When Bobby Goldman died suddenly, 20 years ago, he and Paul Soloway had been one of the dominant partnerships in the US for many years. Today’s deal exemplifies his talents.

At the Macallan Invitation Pairs tournament in the United Kingdom you would expect the top 16 pairs in the world to generate the occasional spectacular play, but in its own way I think the following example is outstanding. The play is typical of the brilliancies that the analysts might suggest in the post mortem, but on this occasion Goldman found the play at the table.

When Christian Mari of France reached three no-trump as South, he ducked the opening heart lead and continuation, and won the third round. Since he assumed that East was favorite to hold the diamond ace, he decided he needed to try to play the club suit for five tricks. This would require finding West with the singleton jack. So he went over to dummy with a spade and led the club queen, covered by the club king and ace, under which Bobby Goldman obediently contributed the club jack!

You can hardly blame Mari for crossing to dummy with a second spade to repeat the club finesse, can you? When Goldman produced the nine and played a third round of spades, he had succeeded in setting up the 13th spade as the defense’s fifth winner, before declarer had established the diamond suit for his own ninth trick.

The false-card had gained the critical tempo to set the game.

At the world championships 20 years ago Nafiz Zorlu of Turkey put in a claim for the best played hand of the event, using an incisive BOLS tip to help him on his way. The tip was that a man who preempts and leads his suit rates to be short, if anywhere, in trumps.

Playing against the Turks’ traditional rivals, Greece, Zorlu reached four hearts after passing up the chance for a considerable penalty, since the auction had started with West opening three clubs in third seat, and East had incautiously raised his partner’s preempt over the take-out double. However though East appeared to have manipulated his opponents into exactly his favorite spot, the move backfired when West trustingly led a club to the first trick. Zorlu won it cheaply in hand and played a diamond to dummy, then led a low heart to the jack. He had inferred that West’s decision to lead his tenuous club suit suggested he had a singleton trump. Now declarer led a second round of diamonds and ducked a spade to West, who exited with a club (a diamond would have been no better).

Zorlu decided to take East’s diamond jack in good faith, so played him for his precise actual shape. He cashed the spade ace, then without playing any more trumps tried the spade jack and a spade ruff. That was his eighth trick, and when he exited with the diamond ace, East could ruff. However, he then had to lead a trump into dummy’s tenace and concede the contract.

Two-suited openers and overcalls can jam the works, but they are a double-edged sword. If you become declarer they can help you to find the way home by drawing a road-map of the opponents’ hands.

East’s two spade opening showed at least five spades plus a five card minor, and less than opening bid strength. When South overcalled three hearts, North raised to game and East decided that at the vulnerability he could do no more.

Not knowing which minor his partner held, West led the spade 10 against four hearts. South took the ace and king, pitching one of the losing clubs from hand and now looked well placed, but the possibility of bad breaks in the red suits was a live one.

In an attempt to score his small trumps, South led a club from dummy at trick three. East rose with the ace and accurately switched to his singleton diamond. South played the ace, and followed with a successful finesse of the heart nine to maximize his entries to dummy. He ruffed a club in hand, re-entered dummy with the heart king as East pitched a spade, and ruffed North’s last club in hand, stripping West of all his black-suit cards in the process.

Declarer now cashed the diamond king, and when East failed to follow suit, South exited with a diamond. Although West could collect two diamond tricks, he was then forced to lead away from his heart queen into the trump tenace, and concede the rest.

In Shanghai at the Bermuda Bowl of 2007 I was very disappointed in the final position of the Irish team. They had come into the Round Robin as Silver Medalists in the European Championships, and were therefore among the favorites to advance to the Knock-Out phase. This did not happen, but they were nonetheless fighting right to the end – as witness this deal from their very final match.

John Carroll and Tommy Garvey play a light opening bid system whereby they frequently open 10-counts, as here. Carroll, West guessed well to lead the ace and another club. Garvey continued with a third round of clubs as Carroll pitched a heart.

Declarer ruffed and cashed two rounds of trumps then played the diamond king, which Carroll ducked, following with the 10. The contract can, of course, still be made easily by leading the diamond queen or playing a spade to the South hand and a diamond towards the queen. However, the sight of the diamond 10 was enough to convince South that his play didn’t matter – that is to say that West’s card had to be from the ace-10 or ace-jack-10. He continued with a small diamond, letting East win his diamond jack.

Now Garvey made no mistake, continuing with his remaining top club, on which West threw the diamond ace! Declarer had to ruff in the North hand, and at this point could not get off dummy to draw the last trump without promoting West’s spade 10 for the setting trick.

With his values concentrated in his long suits, and fine heart intermediates, South has a far more promising opening bid than most balanced 12-counts.

North can force to game with a two-over-one response, then raise hearts and try for slam. South will put the brakes on firmly, and unless North suffers a severe rush of blood to the head, South will finish in four hearts. Against this contract, West has a straightforward lead of a top spade. South ducks the first two spades in dummy, but when a third spade is played (a trump shift was essential) he must ruff. Declarer can now see that if the club ace is offside, and diamonds do not break, he may need to plan what he will do with his fourth diamond.

When declarer plays a club to the king, East wins (though ducking might make declarer’s task a little harder). East returns a club, and dummy wins. It is far more likely that trumps are breaking 3-2 than that diamonds are 3-3, or that the same hand has long diamonds and long clubs, so South changes tack. He ruffs a club in hand, crosses to dummy with a diamond, and ruffs another club. By this time, South has ruffed three times in his hand. This leaves him with only two trumps in hand compared to dummy’s three.

South can draw trump in three rounds, discarding his last diamond on dummy’s long trump, and come to 10 tricks in the form of one club, three ruffs, three trumps, and three diamonds: a perfect dummy reversal.

This hand comes from the 1968 Olympiad, and reveals that bidding has changed a lot since then. When East opened the bidding with one diamond South could overcall two diamonds. This was not a Michaels Cuebid, showing the majors; it simply showed a powerhouse. West sensibly jumped to five diamonds, putting South back in the hot seat. A double would only have produced a penalty of 300, and South wanted more, so he tried his luck at the five level with a call of five hearts.

At the table, when West led a diamond, South ruffed in hand and continued with the trump ace. When West showed out, declarer was booked for one down. Can you do better?

If you choose to take the very slight risk of there being a black-suit ruff, the safety play at trick two is to lead a heart intermediate from hand toward dummy’s 10. If the hearts divide 2-1, then the ace will bring down the remaining honor on the next round of trumps and declarer can finesse spades for the overtrick. If East proves to have all three trumps, then you can force an entry to dummy in spades by leading low towards the queen-jack to enable you to take a second-round trump finesse. In the highly unlikely event that West has all three missing trumps, you will still be able to access dummy via the heart 10, sooner or later, and will still succeed so long as the spade king is onside.

From last summer’s world junior championships came this elegant defense.

West, Oscar Nijssen of the Netherlands Youngsters team decided that since his partner seemed not to have very much, he would lead a low trump, against five hearts. This went to the six, five, and declarer’s seven. Declarer cashed his club ace and played another club to Nijssen’s king, while East signaled an odd number of clubs.

Clearly, declarer was threatening to draw trumps and run the clubs. But given the bad trump break, he would need a late dummy entry, which had to be the spade ace. To eliminate that entry, West boldly shifted to the spade king. South could not afford to duck, with the diamond ace still out. As it was, when South won the trick with dummy’s ace, he drew one round of trumps with dummy’s 10, and saw East discard a diamond.

Now declarer had to guess the diamonds, hoping to establish one winner there and ruff another in the dummy. When he tried a diamond to his king, Nijssen took the trick and led another trump. Declarer could try to pitch a diamond on the club queen, but West ruffed in and played a spade. East still had to collect the diamond queen, so the contract went two down.

Nijssen’s maneuver has a name. It follows an incident during the Spanish-American War at the turn of the last century, when the Americans scuttled the Merrimac to try to bottle up the Spanish fleet in their harbor. Hence the Merrimac Coup.

My favorite defense from last summer’s world junior championships in Salsomaggiore, Italy, occurred right at the end of the Youngsters final between Italy and the Netherlands.

Both tables bid in identical fashion to three spades, but in one room the Italian West led a top diamond from his sequence.

After seeing the dummy, he saw the need for a trump shift, but was already too late. Declarer could win in his hand and play another diamond. East overtook his partner’s jack to play a second trump, but declarer won in hand and could trump his losing diamond in dummy for his ninth trick and plus 140.

In the other room Leen Stougie as West found the incisive trump lead to trick one, working on the sound principle of leading trumps when you consider your side has the balance of high cards. Declarer, won in hand with the nine and led a diamond up. West made his second good play when he hopped up with the king to press on with trumps. Declarer won with his queen to play another diamond, but this time when West inserted the jack, it allowed East, Marc Stougie, to overtake with the queen to play a third trump. That disposed of the possibility of a diamond ruff in dummy.

Now declarer had to lose one heart, three diamonds and one club, to go one down.

That all added up to a 5 IMP gain for the Netherlands, but they lost the gold medal to Italy.