This deal might represent some kind of record. I frequently used deals played by the giants of the game, but it is relatively rare to receive a deal that was played 80 years ago.

Tony Priday of England died a few years ago, having dominated the international scene in England through the seventies and eighties, and having then become a much respected non-playing captain. When he learned bridge at school the pupils used Mahjongg tiles in place of cards, regarded at that time as ‘the devil’s playthings’.

In today’s deal splinters were 30 years away from being invented. When North opened one spade, Priday was able to jump to four diamonds, natural and pre-emptive, and was raised to five diamonds.

When West led the club king, East made a thoughtful but catastrophic play when he overtook with the ace, hoping that he could lead a heart through declarer. However, Priday could ruff with the diamond six, then lead the trump seven to the ace, to find the bad news.

Undaunted, Priday saw that he would still be able to make his game so long as he could keep East off lead till spades were established. So he advanced the club jack and discarded a spade from hand. Since West was unable to attack hearts successfully, Priday could ruff out the spades, using a high trump again, then knock out the master trump. Now he could cross to the diamond three and discard two hearts from hand on the spades.

When East overcalled three clubs over North’s artificial and forcing call, South opted to get his spades in at once. North was never going to stop short of slam now, and perhaps unwisely raised South to six spades rather than playing the more straightforward contract of six diamonds.

Against the slam West led the club king, and declarer had plenty of winners, but the losing clubs presented a significant problem. He gave himself a sporting chance when he ruffed the opening lead in dummy, coming back to hand with the diamond king to ruff another club. Then he cashed the trump ace and discarded his last club on the diamond ace.

However, he still needed to come back to hand to draw trump. When East followed to a third round of diamonds, declarer ruffed high while West carefully pitched his remaining club. This meant that when the spade queen went round to East’s king, a third round of clubs promoted the setting trick for West’s spade nine. Can you see how declarer might have done better?

After ruffing the opening lead with the spade five, lead the spade six from dummy. If a defender wins this with the king, you can ruff the next club with the spade ace. If your spade queen holds, take the spade ace, then the diamond ace, crashing your king and cash a second diamond to throw one club away. Next lead a third diamond, pitching your last club.

This line fails only to an unlucky lie of the cards in more than one suit.

In today’s deal South was not downhearted by his partner’s failure to respond to his opening bid, and still found a way to drive to game. The contract was not hopeless, but the real problem was to get to dummy and to maneuver to lose no tricks in the majors. South saw he could only get to dummy with the club nine but would then have to use this single entry to take two heart finesses and one spade finesse. Before you read on, can you see the precise sequence of plays necessary to achieve this?

Declarer wins the diamond ace, knocks out the club ace, loses a diamond, and wins the next trump in dummy. He must next lead the heart queen from dummy and unblock the jack from his own hand. This allows dummy to retain the lead for the next heart finesse. Finally, South can take the spade finesse.

Note that South would fail in his contract if he started by leading the heart nine or 10 from dummy as his initial play in that suit. East would play low and would save the heart king, for when declarer advanced dummy’s queen. This would force South to win the second heart in his own hand, and now there would be no entry to dummy for the spade finesse.

It would be equally unsuccessful to lead the heart queen and forget to throw the jack. Again, South would have to win the second heart in his own hand and kiss goodbye to dummy.

When the World Bridge Federation was pushing hard for bridge to be included in the Winter Olympics they organized a competition in Salt Lake City just before the Olympics started. In the finals of that event Poland trailed Canada by 17.5 IMPs as they entered the last set of 12 deals. They held Canada scoreless till the last board but still trailed by one and a half IMPs as the last board hit the table.

Both tables reached four spades by South after West had opened one heart and had rebid two diamonds.

The Polish West led a diamond against Keith Balcombe. He finessed, then took a safety play in spades by leading the ace and running the jack, to make 420. If the Polish declarer could come to 11 tricks, the commentators estimated he would lose the match (in the absence of score corrections and appeals) by precisely 1/2 an IMP.

However, when Fred Gitelman led the heart ace followed by another heart, Michal Kwiecien won in dummy, cashed the spade ace, and noted the fall of the eight. Then he followed up with the spade jack from dummy. Joe Silver naturally played low and Kwiecien paused for reflection for quite a while.

Eventually he let the spade jack run, and Gitelman won his queen, and led a low heart, promoting the spade 10 into a third trick for the defenders. That let Silver collect the club king for down one in due course. Canada had won their first ever Gold Medal in a teams event.

In today’s deal from Frank Stewart’s latest book, Keys to Winning Bridge, I’m going to show you what might happen at the table before discussing what should happen.

When West leads the diamond three against six hearts it goes to the four, jack, and king.

Declarer will take the heart ace and queen and run the spade queen from dummy to West’s ace. Back comes a second top diamond, and declarer wins in hand, ruffs a diamond, and should now take the ruffing finesse in spades rather than rely on the club finesse. If West has managed to keep his fingers off a top spade lead from the ace-king at trick one he deserves to beat you.

But the key to the deal is that East should cover the spade queen at trick four. If South has the spade ace, the contract is surely unbeatable. After all, East can count six trump tricks for South, the club ace, diamond ace-king and at least one diamond ruff in dummy. (Since West led the diamond three, he can have no more than five diamonds, leaving South with at least three.) In fact declarer rates to be cold for 13 tricks whatever you do.

When East’s spade king wins, he will exit passively in diamonds, and whether declarer plays on spades or clubs, the defenders will surely score another trick, one way or another.

Note also that declarer’s chances of obtaining a defensive error are much higher if he makes his first play in spades from dummy and not from hand.

In 2002, the Finals of the international match at Salt Lake City between Poland and Canada saw the latter win narrowly, despite scoring fewer than 1 1/2 IMPs per board. That was a testament to a relatively flat set of boards where both teams played very well.

This deal helped the winners’ cause. In one room they had been doubled and set 100 in three hearts, but here they declared four spades with remarkably few values, after North (Joe Silver) had donned a rosy pair of glasses.

Fred Gitelman as declarer received the lead of an unreadable diamond six, and took some while to plan the play. Eventually he won in hand and ruffed a heart, then led a spade to the king. West took this and returned the spade 10 – though a club shift might have worked better.

Gitelman won in hand and ruffed another heart, then led a low diamond from dummy, assuming that East would hold the diamond queen, and hoping that either diamonds would be 3-3, or that West would not have both a doubleton diamond and the last trump.

In fact East won the diamond queen and could do no better than play a fourth heart. Gitelman ruffed, drew the last trump, (pitching clubs from dummy) and led a club up to dummy, conceding just the club ace for 10 tricks.

For the record, had East taken the second diamond and returned the suit, declarer could have won it in hand to draw the last trump before playing a club to dummy.

Our last deal from the 2001 world championships contrasts two declarers in the same contract. First let’s see the unsuccessful declarer.

For Indonesia, Robert Tobing drove to slam on finding a limit raise opposite with one key card. After a club lead he ruffed his heart losers in dummy and relied on the diamond honors being onside, once the 3-1 trump split did not allow him an endplay. Down one.

However, in the match between Italy and USA-I, the commentators saw both Souths had made their slam, and hypothesized that there must have been a misdeal. How could the slam make?

Well, both Bob Hamman and Alfredo Versace reached slam after West had bid clubs. Both won the opening club lead to advance a diamond at trick two, reasoning West would surely split his honors if he held both the king and queen. When West followed low unconcernedly, (yes, it was necessary to play the king) both declarers changed tack and set out to find an endplay. They took the diamond ace, then cashed the hearts and ruffed a heart, ruffed a club, ruffed a heart, and ruffed a club. Then they drew precisely one trump, and exited with a diamond.

In the three-card ending West was on lead, with only clubs left to lead. On the forced ruff and discard, dummy could take the ruff and declarer the discard. A spectacular flat board, while both West players and the vugraph commentators reached quickly (but a little too late) for the veil of anonymity.

At the 2001 Bermuda Bowl in Paris the USA suffered maybe their most humiliating defeat against Italy ever. With 32 deals to go the match was almost tied, but then the roof fell in and they lost the last two sets of the match by over 100 IMPs, having been held virtually scoreless in both sets.

Here, for example, both tables reached four hearts, leaving the two Wests with about the same amount of information. Say you lead a top club – and infer from trick one that partner has one or two clubs; what would you do now?

For the USA, Jeff Meckstroth shifted to a diamond – which looks logical enough. Declarer won and ducked a club to Meckstroth, won the next trump in dummy, ruffed a club, crossed with a diamond ruff and ruffed a club, then drew the last trumps, and claimed 10 tricks. Had Meckstroth played back a spade at trick four, declarer could have cross-ruffed to 10 tricks.

By contrast, Alfredo Versace shifted to a spade at trick two, knocking out the late entry to dummy. This is the only defense to succeed here (a trump shift lets declarer overtake and play clubs from hand).

The American declarer could do nothing now. He chose to duck this trick — hoping to be allowed to play a crossruff or set up the clubs — but Lorenzo Lauria overtook the spade queen and gave his partner the ruff, for down one. Very nicely done after the club lead; of course most leads but a top club also succeed outright.