff and exit in clubs; instead, ruff the third club and exit with a spade.

In the four-card ending, East must lead diamonds and allow your queen and ace to score.

This board from the quarterfinals of the World Championships in Lyon turned out to be a fine battle between declarer and the defense.

Against four spades, Jacek Pszczola (Pepsi) cashed two top diamonds and wisely did not play a third, as declarer Mikael Rimstedt would have set up his clubs. Instead, he switched to the spade 10. Rimstedt covered this with dummy’s jack, drawing the king and ace. West now held the sole guards in both spades and clubs.

Next, declarer played the king and queen of trump, ruffed his diamond loser with the heart ace and ran the remaining trumps. To retain his club honors, West had to reduce to just one spade. If he kept his spade nine, he would be thrown in with a spade to lead away from the club king. If he discarded his high spade, South’s spade eight would be good. Either way, declarer had his 10 tricks.

After two rounds of diamonds, West needed to switch specifically to the spade queen, so that East would be able to guard the suit with his king.

In the other room, Frederick Nystrom led the diamond ace and, realizing that he would have to open up spades sooner or later, found the necessary switch to a spade intermediate at trick two.

When declarer Joe Grue allowed this to win, West cashed the diamond queen, then played the spade six to the seven and ace. Declarer eventually had to surrender a club and a spade trick for one down, and Sweden had a well-earned game swing.

This was a deal from the quarter-finals at the world championships in Lyon last August. When South declared four spades, West generally led a top diamond.

The New Zealand West then played a second diamond, and the Dutch declarer ruffed and guessed to take the club finesse, a simple and seductive line. But when it lost, a heart back settled his hash immediately for down one.

By contrast, after the same first two tricks, the New Zealand declarer ruffed and led a low spade toward dummy at trick three. West correctly played low — which would have been necessary if his partner had the spade ace rather than the club king. The spade queen won, and declarer played a low spade back to his ace, dropping the king, then took the club finesse and was home against any defense.

A far tougher defense would have been for West to switch to a club at trick two. If declarer finesses, East wins and can switch to a heart. However, declarer can (in theory) riposte by going up with dummy’s club ace and then playing a spade to the ace and a spade.

At yet another table, the Bulgarian West cashed just one top diamond, then led a low heart away from his doubleton king! Declarer won the queen and led a low spade, West taking his king and continuing with a top diamond. Declarer ruffed, cashed dummy’s spade honors and now should have led a club to his 10. Instead, he played a heart to his jack and lost both a club and a heart trick.

As Micke Melander reported from the World Championships in Lyon last year, all too often a bridge player will wake up in a cold sweat, having realized how he had gone down in a contract he should have made. When Sweden played Brazil in the Seniors, Anders Morath confessed his sins to the bulletin.

As South, you are in four spades on the lead of the diamond jack. When you ruff the opening lead and play the spade king, everybody follows small. What next?

Morath inferred that East had all the top diamonds, so West had the major-suit aces. Since trumps appeared to be 3-1, Morath cashed the three top clubs, pitching a diamond, then played a second trump, hoping he could play hearts from his hand for two losers. That wasn’t the case today.

He later realized he should have pitched a heart rather a diamond on the third club. He would then have been able to lead a fourth club and ruff it high in hand. If West over-ruffs, he can do no better than play a diamond, letting declarer ruff and lose just two hearts. If West discards instead of over-ruffing, South simply ruffs a diamond in dummy to lose one trump and two hearts again.

Morath said that to make matters worse, West’s initial pass with both major-suit aces and the diamond jack meant that East was very likely to hold the heart queen, since East-West open most 11-counts. So an alternative route to success would have been to run the heart jack at trick five.

In this deal from the quarterfinal match between Bulgaria and USA1 in the Bermuda Bowl last summer, the U.S. team played game at both tables.

In the other room, against three no-trump by East, the opening lead was a low club. North won the ace and continued with the queen. East misjudged by overtaking with the king, which set up declarer’s nine for his ninth trick.

In the room shown here, East bailed out after a gambling three no-trump opener, over which Jeff Meckstroth as South found a courageous balance of four hearts, doubled by East.

On a diamond lead and a spade shift at trick two, this would have been at least one down. But when West continued with a top diamond, declarer stood a chance, even more so when East discarded a club on the diamond king.

Meckstroth ruffed, crossed to dummy’s club queen, led a heart to his jack, crossed to the club jack and led another heart. East went in with the ace this time and returned his last club, but Meckstroth could overtake his king with dummy’s ace, cash the club eight for a spade discard (ruffing it would not have helped the defense), ruff a diamond to reduce his trump length, and play ace and another spade. His king and 10 of hearts were now sure to score the last two tricks.

So USA1 collected game in both rooms for a 14-IMP swing — which somehow seems rather low when you consider that a normal game swing is worth at least 10 IMPs.

To describe something as “done like a computer” might be flattering in almost every area but in the world of bridge, where computers have yet to achieve top-class play. However, things are beginning to change, as Al Levy, coordinator of the Computer World Championships, demonstrated.

He reported this brilliant example from Round Six of the Lyon qualifying event last year. It was a fine example of good defense defeating accurate declarer play.

Against four hearts, West got off to an efficient start by going passive and leading a trump. Any other card, except the spade ace, would have let through the contract immediately. Declarer won and saw that he could no longer ruff a diamond in dummy. So he drew a second round of trumps, then led a small spade toward dummy’s king. West again made the right play of rising with the ace, as East signaled count, then continued accurately by shifting to a diamond to East’s queen. Declarer ducked this trick, and East now played a small diamond, (rather than the “routine” 10, which would have been fatal).

Declarer won his diamond ace and ran all his trumps. West had to find five discards, to reduce to three cards; he pitched two spades, a club and the diamond jack, then went into what for a computer was a long pause. For his final discard, he let go of the diamond king, thus avoiding the throw-in. East could now win South’s diamond exit and play a club, taking the contract down.

All of this week’s deals come from the 2017 World Championships from Lyon, France.

Steve Weinstein declared three no-trump here against the Dutch and found an intriguing line. You might try to match him by looking only at the North-South cards.

When West somewhat surprisingly has a heart to lead against three no-trump, you take the third heart as West pitches two clubs. Plan the play.

Weinstein led the club king from hand, ducked by West. Now declarer inferred that West was 1-6 in hearts and clubs, and the carding suggested West ought to be 4=1=2=6. If so, it would be futile to play diamonds from the top, as East would win the fourth and cash out. Similarly, if declarer played a second club, West would win and play back a club, breaking up any pressure in the ending.

But what if West had the doubleton diamond jack? He would win his jack and return a spade, but you play a second club and set up your ninth winner. There are two points to note about this line: First, you must play a top club before ducking a diamond, or West can win and play a spade, killing your communications. The second is that West needed to duck the first club, or he would subsequently have been squeezed in the black suits.

Weinstein went for broke and made the brave play of a low diamond from hand. The line failed when East could win his diamond jack and run the hearts, but it was still a highly imaginative try, I thought.

After opening a slightly offbeat weak two-bid, you find yourself in four spades doubled after a top heart lead. (If East had passed four spades, West might have doubled, after which East might or might not have bid five hearts.)

East encourages at the first trick, and West continues with a top heart rather than playing for a diamond ruff. What now?

At the table, declarer ruffed the heart, then elected to draw trumps, not play on diamonds. After two trumps ending in hand he led a diamond to the 10, jack and king, then got back in via another heart ruff to lead a diamond toward dummy. He had just enough entries now to bring in the diamonds. Contract made; but whose play was less than perfect after trick two was completed?

Both East and South missed the chance to be heroes at trick five. Watch what happens if declarer leads a diamond to the jack, and East ducks!

Declarer can duck a diamond or play on clubs, but the defenders keep leading hearts; declarer cannot set up either minor now.

Declarer had two resources. The first was the unlikely one of pitching a diamond at trick two. More straightforwardly, he could ruff the heart at trick two, draw trumps and lead a diamond, ducking West’s 10!

South will be able to win the heart or club return in hand and lead a diamond. He can then regain the lead to eventually to take an eventual ruffing finesse against East’s diamond honor, to bring home the bacon.