Last month we looked at some deals that had cropped up in the early stages of the world championships in Bali in September 2013. This week's deals all occurred toward the end of the championships.

The first deal exemplifies the concept that defensive signaling cannot be reduced to a simple question of attitude — whether you like or do not like partner’s lead. A thoughtful defender will signal by reference to the whole hand and what partner is likely to switch to if given the chance.

Today’s deal comes from the last qualifying match of the Senior round-robin with Netherlands needing a big win to qualify, which they duly managed to do. This board helped their cause.

In one room, where Bep Vriend was declarer, West led a top diamond against four hearts, and East contributed the jack, suggesting a sequence but denying the queen. West naturally switched to a heart, and now the contract came home. Vriend won the queen, cashed the ace and queen of trumps and pitched a diamond from dummy on the third heart. West’s defense was unsuccessful but well-reasoned, since if East had the heart king rather than the jack, this is exactly how he would have defended, and the heart shift would have been mandatory.

In the other room, Chris Niemeijer led a high diamond as well, and when Louk Verhees Senior signaled encouragement, West continued diamonds. Now four hearts had to go one down, losing one further trick in each black suit.

One of the top players in England is David Gold, for many years director of teaching at St John's Wood Bridge Club. Today's deal shows him in top form on a deal from a home international match against Wales.

West’s two-no-trump opening showed both minors and made it difficult for the English pair to reach four spades, but the bidding was more than helpful in the play.

West led the club king, followed by the ace, East showing three cards in the suit. West then switched to the spade five, and declarer went up with dummy’s ace, cashed the diamond ace and king, discarding spades, then ruffed a diamond to hand. Now he ruffed a club and ruffed a diamond, East discarding a spade.

He next crossed to the heart ace and played dummy’s last diamond. To prevent declarer from scoring another small ruff (which would have given him three plain winners and seven trump tricks), East ruffed in with the heart jack. Declarer overruffed with the queen, and had to decide what West’s last two cards were. It seems to me that he played the odds when he exited with a spade.

When West followed suit, Gold knew that West was marked with precisely two spades and five cards in each minor, thus only one heart, which he had produced under dummy’s ace. Accordingly, in the two-card ending, with declarer holding the K-8 of trumps, when East led back a low heart from his 9-7, Gold could be completely confident in taking the finesse.

The hallmark of a well-constructed problem is that it resembles the sort of deal you face in real life. If you were to look at today's deal and remark with raised eyebrows, that the blockage in the heart suit and the lack of entries to dummy in the trump suit seem rather artificial, I would be hard-pressed to argue with you. But that is not the point. Having reached six spades, and having found dummy with a tantalizing collection of goodies that appear to be just out of reach, how are you going to make best use of its assets?

Let’s assume you win the diamond lead and play the trump ace, West showing out and discarding a diamond. If West holds the club king, you can draw the last trump, cash the heart ace, and play a diamond, forcing West to give you an entry to dummy with a club, heart, or diamond.

However, East is surely the favorite to hold the club king because of the theory of Vacant Spaces, which tells you that West has six cards outside of diamonds and spades, while East has 10 such spaces.

If you believe, as I do, that West would be equally likely to open a three-diamond pre-empt with or without the club king, then the way home from here is to cash the heart ace and exit with the trump five. As the cards lie, East is forced to bring dummy back to life and allow you to make 12 tricks.

At one table in a team game West elected to lead a low diamond against three no-trump. East's eight forced the jack, and declarer now guessed to play on spades by leading low to the nine. East won the trick to return a diamond, and declarer took the trick, then ran off the spades while discarding a diamond and a heart from hand as East pitched a club. When he led a heart from dummy toward his hand, East ducked. Declarer took his heart jack and ace and his diamond winner, and East was then thrown in with a heart to give declarer his ninth trick in clubs.

Since no lead appeared to give the defenders a sure set, East was philosophical about the whole thing. However, when they came to score up, his teammates announced ‘Lose 13 IMPs’.

When East wondered whether the swing had been the result of a superior choice of opening lead, South confirmed that West had led a fourth highest spade three. South had put in the nine -and East had ducked! Declarer led a heart to his jack, then played ace and another heart, and East won his queen to shift to the diamond nine. South went up with the ace, cleared the hearts, then took the next diamond with the king and cashed his long heart. East nonchalantly discarded his small spade, so can you really blame declarer for playing a spade to the jack now?

East won his queen, and played yet another diamond, and the defenders had six tricks.

In this deal from a recent Gold Coast tournament in Australia, declarer observed that the opposnents do not always defend correctly; but it is up to you to make them pay. Michael Prescott was South, on an auction in which he sensibly came in over one no-trump, assuming that either he or his opponents would be very close to making their contract. In general one wants to respond to a takeout double if one can.

Equally, North should not have invited game by raising two hearts to three, thus risking giving up the plus score. One might compete to three hearts over three clubs, but a very different sort of calculation would be involved.

Against Prescott’s delicate contract, West led a top club and shifted to a top spade instead of playing a heart. Prescott ducked, won the next spade to ruff a spade, then trumped a club in dummy. Next, he played the fourth spade and pitched a diamond from hand, at which point West gave declarer his chance when he discarded a club rather than a diamond. East exited with a third club, and Prescott ruffed in dummy, then played the top diamonds and ruffed a diamond.

By now Prescott was fairly sure that West, who had a balanced hand, would have opened a strong no-trump with the heart king. So he led his last club and pitched dummy’s diamond when West produced the king. Success! East was forced to ruff his partner’s winner, then lead away from the heart king. Contract made.

The line between looking foolish and being a genius is a fine one. Today’s deal comes from the Spring Foursomes, where South decided to take what she knew would be a relatively cheap sacrifice. Fortunately for her, North’s values turned out to be extremely useful. West led a top diamond, on which East played the queen. Now what should West do? switch to a club? or try to cash a second top diamond?

Influenced no doubt by East’s double, West decided his partner had a singleton and played a second top diamond. Declarer ruffed, drew trump, then played a heart to dummy’s king, followed by a second heart. When West’s ace came tumbling down, she had a parking place for her club loser. Yes, maybe it would have been right for West to shift to the club queen at trick two — since unless declarer had both the king and jack of clubs, this would probably not let the contract through.

In the other room North did double five diamonds, and led a top heart. Now, although five diamonds by West appears to have three losers, the fact that North was void in spades meant there was plenty of time for declarer to establish a club or heart trick for a spade discard. Even if South had gone down in five spades doubled, she would still have gained a bushel of IMPs. As it was, our featured North-South pair had a double game-swing.

On the lead of the diamond queen against three no-trump, South correctly assumed this would assure his side of three tricks in the suit. A moment's less euphoria and a little more thought would have brought his contact home.

But without giving the matter enough thought, South made the play that most of us would have made when he won West’s lead of the diamond queen with the ace, removing his only sure entry to his hand.

He continued with a low heart from hand, West playing the queen, and dummy’s ace winning. Next, declarer unblocked the spade ace and king and followed with the heart jack from dummy, hoping to create an entry to his hand with the 10 — but West thoughtfully held off. Declarer played another heart, and West won and exited with a diamond. South duly made three diamond tricks, but now there was no way to reach the spade queen, and the defense ended with two clubs, two diamonds and a heart trick.

As West was known to hold all the high cards, South should have won the opening lead with dummy’s diamond king, cashed the two top spades, then led a low heart to the 10. If West ducks this, declarer can now cash the spade queen, then continue playing on hearts. Should West take the heart, he can do no better than exit with one. Now declarer takes the heart winners, pitching a spade from hand, and runs the club jack, forcing West to give declarer a trick and an entry.

At the table South would doubtless have taken the simple but unsuccessful line in four hearts of covering the heart 10 with the jack, then playing on trumps, but West's double alerted him to the danger of bad breaks. He played low from dummy at the first trick and ruffed the lead in hand with the spade four.

When he played the spade seven to the king, he received the bad if not entirely unexpected news. He shifted his attention to clubs now, and had West ducked, declarer would have reverted to drawing all the trumps, (unblocking dummy’s clubs if East lets a club go) and would then have gone back to clubs.

West actually won the club ace and played the heart eight through dummy. Thanks to South’s play to the first trick, he was still in control. He put up the jack from dummy, and when East played the queen, declarer discarded a diamond loser.

He could win the diamond return with the ace, cash a club (preserving the club 10-9 in hand), then run the trumps, discarding dummy’s remaining club honor on one of the trump winners, and conceding trick 13 to the opponents.

It looks like the natural play, but if declarer puts up the heart jack at trick one, then the defense can succeed — since whatever declarer does, West can play hearts through him sufficiently often to force him twice in hearts.