In the round of 32 knock-out phase of the mixed teams at Sanya the easiest winners were Moss, who ended up winning by 100 IMPs — despite conceding an 1100 penalty on the very first deal, just to make it more interesting. This was the second deal.

Where Sylvia Moss and Michael Seamon were East-West, a quiet one heart opening by West saw their opponents collect plus 150 in three clubs. Moss’ teammate Kerri Sanborn found herself in four spades after her opponents as West bid much more aggressively. Curiously, though nobody defended four hearts doubled here, quite a few pairs were caught in three hearts when North guessed well to pass out South’s balancing take-out double.

So how should Sanborn have played four spades on repeated heart leads? It is best to ruff, cross to a top club in dummy and ruff another heart. East can do no better than pitch a diamond, so you unblock your trump honors from hand, cross to a second club in dummy, and draw a third round of trump, leaving East with the master spade and winning club. When you play a third club, East is on lead. If he cashes his master trump, you pitch diamonds from both hands, and claim the balance.

He does much better to shift to a diamond, but whether he leads a high one or low one, your diamond 10 is enough to ensure you three diamond tricks as the cards lie.

You end up scoring two ruffs and three trumps, and five tricks in the minors, one way or another.

The mixed teams event at the world championships in Sanya saw the Willenken team of the USA defeat Binkie, a combined Anglo/Australian squad. This deal turned out to be critical.

In one room the Willenken team had reached four spades by North and been treated to a friendly low club lead. Declarer had come home with 10 tricks by running the lead to his hand. He played on trumps, then, after a helpful heart switch by West, he had set up hearts for one loser, eventually taking the diamond finesse for his 10th winner.

In the other room Jane Dawson for Binkie declared the contract as South on the auction shown. West’s club opening lead did not cost a trick. Dawson won with the ace in hand and led to the diamond queen. When that held, she cashed the ace of diamonds, ruffed a diamond and cashed the club king, discarding a heart from dummy.

Declarer then ruffed a club, as West discarded a heart, and ruffed another diamond in hand before playing her fourth club. She ruffed in dummy as West discarded another heart.

In the five-card ending if declarer had now cashed the heart ace and exited with a heart, West would have been forced to ruff her partner’s winner and been trump-endplayed. But declarer misread the position by playing a low heart from dummy, and went down anyway.

Note, though, that West had missed her chance by not ruffing low on the previous club. Had she kept two hearts and three trumps in the ending, declarer would have been helpless.

Since the eastern Indian city of Chennai is currently hosting the Bermuda Bowl, we shall be considering deals from last October’s world championships in Sanya, China. Today’s exhibit from the Rosenblum semifinal between Monaco and Diamond nearly rescued the event for the latter.

In one room Helness and Helgemo for Monaco had stopped in three diamonds, for a comfortable 10 tricks, after Helness, North, had opened the bidding. Curiously, South had bid two no-trump in the face of West’s spade bid. Had North raised to three no-trump, we would have had a chance to see if West would have led the spade ace. Of course declarer would still have had to negotiate the diamonds after any other lead.

In the other room Brink and Drijver for the Diamond team pursued the sensible policy of ensuring that with an opening bid facing an opening bid, they would at least get to game.

West led the club queen against five diamonds. Declarer won in dummy and played a spade to the king and ace. West returned the spade queen, and declarer ruffed, cashed the club king, then ruffed a club with the diamond jack. He next ruffed a spade, ruffed a club with the diamond king, played a diamond to the 10, cashed the diamond ace, and exited with a diamond.

East had to win his diamond queen, and had no choice now but to lead into declarer’s heart tenace, and Drijver could not guess wrong. That was 11 tricks and a worthy gain of 7 IMPs for Diamond.

Today’s deal is from the women’s world championships in Sanya, China last October. It is from the match between the Moss team of the USA, against Singapore. Disa Eythorsdottir, originally from Iceland, but now living in Huntsville, Alabama, was declarer.

After her partner Lynn Deas had doubled twice, Disa assumed correctly that she had sufficient extra values for three no-trump to have decent play. So she leaped directly to the contract she thought she could make.

Disa won the lead of the heart five in hand with the queen, and led a diamond to the king, a club to the king and a diamond to the queen. With two diamond tricks in the bag she now required just four club tricks, so she thoughtfully led a low club from the board to make full use of her intermediates. Had East ducked, declarer would have reverted to diamonds, but East accurately rose with the club queen, and the 5-1 split meant one of South’s contemplated nine tricks had vanished.

East now reverted to hearts. Disa ducked, pitching a club from dummy, (necessary, since if she had discarded a diamond, West would have cashed the diamond ace and exited in spades). Disa won the next heart, discarding a diamond, and now led a spade to the 10.

When East won her spade king, she had to lead a club; so Disa cashed both clubs and forced West to let go both her hearts. Now a diamond exit endplayed West to lead spades at trick 12, and declarer finessed for her ninth trick.

One of my regular correspondents is Tim Bourke, winner with Justin Corfield of “The Art of Declarer Play”, bridge book of the year in 2014. Tim never ceases to impress me with his fertile imagination. Here West leads the spade queen against five clubs; plan the play.

While the diamond ace looks likely to be offside, a simple line would be to play on diamonds, hoping for the diamond queen to be with East; but you can do better. Declarer wins the spade lead in dummy, ruffs a heart, then takes the next six tricks by crossruffing the majors, ruffing the remaining hearts high in hand as West pitches a diamond on the last.

By this point, West, whose bidding has suggested close to invitational values, needs the diamond queen to justify his actions.

Accordingly, in the five-card ending declarer crosses to dummy in trumps and leads the last heart from dummy, throwing the diamond five as East wins his king. If West discards a diamond, East’s diamond ace takes trick 11 but the diamond king and club ace represent the last two tricks. If West ruffs his partner’s winner and leads a diamond, then playing low is obvious. This forces the ace, and declarer claims the rest.

If West had turned up with better hearts earlier, so that East appeared to have both top diamonds, then instead of ruffing out the hearts, declarer would need to switch tack by leading a diamond from dummy and playing to set up a diamond.

In today’s deal when North set up a game-forcing auction and raised to three spades, South got slightly carried away. With no losers in the red suits, South checked on keycards and ended the auction in six spades when he discovered they were missing only one.

West led the diamond 10, and with dummy having so little in the way of extras, declarer could predict an almost certain club loser. So it seemed that the chances boiled down to the favorable trump division. His hopes were raised when a finesse of the queen won, but dashed when East showed out on the second round. There was no squeeze and South lost a club as well as a trump.

Declarer should have reasoned that, if he had to lose a trump trick, it might be possible that when an opponent eventually won with the king he would be forced to lead away from the club king. At trick two South should cash the heart ace; then he finesses in trumps, ruffs a heart and crosses to the spade ace to reveal the sure trump loser. Next he ruffs another heart and cashes his remaining top diamonds before putting West in with his trump winner. Now, with no safe exit cards left, West is reduced to leading a club. The chances of success for this line, once West turns up with three trumps, depend on West having precisely three hearts and no more than three diamonds. Additionally, if the heart king-queen fell early, dummy would offer a discard for the club loser.

In today’s deal declarer appears to have an embarrassment of aces and kings, but the route home in three no-trump is less straightforward than it might initially appear. And the play would be considerably more complicated at pairs, where overtricks are, if not worth their weight in gold, certainly selling at a premium.

Against the no-trump game West leads a top spade, and since South does not want to see the defenders shifting to clubs, he wins the first trick and ducks a diamond to East.

That player wins and presses on with spades, and when South ducks, West plays a third spade. Now declarer knows that spades are 4-3, he can duck the next diamond to protect himself against the admittedly unlikely 4-1 diamond break. Today that care is justified! At matchpoint pairs it is far from clear that you would give up on the overtricks; it is far more likely that diamonds break (or are long in the hand with short spades) than that today’s distribution needs to be protected against. At teams or rubber, making the contract is paramount and one can let the overtricks look after themselves.

If spades had turned out to be 5-2, declarer would win the third spade and lead a low diamond towards dummy. West would follow suit, and declarer would have to rely on diamonds breaking, since he could not afford to duck the diamond and see West win the trick and cash out. When the diamonds do not break, he would have no realistic chance of success.

In today’s deal you are faced with a dilemma that often occurs at pairs: should you go active or passive on defense? There are just enough clues here to work out the answer – see if you can do so.

After a straightforward auction in which North produced a nonforcing raise and South suggested either a little extra, or maybe just a dose of optimism, partner leads the spade 10 to your queen. You then cash the ace, declarer following suit with the jack and partner playing the seven. What now?

Ignore declarer’s false-card in spades. Partner’s lead of the 10 guarantees shortness; so declarer has three spades and at least five hearts. For the defense to succeed, you need to come to a trick in each minor. The minimum that you need to set the contract is for your partner to hold at least two of the missing high honors in clubs and diamonds – try it for yourself and you will see that declarer always has 10 tricks if he has the club ace or king, together with the diamond king.

Assuming that partner would have led a club if he held the ace-king, you must switch to a diamond, hoping partner has both the diamond king and club ace. If partner has a top trump and the club king, a club shift may be necessary – less likely I think. If you exit passively with a third spade or a club, declarer will build dummy’s clubs into a discard for his diamond loser, and will come to six hearts, a ruff, and three tricks in the minors.

This deal emphasizes that there is a time and a place for rules at bridge, but there is no substitute for using your intelligence at the table. Relying too much on bridge maxims like ‘third-hand high’ can be fatal.

When this deal came up in a pairs tournament, the standard auction was for South to play three no-trump after an uninformative auction. After a diamond lead by West, declarer could win in hand and play a club. When East won the trick, unless his partnership were playing the Smith Echo so that West could strongly suggest to East that he switch the attack, it was hard for East to find the spade shift.

But the hand also proved a problem when West led a spade to the first trick, South inserting the nine from dummy. After the lead of the spade six, East can tell from the bidding his partner does not have both top spades. Declarer has opened a strong notrump, while East and South have 20 HCP between them. So West cannot have more than 5 HCP.

Also from the rule of 11, South has at most one card higher than the spade six. If East plays the spade queen to trick one, declarer makes three no-trump easily, since the spade jack in dummy represents a second spade stopper.

But if East plays low, the defense will take five tricks whenever West has the spade ace. And note that if the ace and king were the other way round, declarer would have two spade tricks whatever the defenders did.