This deal comes from the 1997 Cap Gemini tournament. Clearly slam is nothing to write home about, since you need something favorable in both minors. Additionally, an initial spade lead causes you some real problems, since it is not clear what to throw on the top spades.

At one or two tables West simplified declarer’s task by leading a heart. However, on the spade lead found by Mark Bompis against Sun Ming of the Chinese ladies, declarer could and did succeed by a fine line.

It is very tempting to try to ruff two diamonds in dummy; if you do this, East can win the club ace and give his partner a ruff. Instead Sun won the spade ace, played a trump to hand, then continued by cashing the diamond ace and ruffing a diamond.

Now she ran the spades, throwing a heart and diamond away. When East ruffed the fourth spade it was with the club ace, allowing South to discard her last diamond.

In other words, declarer got rid of her three losing diamonds and her losing heart by ruffing one diamond and throwing the other three on the spades.

But even had East had a small trump left with which to ruff the fourth spade, declarer would have been able to overruff, and then would have been in good shape to ruff another diamond in dummy. So long as diamonds are 4-3, declarer can return to hand now and play another trump, to concede just one club trick.

On Vugraph at the 1997 Cap Gemini tournament I thought Bobby Levin found a nice play here. It is easy on hands like this simply to assume that you will not run into bad trump splits — and realize too late that you could have done something about it.

West’s initial double might strike some as foolhardy – put me in that group. While the contract of two clubs by West would have gone at least two down, maybe doubled, and two spades might have been a more comfortable spot for South, Levin played in three diamonds.

The defense started with three rounds of clubs. Levin ruffed in dummy and decided to tackle hearts at once, cashing the ace and king, then ruffing in hand. When the heart queen popped up from East, there was an even stronger indication that trumps were not going to split, since East had bid one no-trump, and West had made a take-out double, with five clubs and four hearts. Surely he therefore had three spades and one diamond.

Accordingly, Levin decided to continue with three rounds of spades. When everybody followed, declarer led the fourth round of hearts from dummy and discarded his spade when East, who was down to only his four trumps, ruffed with the diamond nine. In the three-card ending East was now endplayed to lead away from his trump honors. So Levin lost just one more trump trick and came home with his contract.

What makes for an exciting bridge tournament for spectators? The 1997 Cap Gemini event, at The Hotel Des Indes in The Hague, certainly qualified. The field of 16 pairs included an enviable array of talent; eight of the 16 pairs had reached the final stages of the recent world Championships in Rhodes. All the hands this week are from the 1997 and 1998 tournaments.

The format of the event over three days was 15 head to head matches in a round-robin format. While the field was bunched at the end of the second day, the last day of the tournament was dominated by Gabriel Chagas and Marcelo Branco, who won their last three matches conclusively to finish up comfortable winners at the end. They demonstrated that even when their opponents stayed cautiously low against them, it was still possible to bring a little sorcery to bear against them.

This is not an easy hand on which to stay out of trouble; five out of the eight pairs bid to a small slam which is about 40%. But Enri Leufkens and Berry Westra managed to stop at the five level, and Branco led a club to Chagas’s ace. Gabriel immediately returned the heart jack! Can you blame declarer for rising with the ace? After all, he was safe against anything but 3-0 trump, and the threat of the heart ruff was sufficiently high, he thought, to make this the right play. He will know better next time.

In today’s deal from a team game, both declarers reached four spades and received a trump lead.

At one table South decided to play for club ruffs. He won the first trick with the jack from dummy, and played a club to his queen. West returned a second trump after winning the club ace, East pitching the diamond two. South won in hand and ruffed a club, then had to decide how to return to hand.

Believing his opponents’ signals, he crossed to the diamond ace, then ruffed his last club, and now carefully played ace and a second heart. Had he played a diamond first, West would have won his king and led a heart, and could not then have been denied a diamond ruff. As it was, South could subsequently ruff a heart high to hand and draw the last trump, for 10 tricks.

South was optimistic about his chances of a swing, but in the other room declarer won the first spade in hand and ducked a heart. East won to play a diamond, and declarer finessed unsuccessfully. That let West play a second trump. South won the spade in hand to play the heart ace and ruff a heart high, then used the trump entry to dummy to ruff out hearts. He could later ruff one club loser in dummy and pitch one on the fifth heart, to score six trump tricks, two hearts, and two diamonds.

If defenders had won the diamond king to play back a club instead, South could have ruffed two clubs in dummy to come to 10 tricks.

Today’s deal is very satisfying, in that it illustrates the benefits of Bobby Fischer’s line about strategy at chess. When you find a good line, look for a better one. In today’s deal there was a decent and straightforward line, and a less obvious and better one. Fittingly, the cards rewarded the better play.

When the deal came up, both tables in a team game played in six spades. West had been dealt an apparently attractive top heart lead, though in retrospect he would have done better to lead clubs.

The auction having shown there was no future in hearts, both Wests shifted to clubs at trick two. One declarer drew trump and took the diamond finesse, and his 50 percent line did not come home.

In the other room South won the club king, and ruffed a heart to hand. Now he played the spade ace and a spade to the queen, relieved to see the break would allow him to take a second heart ruff. (Had spades not broken, he would have drawn trump and reverted to the diamond finesse.)

Now it was crucial to go back to dummy with a club (to stop anyone discarding from a doubleton) for the third heart ruff. South could next lead a diamond to the ace, draw the last trump with the spade jack, discarding his diamond loser, and claim the rest.

He had taken three trumps in dummy, three ruffs in hand, two diamonds and four clubs – a perfect example of a dummy reversal, in which the short hand draws trump.

Eighty years ago the Culbertson organization was the dominant one in bridge, and because it published the Bridge World it would frequently distribute deals played by Eli or his wife Josephine. However, they miscalculated when they complimented Josephine Culbertson for her play on this hand.

The auction posed South a real problem at her second turn; it might easily have been right to get partner to declare no-trump, but South bit the bullet and opted for the nine-trick game her way up.

Against three no-trump West obediently led his partner’s suit. Josephine Culbertson reportedly called for dummy’s jack and ducked East’s spade king. Now the defenders could lead a second spade, but West had no spade to play when in with the diamond king.

No mention was made of the fact that East had missed the correct defense of ducking the first round of spades. Now when West takes the diamond king and plays back a spade, declarer is toast.

Equally, it may be slightly less obvious, but declarer should have played low from dummy and from hand on the first spade — relying on split diamond honors. Then, no defense beats three no-trump. This idea of ducking the first spade applies equally well if the same contract is reached by North on either a low spade lead to the eight, or the 10 passed round to North. Ducking works equally well in this case too – but is no easier to spot.

In today’s deal North tries for a grand slam but signs off in six hearts when South cannot bid more than six diamonds over the five no-trump enquiry. (South would have done more with the diamond queen instead of the jack).

When West leads the club jack, South wins the ace and takes one top diamond. If no large diamond appears on his right or left, declarer might well simply draw all the trumps and play a second diamond to the jack. This line would succeed unless East had begun with a singleton diamond.

However, when the diamond 10 appears from East, South decides to take it at face value. He draws two rounds of trump ending in dummy, cashes two spades to pitch his club loser, then leads a diamond toward his own hand, while leaving one trump outstanding.

If East discards on the second diamond, South will win with the king, and give up a diamond. This leaves him in position to ruff a fourth diamond with dummy’s high trump.

However, since nothing can be gained by discarding, East ruffs the second round of diamonds and plays back a spade. South trumps, and can cash the diamond king, then ruff a diamond for his contract.

As an aside, maybe West could persuade you to go wrong if he started life with Q-10-9-3 by dropping the 10 on the first round? You might then draw all the trump before playing a second diamond, and be left with two diamond losers.

Most US experts play two over one as game forcing. But in competitive auctions two over one at the two level should not be forcing to game. It should show values but does not guarantee a rebid – anything that sounds non-forcing thereafter should be non-forcing.

Thus in today’s auction North’s raise to three hearts could be passed. South might well bid three no-trump over three hearts, (though it isn’t clear which game is best – it depends on who has the diamond ace).

Against four hearts West leads a top spade, and South has to guess whether to win or duck. He does well to hold up, to cut the defenders’ communications. If West continues spades, declarer wins, and lead a diamond to dummy’s king and comes to 10 tricks relatively easily.

But West does better to shift to a club at trick two, attacking declarer’s late entry for the diamonds. Declarer wins in hand and leads a diamond to the king, ducked by East. Now declarer draws two rounds of trump with the king and ace and leads a diamond to the 10 and jack. Back comes a second club, and declarer must win in dummy and lead a third diamond, subsequently using dummy’s last trump as the entry for the diamonds.

If East plays back a spade not a club after winning the diamond jack, declarer takes this in hand and must draw the last trump – if he plays the third diamond before doing so, West ruffs his partner’s winner to cash a spade for down one.

One of the most difficult and controversial areas of bridge is how to signal in a suit contract at trick one when an honor is led that will hold the trick, while dummy puts down a singleton.

There are two schools of thought: for what it is worth, I am closer to the first position, but the second is more popular. The first says “Signal attitude in the usual fashion if continuation is possibly correct. Only if continuation makes no sense do you use suit preference, low for the lower possible suit, high for the higher.”

The second more mainstream school suggests that everything is about suit preference when there are two possible suits to shift to. But if there is only one possible shift, encouraging the opening lead says don’t shift to the obvious suit.

In today’s deal West leads the heart king against four spades, and the singleton in dummy should affect what East’s signals ought to mean.

Here he should play the heart three, suggesting a high honor in clubs – clearly the ace from West’s point of view. So West shifts to the club four and the defense takes the next three tricks with the club ace, jack and king.

By contrast if East had the diamonds under control and no club honor he would follow with a high heart at trick one, and West could exit in diamonds. That would allow the defenders to collect whatever winners they are entitled to in due course.