Benedicte Cronier, one of the world’s strongest woman players, stars in today’s deal from the 2016 European Championships. France were leading Croatia narrowly as this deal appeared.

South’s balanced hand influenced her to play three no-trump, but understandable as this might have been, four spades would have been easy by comparison, and had been bid and made by her opponents. So it gave Croatia a chance to pull the match out of the fire.

Had East played low at trick one when West led the diamond 10, declarer’s goose would have been cooked. Instead, East won her king and returned a low diamond, giving declarer the flimsiest of lifelines.

Cronier won the diamond return in dummy, then took the heart ace and led a low heart to her nine. That was the first of the slim chances she had to take. She next advanced the club jack from her hand, because she knew East had nine high cards in the red suits, so the club queen had to be to her left. She let it run when West resisted the temptation to cover, and next played a club to the king, cashed the spade ace and could return to hand with the club ace.

At this point she exited with the diamond queen from her hand. While East could win, and cash two more diamonds, she then had to lead a heart into declarer’s tenace. So Cronier had come to one spade and one diamond trick, together with three clubs and four hearts, for her contract.

In last year’s European Championships West led his singleton spade against four hearts, for the six, seven and ace. He ducked the first trump and took the second round, East having followed with the six and nine. How should West choose to get his ruff?

Had East played the heart nine followed by the six, that would have been suit preference for diamonds. His actual sequence of plays might have indicated no special preference. So West tried a club, and was disappointed with the result.

You could argue a diamond shift needs West to find less from partner, but why not lead your diamond ace and see if partner encourages? If not, shift to a club and hope for the best.

At another table Cedric Lorenzini, North, declared four spades. The defenders cashed two diamonds ending in West, then shifted to the club 10. (A third diamond was best, and would have defeated the game by force.)

Lorenzini saw that if trumps were 4-1, he would have to play on hearts before drawing all the trump. The defenders would then probably be able to duck a heart and take a ruff. So Lorenzini won the club in hand and thoughtfully advanced the heart king. When East showed an even number of hearts, West won the first heart and continued the attack on clubs. Now declarer could survive the bad trump break.

In the other room declarer drew two rounds of trump before playing hearts; now West knew to duck the first heart and defeat the game.

Today’s deal occurred in the European Championships from Hungary last year. In the match between England and Ireland (where there is always something more at stake than just victory points) both tables reached four spades when the first five bids were identical in both rooms. For England, David Bakhshi as West elected to try for the vulnerable game, and bid five hearts. When dummy appeared, he must have had high hopes. However after a spade lead and a diamond switch from South, ruffed by North, the 4-1 trump split took him one down, for 100 to Ireland.

In the other room the Irish West tried for a vulnerable penalty and doubled four spades. What would you have led with his hand? Hugh McGann made the right decision when he started with a trump, realizing the only way declarer could scramble any tricks was by a cross-ruff. Andrew Robson won in hand and slid the diamond nine on to the table.

When West fell from grace and played a small card, South let it run. East could win and return a trump, but declarer was now able to find a way home. He could ruff two diamonds in dummy, and the fall of the ace and queen meant he could establish the suit for 790 and a 12 IMP pick-up.

If West covers the first diamond, careful defense after that will allow East to regain the lead with the club ace and play a second trump, and now the defense prevails.

This week’s deals all come from the European Championships of 2016, held in Budapest, in the scenic setting of a football stadium. The crowds were somewhat smaller than might have been the case at a soccer game, but one cannot have everything.

Host nation Hungary were on Vugraph on day one, and were somewhat fortunate to escape with a small pick-up here instead of a large loss, when in one room Rumania bought the contract in two spades by West, down a trick.

Meanwhile, in the other room after the auction shown here, where North’s second double simply showed extras with no clear call, the Rumanian South took a flyer at three no-trump, and bought a very suitable lie of the cards for his choice. Gabor Winkler led a low spade, and declarer won in hand and played a diamond, won by West’s ace.

South took the third round of spades in hand, and led a diamond to the king, followed by the diamond jack …and East, who had started life with queen-fourth of diamonds, thoughtfully ducked it. That was curtains for declarer, when the heart finesse was wrong, since he no longer had enough entries to hand to establish diamonds. Of course with the sight of all four hands we would all have unblocked the diamond jack under the ace at trick two, wouldn’t we?

(For the record, declarer could have recovered by taking the club finesse when in hand with the second spade, but his actual play made perfect sense; it just didn’t work.)

When this deal came up North thought he was too good for a simple rebid of two spades. So he jumped to three spades, and South retaliated by leaping to slam, after a couple of cuebids. He received the apparently friendly lead of the club ace, East playing the club two to indicate an odd number.

At the table, South ruffed, led a trump to dummy and found the bad news. He took a losing diamond finesse, and won the club king, pitching a heart, to play the diamond ace and ruff a diamond. That passed off peacefully enough, but when he tried to cash hearts. East ruffed the third, and declarer was doomed.

If South places seven clubs on his left from the play to the first trick, he might decide to protect against the 5-0 spade break, by the somewhat unnatural play of discarding a diamond from his hand at trick one, in an attempt to retain control.

The defense does best to shift to a heart, and South wins the queen and crosses to the spade ace. When West discards, declarer leads a spade to the 10, crosses to a heart, and leads a spade to the nine. After drawing trump, he has 12 tricks.

The two keys to the deal are to count the 12 tricks in the form of one diamond, one club and five tricks in each major – so there is no need to ruff at trick one. The second key play is to lead a trump to the ace (not a high trump from hand) at trick two, to preserve the finesses in trumps against East.

When your partner shows a limit raise at his first turn to speak, then optimistically jumps to game rather than signing off in three hearts (over what is initially nothing more than a gametry of three clubs), you would be entitled to assume he will contribute just a little more than the uninspiring 10-count he puts down in dummy in your contract of six hearts. If it offends you to bid slam without using Blackwood, pretend you asked for aces or keycards before driving to six hearts.

At trick one you realize that with a sure diamond loser, the contract appears to hinge on the club finesse; assuming that it works, what can possibly go wrong?

If you work through the play in your mind before playing a card, perhaps you will spot the snag. Win the diamond ace, draw trump in three rounds, then lead the club queen, which holds, followed by a club to your hand. When this wins the trick with West showing out, you are stuck in hand with no way back to dummy to repeat the proven club finesse. And if you lose a club trick, down goes the contract.

Once you spot the problem, as Gertrude Stein would say, you have your answer. At trick two, take the club finesse by leading low from dummy to your hand. When it holds, draw trump in three rounds ending in dummy and lead the club queen from the board. Now whether East covers or not, the club suit runs for four tricks.

Today’s deal comes from Larry Cohen’s excellent new teaching book, on declarer play at no-trump (details at https://www.larryco.com/bridge-store/detail/larry-teaches-declarer-play-at-notrump.

In three no-trump you have eight top tricks — the ace-king in every suit – so it would be disappointing not to find a ninth somewhere, wouldn’t it? You put up the spade 10 at trick one, but East covers with the jack. When you hold up, East continues with the spade nine, West playing the spade two. Which red suit will you work on?

It looks normal to try the longer suit, diamonds, first. That is fine, but the normal technique of ducking the first round of the suit is not taking advantage of all of your chances. If you duck a diamond, the defense will clear spades. Now, when diamonds break four-one, there is no time to switch to a Plan B. Instead, start diamonds by taking the ace and king. (You could make the case for leading low towards dummy, trying to pick up a singleton queen, jack or 10 in West – it being more likely that that player is short in diamonds than East).

If an honor appears, you lead low back to your hand, intending to insert the seven. And, for the record, if the diamond seven and six where switched you could never pick up any four-card diamond holding in East, so you would start by leading the king from hand.

When you discover the four-one break, you have time to switch your attention to hearts. The three-three break there sees you home.

South might simply have bid three no-trump at his second turn without exploring for a spade fit here. However, given his partner’s atypical honor structure, his choice worked out fine.

Against four spades West led the heart king, to the four, and a discouraging two from East. Now West led out the heart ace, which drew the seven, five, and queen. West then made the apparently natural play of shifting to the diamond jack, letting South win with the king. After drawing three rounds of trump ending in hand, declarer took dummy’s diamond honors, throwing a club from hand. He ruffed the fourth diamond in hand, East pitching a club, then discarded a club from dummy on the heart queen, East following with the eight.

South now decided that if East had begun life with four hearts, he might have pitched one on the fourth diamond, so he probably had no more hearts left. Instead of taking the club finesse, he threw East in with a trump, leaving him to lead into dummy’s ace-queen of clubs at trick 12.

The key to the finding the winning club shift at trick three was that East could have followed with the heart eight at trick two if he had wanted a switch to diamonds. The five should have suggested no preference or the lower ranking suit, clubs. Once you have signaled attitude or count on the first round of a suit, your choice between equivalent small cards may well constitute a suit preference signal.

The auction is straightforward enough on today’s deal, with South showing the equivalent of a no-trump opening with a stopper in the opponent’s suit. A transfer auction leads to the obvious game; but after a diamond lead, South can see only five trump winners and the two red aces in top tricks. He will need to bring in three club tricks to make his game.

A three-three break in clubs makes life easy; but South should try to protect himself against a four-two break in clubs. Since East is rather more likely to have the club ace as part of his opening bid, South should maneuver in clubs in the hope that East will be forced to sacrifice his ace without getting anything valuable in return for it.

South wins the diamond lead and plays a trump to dummy to lead a club toward his hand. East plays low and South wins with the king. Now declarer draws trump ending in dummy in order to lead another low club. This time East has no choice but to play his ace. It is then relatively easy for South to regain the lead with the heart ace, unblock the club queen and come back to hand with the spade king to discard dummy’s losing heart on his club jack.

As you can see, South would go down if he led clubs from hand prematurely. There would be no discard on the clubs, since the suit could not be established. Declarer would lose two diamonds, a heart, and a club.