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.

GeO Tislevoll was East here when his partner led the spade ace against four hearts. He followed with the two, suit preference for clubs. His partner played the club ace and another club, and he won the king as the declarer followed suit. What now?

With two trumps in dummy and a side-suit void, it seems normal to play back a trump, but Tislevoll realized that if he was going to set the contract, his partner would need a trump trick. (As a passed hand, West could not have three aces.)

Since a heart or diamond could not achieve anything, he realized a spade was all that was left. In that case, his best hope was to play the spade 10, not the king. That could give declarer a cheap spade trick, but it might not matter. The hope was that South had a 3=7=1=2 shape, with the singleton diamond ace. If declarer tried to ruff the spade in dummy and played the club queen, East would ruff in. Whatever happened, South would be left with an inevitable spade loser.

Yes, the contract can be beaten with a trump lead, and another trump when West gets in with the spade ace (or a low club shift at trick two for an eventual uppercut). However, leading the spade ace is only human. Also, it might seem natural for West to switch to a trump at trick two, but that would be fatal. Declarer wins, unblocks the diamond ace, ruffs a spade and can cash three diamonds to get rid of his remaining black losers.

Today’s deal features a maneuver that every declarer should have at his disposal.

Imagine that you play it in three no-trump on the lead of the spade jack. Naturally, you put up the queen. In the unlikely event that East wins the ace and returns the suit, you will duck once, win the third spade and try to set up clubs without letting West on lead. You will be able to accomplish this whenever East has three clubs or with quite a few of his possible doubletons. For example, if West has any three clubs including the four, he will have to follow with that card on either the first or second round of the suit, and you can simply cover that card and keep him off play.

Curiously, the reverse logic applies if the spade queen wins trick one. Now you have to set up clubs, without letting East on lead if possible, which might be more difficult than it looks if East has three clubs.

It is crucial to maximize your entries to hand by leading the heart queen to your king and then a low club toward dummy’s honors. When West plays the 10, you win the king and follow up with dummy’s low heart to your jack. Now you lead a club, ducking West’s queen. East cannot overtake, and West cannot broach spades from his side, so he will get off play with a red suit.

Whatever he does, though, you have one spade trick, one diamond, three hearts and four clubs, making nine tricks in total.

Have you ever experienced a sinking feeling when an opponent who is not generally ranked in the top echelon of players suddenly produces a devastating defense against you?

Recently, a fellow writer, Maureen Hiron, remarked that she encountered just such an incident. She had opened a strong no-trump and, after a Stayman inquiry, showed her hearts, but North’s three no-trump ended the auction. West led the diamond four; you might find it interesting to see if you can duplicate East’s defense.

Without apparent thought, East took his ace and switched to a low spade. Hiron played low, West won with his king and returned the spade eight. South tried the nine from dummy, tempting a cover, but East played low and Hiron was forced to overtake with her ace.

Next she tried a cunning heart jack, but West hopped up with his ace and concluded the deadly defense when he led back another spade for East to take his spade winners and defeat the contract.

Later, East explained the logic of his play, saying that since the diamond four had been led and he could see the three and the two, declarer must hold four cards in the suit as well as four hearts.

South was also marked with three clubs (or else West would have attacked from a five-card suit at trick one), and therefore just two spades. However, what made the hand really easy was that he had played this hand the day before in a practice class, and it had not been redealt…

Larry Cohen has written material for players at all levels. In one of his intermediate books, he discusses card reading, and he gives this example of the theme.

In fourth seat, North gets to open one club. After some exuberant bidding, South ends up in three no-trump and receives the lead of the diamond two. East puts up the diamond king and returns a low diamond. Declarer has no real choice but to try the queen, more in hope than expectation. When it holds, declarer can count on five club tricks, one diamond and two spades. The ninth trick will have to come from hearts.

Declarer can run the clubs first, ending in hand, and then lead a low heart toward dummy’s king. When West plays low, declarer has to guess … or does he? Fortunately, at this point in the play, he can confidently expect 4-4 diamonds. If that were not the case, West would win the heart ace and cash out, or East would be sitting with a bunch of winners to cash.

So let’s assume the defense can take only three diamond tricks. If declarer gets hearts wrong, he will go down; but did you remember the bidding? East dealt and passed. He is already inferentially marked with the diamond ace-king and at least one spade honor (West would surely have led from the queen-jack of spades). If East also held the heart ace, he would have opened the bidding. So, declarer should guess correctly and put up dummy’s heart king for his ninth trick.

The Principle of Fast Arrival in game-forcing auctions proposes that instead of exploring carefully, you jump to game (wasting at least a full round of bidding) to make your partner guess what to do when he has extras. This is not my favorite convention.

By contrast, here North’s jump to three no-trump shows about 15-17 with two or three spades. With less, or more, North would bid two no-trump. When South produces a quantitative four no-trump, North reveals his spade support, and West leads the heart two against six spades, to the queen and king. Back comes a trump to the eight; can you identify declarer’s best line now?

Instead of relying on the red suits to behave, South cashes the club ace, ruffs a club high in hand, gets to dummy with a trump and discovers they split. (If they didn’t, declarer would instead finesse hearts, then test diamonds, hoping, if they didn’t break, that the same hand was long in both spades and diamonds.)

When spades divide, South ruffs another club high, takes the diamond ace, then re-enters dummy with a diamond to ruff dummy’s last club. He goes back to dummy with the heart ace and draws trumps, discarding his losing heart.

In the two-card ending, dummy has the heart 10 and a diamond, while declarer has the diamond Q-9 in hand. Even if diamonds cannot be brought in, declarer has the additional chance (as here) that the hand with long diamonds also has the heart jack and is thus squeezed in the red suits.