All this week’s deals come from the late lamented Macallan Invitation teams tournament. 16 of the world’s strongest pairs gathered annually in London to take on one another – and may the best man or woman win!

Early on in the second day Nick Nickell ran into this challenge – and was up to the task. It might have been an easier task had the deal cropped up in a textbook, but real life often imitates art.

Against five diamonds, Nickell received the lead of the spade king. He carefully ruffed in dummy, and led a diamond to his queen; then he abandoned trump, and played off three rounds of clubs. Whether or not the third round of clubs was ruffed, he had saved a tempo, to ensure that he could discard his heart loser on the fourth round of clubs. Today, the lie of the clubs meant he could have continued to play on trump and survived, but his caution would have paid off if East had been 4-4-3-2 instead.

George Mittelman as West did not give his opponents the opportunity to make a textbook play. He was faced with a very different auction after his partner had passed in third seat. He overcalled two spades and heard his LHO jump to four spades, showing shortness and agreeing diamonds. So against five diamonds he led a heart.

Although it is possible to succeed double dummy after this start by following the same line as Nickell did, declarer simply played for trumps to break, and went one down when they did not.

All this week’s deals come from the Macallan tournament in London 20 years ago. Underleading an ace on opening lead is not normally a play that is indicated by the bidding. But the better the player, the more often they are prepared to think outside the box. Even so, it is very unusual to find this play made by more than one expert, but this was the exception to the rule.

The North-South pairs bid this hand to game of course; of the three possible games, three no-trump is the best, and heavy favorite to succeed. But only one pair managed to get there. While four spades (attempted after North opened one spade and was obliged to rebid two spades) was fortunate to come home, four hearts has little chance of success after a trump lead, on the lie of the cards today.

However, four of the five defenders on lead to that contract tried a low diamond, and all the declarers misguessed of course. Omar Sharif was able to exploit his lead, when his partner Zia won the diamond queen and accurately shifted to a trump. Declarer won in dummy and played a club; now he could not get out for less than two down.

Where Nicola Smith was declarer she was able to recover after the same start. She took the heart switch in dummy and ran dummy’s diamond nine, discarding a club from hand. She could win the next trump in dummy and ruff out the diamonds, draw trump, and get back to the table with the spade king to run the diamonds.

At the 1996 Macallan tournament in London Fred Gitelman and George Mittelman lost their first three matches, but then produced an excellent run which brought them as high as second place. They demonstrated a subtle point in signaling, as well as great partnership trust in defense here, against me.

Bob Hamman and I had done well in the auction to steal the contract in two hearts after Hamman had made our systemic opening with the South hand of one heart.

If East-West can find their way into the auction they can make at least three clubs, but it was hard (though perhaps not impossible) for West to balance with an unusual two no-trump call once the opponents had come to rest in two hearts.

It seems as if the defense can only get three trump tricks and their two club winners, but Mittelman led a spade, and when Hamman won this in dummy to play a trump, Gitelman took his king and played back his lowest spade for Mittelman to ruff. The combination of suit preference signals in trumps and clubs meant that George could confidently underlead his club ace and obtain a second spade ruff for one down.

The point about the play in trumps was that West knew his partner had the ace and king of hearts and had chosen to win with his lower honor. The reverse inference might not have been available had East won the first trump with the ace – he might not have had the king, and thus a choice of cards to play.

All the deals this week were played in the Macallan tournament in London 20 years ago. This was an invitation event, made up of 16 of the top pairs in the world, over the course of three days.

I was delighted to be able to participate in the event with Bob Hamman, along with the other members of the team that had won the 1995 world championships in Beijing. That included Richard Freeman and Nick Nickell, who were playing in their first Macallan, and they naturally took a little time to acclimatize. However, they soon found their stride, and on the following hand demonstrated an elegant route to success on defense against the par contract.

Against three clubs Freeman led the diamond king; Nickell overtook this and returned a second diamond, allowing Freeman to play a third round of the suit. The best declarer Alfredo Versace could do was to ruff high in dummy. At this point he cashed two hearts, to throw away his last diamond. Then he crossed to the spade ace and led a trump. Freeman hopped up with the king and played a fourth round of diamonds, promoting his partner’s club 10 for the fifth defensive trick.

Richard Freeman, who died a decade ago, was one of the more interesting and eccentric members of the bridge community. He had been a Quiz Kid in his youth, and despite early promise as a player in his teens, he gave up bridge to become a tournament director. When he resumed playing the game, he became a champion.

Nicola Smith and Pat Davies of the UK won several European and World titles together. When they competed in the Macallan 1996 tournament they finished in the top half of the field, while losing narrowly to the eventual winners, Jeff Meckstroth and Eric Rodwell. Had Davies solved her problem as declarer here, they would have won the match comfortably.

Against three no-trump Rodwell obediently led the heart 10, which was covered by the queen, king and ace. Pat Davies then took three diamond winners, and played a spade to the jack and queen, after which a second heart back sealed her fate. In fact after she had won the first trick, there was an unlikely winning line. She could have succeeded had she played back a second heart at once, but this line would not have been a success against an original 6-1 heart break.

However, a significantly better line would have been to cover the heart 10 at trick one, but to duck the heart king. With the defenders’ communications in hearts cut, the best they can do is to shift to clubs. Now your intermediates are strong enough to withstand the attack. You can utilize your two entries to dummy to play a spade to the king and subsequently to repeat the heart finesse.

The following year Davies and Smith finished second in the Macallan (one place ahead of Sabine Auken and Daniela von Arnim), these results perhaps representing two of the best performances by women in an open event in the last 50 years.

In today’s deal when East opened two spades, some Souths might have doubled, planning to give partner a chance to show values, and if not, to play three no-trump. That would be sensible, but at the table our hero jumped directly to three notrump, to end the auction. Since dummy was not without its features, the play in three no-trump would have been very straightforward on a spade lead. However, West hit on a fourth-highest heart three, and that gave declarer real problems, since he could not reach dummy except in the diamond suit, which would need the diamond king to be onside. Otherwise, if the heart honors were wrongly placed, East would surely be able to win the diamond and play a heart through declarer.

However declarer found a solution, based on the fact that spades were known to be 6-2. He won the heart lead on table, finessed the spade queen, cashed the top clubs and the spade ace, then exited with the heart king. West could cash out the hearts, but was then endplayed to lead diamonds, after which dummy was high.

The first time I looked at the hand I thought that if South had exited from hand at trick seven with a low heart, West might have won with the ace and successfully exited with a low heart. But that would have gifted South an eighth trick; to make a ninth, he would then have had to endplay East with a spade, to force him eventually to lead diamonds round to dummy.

In today’s deal a penitent correspondent indicated what a neat line of play they had found – but only after going down at the table, then burning the midnight oil to discover their mistake.

Had North simply raised two spades to three (the value bid), South would of course have accepted. West led a top club against four spades and, unwilling to jeopardize his sure trump trick, continued with two more rounds of clubs, forcing dummy to ruff. An early trump or heart play would of course have been fatal. But now South cashed the spade queen – with East’s 10 suggesting there might be breakers ahead. That left declarer the decision of how to come to his hand to dispose of the outstanding trumps.

It seemed normal to take dummy’s diamond ace and king, then to re-enter hand with a diamond ruff. Nice try, but no cigar: West over-ruffed, and exited with a heart. With the lead locked in dummy, it was impossible to avoid promoting a second trump trick for West, which led to the contract’s defeat.

So: what was declarer’s remedy? South should simply have cashed both red ace-kings at once, first in diamonds, the shorter suit, then hearts, leaving himself with nothing but trumps in hand. Now, when he ruffs a diamond and is over-ruffed, he will be able to win whatever West leads next in his own hand, to complete drawing trump.

Even if West ruffs an early red-suit winner, declarer should still be able to cross to hand safely in the other red suit.

South might consider opening two clubs here – and if you were playing strong twos, this hand would be ideal for one. Still, whatever route South follows, a strong heart raise from North will surely see South drive to the heart slam.

After the lead of the spade jack South must make the key play at the first trick, and it might be one that would not occur even to an expert – until too late.

The slam appears to hinge on the club finesse. If it succeeds, so will the slam. But what if it should fail? All would be well if East could be persuaded to play back a spade. Can anything be done to persuade East to return a spade in this situation?

The answer to this question points you to the key play at trick one. You must put up the spade queen from the dummy, hoping East will cover with the king. Now when you win the spade ace it is no longer clearly a singleton.

Next take the club finesse, hoping that if it loses, East will be convinced by your earlier play into returning a spade. If he does, you will claim the rest, and East will feel like a fool; but you will get the credit.

Two further issues: do not draw trump before finessing in clubs, or West might get in a signal for diamonds. Secondly, your use of Blackwood followed by a jump to slam does suggest an ace is missing…but these things are always easier to work out with the sight of all four hands.

Goldilocks was at home preparing the porridge for the next day when the three bears trooped in from the local duplicate.

It did not take much perspicacity on her part to note that both parents were exhibiting even more angst than usual, while Baby Bear was beaming all over his face. Consequently, Goldilocks contented herself with a neutral greeting. But 30 seconds later, Papa Bear thrust a handwritten sheet of paper under her nose.

Showing her only the North and South cards from today’s deal he asked her how she would play three no-trump on a fourthhighest spade six lead. When Goldilocks put up dummy’s queen, it held the trick. Now she tried to sneak the diamond jack past East. No luck: East won the ace and put the spade jack on the table. Cover or duck?

Goldilocks conscientiously did the math: “Spades cannot be 6-2 on the lead of the six, since I can see the five four and two – so I must cover in case the spades are blocked.”

“My partner missed it!” huffed Papa Bear. “They covered the jack against me” said Mama Bear. “So we both scored terribly on the deal.”

Meanwhile Baby Bear, who had kept silent for 30 seconds – thereby beating his own world record by 25 seconds – could not contain himself any longer. “When I was East I unblocked the spade jack at trick one, and now when I won the diamond ace and put the spade 10 on the table the contract was dead in the water”.

“Just right,” said Goldilocks approvingly.