In today’s deal the optimal contract is six clubs, but it is often hard to locate a 4-4 fit when the auction gets high in a hurry. After North-South had a quantitative auction, it proved impossible to find their minor-suit fit.

When West led the spade queen against the slam, declarer could see that his route to 12 tricks involved getting three tricks from the diamond suit, and to do so he needed to take three finesses in the suit. As this required three entries, declarer played the club ace and king at tricks two and three. Then he took the club jack and played a fourth club to dummy’s queen.

Next he led a diamond to his jack and West’s king. He won the spade return and crossed back to dummy by leading to the heart ace. This was the entry to dummy to run the diamond nine, and he could remain in dummy for the third diamond finesse. In the end, declarer took two spades, three hearts, three diamonds and four clubs.

As an aside, note the effect of West ducking the first diamond. Wouldn’t declarer now have considered crossing to dummy to repeat the diamond finesse? When West produced the king and diamonds broke 4-2 South would have had a cardiac arrest. (For the record, declarer could lead a low diamond from hand after the first finesse succeeds, planning a later finesse – but that might lose out if West had ducked from an original holding of king-third or king-fourth.)

Would you make a try on the South cards after your partner had raised your major-suit opening? And would it matter if you had overcalled one heart and been raised to two?

Curiously, although the diamond king has become a more useful asset when you hear an opening bid of one diamond to your right, I’m not sure I would try again after partner had only raised my overcall to two. The fact that he had not produced a cue-bid raise might suggest game is unlikely to be more than a long shot.

Today, however, your game-try leads to your reaching a slightly pushy four hearts, against which West leads the diamond queen to East’s ace. East returns the club king. Plan the play.

If you win the club ace and find the king to be a singleton, you can be sure West will later get in with the club jack and switch to a spade, through dummy’s king-jack. But duck the club king, and you guarantee your side 10 tricks: one diamond, five hearts and four clubs. That is the winning play today.

Incidentally, while a spade lead would have beaten your game outright, can you see how the defenders could still have prevailed, even after the normal lead of the diamond queen? East simply ducks the opening lead and lets West win the next diamond to find the killing shift. Should East find this defense? I think so. West cannot have five diamonds, or he would have raised pre-emptively at his first turn.

In today’s deal, our final one from last year’s European Championships, Michael Kalita of Poland was declarer in three notrump. He ducked the opening lead of the heart king, then won the next heart in hand.

Now he made his best play (in abstract) in the club suit though not the best play on the hand, when he crossed to a diamond in dummy to lead a club to the queen and a club to the 10 and jack.

Bauke Muller as East now needed to cash the club ace and play a spade, hoping declarer could no longer untangle his entries, as would be the case here. In fact Muller played the heart jack without cashing the club ace. Now declarer should have succeeded, had he pitched his club loser from hand, unblocking diamonds, and then built an additional spade winner for the ninth trick.

Notice the difference if Kalita does not cross to a diamond in dummy, but simply leads the club queen from hand at trick three. Muller can duck, and win the next club, but if he cashes the club ace then declarer will catch West sooner or later in a spade/diamond squeeze. Kalita can duck a shift to the spade king, win the next spade, then cross to a diamond winner in dummy to play off the heart and club winners, and West must succumb.

So can three no-trump be defeated? Yes, but the only lead to set the hand by force is a highly unlikely club.

When Netherlands played Poland in the European Championships last summer, the Poles snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in both rooms here. They defended four spades by North in one room on a heart lead, letting declarer pitch a club loser immediately. Next declarer cashed the top spades and gave up a club. West went in with the jack and played queen and another spade, and declarer unblocked the spade jack to win the trump in hand.

Now North needed only to take the diamond finesse to bring home her game. But she led low to the ace and was down four for -200. Better defense would have been for West to win the club at trick five and lead a heart to force dummy to ruff. Now declarer would have stood no chance.

In our featured room the Dutch South, Meike Wortel, played five diamonds doubled. Had West led either of her side’s suits she would have defeated the game, but she led a spade, interpreting her partner’s double of five diamonds as showing a spade void.

Wortel put up dummy’s 10, led a diamond to the jack, then cashed the ace. Next came a top spade followed by a heart to the ace and a heart ruff, a diamond to the queen and a second heart ruff.

Now she exited with a club and, after taking two tricks there, whichever defender was on lead was endplayed, East to give a ruff and discard, West to choose between that and leading into the spade tenace.

My favorite play problem from the European Championships in Croatia last year presented itself in match 10 of the Open and Women’s qualifying. Let’s say you find yourself as declarer in three no-trump after an auction where your side has bid only the red suits. You receive the lead of the spade eight (second and fourth), put up the queen, and play on diamonds. West wins and shifts smoothly to the club queen. Should you cover or duck?

In one match the Irish declarer ducked, and a club was continued. Down one. The Austrian declarer covered with the king, and this lost to the ace. Back came a low club and declarer was faced with her second guess, and she put in the eight. Both declarers sank like a stone.

The commentators believed that after the shift to the club queen, declarer should cover (this loses by force only when West has eschewed a lead from QJ9 of clubs at trick one). When the club king loses to the ace and a club comes back, declarer should perhaps employ a form of restricted choice – though one that may be applicable only against top-class defenders.

Playing the eight wins against an original holding in West of QJ7, but loses to honor-nine-seven – whether that honor is the jack or queen. So the 10 is probably the winning play both in theory and practice.

Jet Pasman and Nevena Senior were two of the other successful defenders who found the shift to the club queen.

On this deal from round seven of the European Championships in Croatia last summer, England’s David Gold demonstrated that suicide at the bridge table can be very painful indeed.

The Israeli East-West pair had saved in five diamonds doubled for down one, but England defended four hearts. West selected the club four as his opening lead, putting declarer, Alon Birman, in with a shout.

He won with the ace, crossed to the heart ace and then correctly overtook the heart jack with the king. When West discarded the diamond three, declarer continued with the heart 10, West pitching another diamond, dummy reluctantly discarding the club five.

Gold correctly ducked this trick; not an obvious play. When declarer continued with the heart eight, West pitched the diamond queen and declarer threw the spade five from dummy. Gold calmly took this and returned his remaining trump.

What could declarer spare from dummy now? The only option was a second club, and now his 10th trick had vanished. Declarer ran his three remaining club winners but now needed to establish a diamond trick. If the diamonds were 7-2 with the ace right, then the defenders could simply duck the first diamond and run the suit when in with the spade ace. If they were 8-1, Gold would have taken a diamond ruff earlier; so declarer played for his only legitimate chance when he ducked the first diamond, hoping East had the bare ace. Alas for him, that was not the case, and England had plus 100 in each room.

Roy Welland was once a regular in contention for the US International team – he lost the finals of three consecutive US team trials. But he now spends much time in Germany and in partnership with Sabine Auken he has recently made it on to the German team that qualified in Opatija last year for the 2015 Bermuda Bowl. Roy has a talent for the unorthodox in the auction, but is no mean card-player either, and he demonstrated it in today’s deal.

After a light but entirely understandable response of one heart to his partner’s one diamond opening bid, Welland found himself in four hearts on a top club lead. He won, played the spade king to the ace, won the low heart return in dummy and played the diamond ace and guessed well when he led a diamond to the eight. He had correctly assumed that West would not be able to bring himself to duck the king. East won the diamond 10 and exited with the club king. Welland ruffed in dummy, then played the diamond queen, covered by the king and ruffed, to bring down the jack.

He next led a trump to dummy, and, trusting the opponents’ count card in spades, he reconstructed the West hand to have a 3=2=3=5 original distribution.

Accordingly, he next cashed the diamond nine to pitch his spade, ruffed a spade to hand, and ruffed a club to dummy. To prevent this trick representing declarer’s 10th winner, East had to overruff, but he then had to lead a spade into dummy’s tenace, to concede the contract.

Since the European Open Championships start next week in Tromso, we shall be looking at some entertaining deals from last year’s European Championships, in Croatia.

The problem in today’s auction came when declarer, Tihana Brkljacic, thought the rebid of three diamonds was game-forcing, while North intended it as invitational. There were a number of missed opportunities for the defense in defending three no-trump, but the trick is to take advantage of your opponents’ errors.

West led the spade queen, so declarer won her king and ran the spade nine round to East’s 10. A club switch would have put paid to declarer’s chances but, East could hardly be blamed for switching to ace and another heart, to the queen and king.

West should have ducked the second heart, but having won her heart king, she realized that she could not afford to continue the suit. Rightly assuming that declarer held the diamond king for her opening bid, West placed her partner with the club queen and duly switched to the club king.

South now won her club ace and crossed to the diamond ace to cash her three spade winners, discarding a diamond and two clubs from hand. Forced to come down to four cards, West was squeezed out of her remaining club, so could no longer get to her partner’s club winners. At this point declarer could lead a diamond to her king, and exit with her last diamond. That endplayed West to lead into the jack-eight of hearts at trick 12, to concede the contract.