Against six spades West led the heart 10 instead of a fatal trump, which would have removed a crucial entry to dummy. Declarer, Dick Cummings, took the heart ace, ruffed a heart, crossed back to dummy with a trump to the 10, ruffed the heart queen, and then drew trump with the ace and king. Next he led a diamond and took East's queen with the king.

Judging that the queen was a singleton, he next played the diamond 10 from his hand, giving up on possible overtricks to try to ensure his slam.

If West had taken the jack, declarer would have had 12 tricks. So West ducked, and Dick now had to judge who had the club king. He reasoned that West would have been almost certain to take the diamond jack if he did not hold the club king — he would have risked conceding an overtrick if South had that card. (Mind you, would declarer have ducked a diamond in that instance?) In any event, Cummings accurately led the club five to dummy’s ace and now reducing to a three-card ending by cashing North’s last trump.

West, who had already come down to one heart, the doubleton diamond jack, and the club king, had to throw the club king. Had he pitched his heart, he would have been endplayed with that card to lead diamonds into the tenace. But that let Cummings cash his two minor-suit winners to bring home the slam.

Have all the really good problems at bridge already been created? I think not, since when I read the daily bulletins at the national tournaments, I am constantly surprised at the variations that crop up on themes I thought I knew well.

Today’s deal contains a useful idea that I first saw in a problem by that great writer, Terence Reese. Once you have spotted the theme, I am sure you will remember the concept in the future.

Here you play four spades after a transfer auction, and the spade 10 is led. You take the spade ace and queen, finding the bad break, then unblock the spade jack as East discards a diamond and a heart. This is the best defense — East needs to keep enough small hearts as a possible force against declarer. Now it looks natural to play the heart ace, ruff a heart, then drive out the club ace. But the defenders will be able to win and cash three hearts, thanks to East’s thoughtful defense.

However, after three rounds of trump, declarer does have a counter to this potential problem. The winning play is a low heart from hand at trick four.

The best East can do is win and continue the attack on hearts. Declarer ruffs in dummy, then draws the last trump, discarding a diamond from hand. He next sets up the clubs by driving out the ace, after which his hand will be high, with the exception of a diamond loser at the end.

In today's deal, East, with a balanced hand, weak trumps, and a defensively oriented hand, took no action facing his partner's overcall. There is a time and place for aggression in the form of a pre-emptive raise; this is not it. And a pre-emptive raise to three spades on the East cards would likely see that contract doubled for -1100! (The adage "Be wary of sacrificing with a balanced hand" is apt here.)

After the lead of the spade queen, declarer needs to decide what is the best route to nine tricks in his contract of three no-trump. He knows that the defenders will clear his remaining spade stopper at their next opportunity, and he has to develop tricks from not one but two of the side-suits to get his trick total to nine.

The answer comes in the form of an avoidance play: at trick one, declarer takes the spade lead in hand. At trick two he leads out the heart three. If West takes his ace, declarer has nine tricks in the form of two spades, three hearts and the four minor-suit top winners. When the heart queen wins trick two, declarer plays on diamonds, starting with the king to protect against West’s having a singleton honor. That sees him establish two additional tricks in that suit, which is now all he needs.

In effect, declarer steals his seventh trick, then goes about establishing the two extra tricks he needs without the loss of a tempo.

You will stand a chance of identifying the technique required in today's deal only if you pay careful attention to the bidding.

Against four hearts the defenders take their top spades and a spade ruff. Now East shifts to the heart 10, and the ball is in your court. You have an almost inevitable diamond loser; in essence, you need West to have the doubleton club king, but perhaps if he has the club king and one diamond honor, he might somehow be brought under pressure on the run of the hearts. Can you see how you might put West in a bind?

The key is that West is a passed hand, so if he has both top spades and the club king, the only diamond honor he can hold is the jack.

You run three rounds of trumps ending on the table, then lead the diamond queen. East must cover with the king, and you take the trick with the ace, then run the rest of the trumps.

In the three-card ending, you hold the doubleton diamond 10 and one club, with the A-Q-J of clubs in dummy. If West has discarded the diamond jack, you cash the 10 and finesse in clubs. If not, you lead to the club jack, cash the ace, and score trick 13 with the club queen. Of course, if East had returned a club at trick two, there would have been no story (at least for you).

This sounds like a rhetorical question: which percentage line would you choose to take to make your contract — a 50-50 shot or a two-thirds chance? On today's hand, the declarer settled for the toss-up — and regretted it.

Against four hearts West made the natural lead of the spade queen, which East overtook with the king and returned a trump. Declarer acknowledged that hopes of a spade ruff in dummy for his 10th trick had all but departed and looked for an alternative. Naturally, it was to the diamond suit that he turned.

South won the trump switch and finished drawing trumps. Then he cashed the club ace, just in case the king was bare — unlikely, but a no-cost play — and turned his attention to diamonds. He entered dummy with its only entry, the diamond ace, then finessed the diamond jack. That was the 50-50 chance and it lost. The defenders were quick to cash their two spade tricks, and that meant one down.

And the two-thirds chance? At trick three, declarer does best to duck a diamond. With eight cards in a suit, the missing cards will break 3-2 just over two thirds of the time, as they do here.

The defense can do no better than cash their spade winner, then graciously concede the rest to declarer. If not, after trumps are drawn, even the second spade trick will disappear on dummy’s diamonds, giving declarer an overtrick.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the defenders cannot see each other's cards. Conversely, declarer can see partner's cards — though this benefit is shared with the defenders. On this hand, South should have appreciated that if East got on lead, a heart through him would very likely scupper the contract. Therefore, declarer needed to use whatever wiles were at his disposal to disrupt defensive communications.

West led the heart king, to the three, seven and two. The opening leader could read East’s seven as being the lowest heart in his hand; therefore, it was likely to be the bottom of three cards. If East had held a doubleton heart, he would have played his highest, unless it was the queen. And if South had held four hearts, he would surely have bid them over partner’s two-club response. So West intelligently switched to the club 10. In with the ace, East returned a heart and down went the game.

Declarer had missed his opportunity for subterfuge. If he had dropped the heart nine under West’s ace, doubt might have been created in West’s mind. With the two still out, West would not have been able to gauge the heart position accurately. East might hold Q-7-2, and the seven might be the highest card available to him to signal liking for the lead.

As a rule of thumb in similar situations, declarer should ‘signal’ as if he were a defender, If he wants the opening leader to continue the suit, he should follow with a high card.

There was a wide range of systems in use at the NEC tournament in Japan last April.

Perhaps the most exotic of the methods in play was that of Martin Reid and Peter Newell. I have slightly expurgated their sequence to make it look less unusual to an American’s eye, although the auction basically went as shown below. But whatever the peculiarities of the auction in today’s deal, it produced arguably the most spectacular declarer play of the tournament.

When David Beauchamp led out two top spades against five diamonds, Reid ruffed and led a low heart to West’s ace and East’s upside-down-count heart eight, which suggested an original odd number of cards in that suit. Back came a third spade and Reid ruffed, cashed a second heart as South completed his echo, then ruffed a heart in dummy as both opponents followed.

At this point in the deal, Reid knew from the auction that East had only three spades and he appeared to have only three hearts. Declarer cashed the club ace and, when no honor appeared from West, it seemed reasonable to play him for a doubleton. If so, East would hold three clubs. So ruffing out the clubs and playing for diamonds to be 3-2 would not work; East would be left with the long trump.

So Reid cashed the second top club, ruffed a club with the diamond eight, and when it held, was able to score a high crossruff for the last four tricks. Very nicely done.

Today's deal brought back happy memories of sitting opposite Bob Hamman, who made a play very similar to this one, with a very similar result. The difference was that the seven IMPs he won were just enough to win the International Trials for selection for our team.

There was slightly less at stake in the featured deal, since it comes from the semifinals of the NEC tournament, held in Japan last April. Both pairs played five clubs doubled from the South seat, and both Wests led three rounds of spades, trumped by dummy’s nine. At one table East overruffed dummy to play back a heart. Declarer ruffed this, crossed to the diamond king to finesse in trumps, then ruffed a diamond to hand, and eventually drew trumps to claim down one when the club king put in an appearance. Not a triumph, but not a disaster either.

However when Roy Welland and Sabine Auken were East and West, defending against five clubs doubled, Auken led three rounds of spades. Declarer ruffed the third one with the club nine, on which Welland as East pitched a diamond rather than overruff! Declarer now led a diamond to the king and a club to the eight. Welland won with his jack and played back a club, leaving declarer with an eventual diamond loser.

That led to a penalty of plus 500 and the hardest-earned seven IMPs of the event. Welland’s team went on to reach the final, but lost to a Russia-Netherlands combination.

The finals of the NEC trophy in Yokohama this time last year turned out to be one-way traffic, in favor of the combined Russia-Netherlands team. This deal was symptomatic of what happened in the match.

In one room Evgeny Gladysh was delighted when the opponents came to rest at the three-level in his best suit. He started with ace and another spade, as declarer, Sabine Auken, pitched a club. She then led a trump to the king and ace. Gladysh switched to a heart, and Auken won and played four rounds of the suit to pitch a club before playing any more trump. That allowed Sjoert Brink to ruff in from the short trump hand, and now the contract was down three for minus 150.

In the other room Andrei Gromov played in diamonds, but a level lower and two tricks better. Jacek Pszczola for Team Welland (known as Pepsi) led a heart against two diamonds. Gromov won and did not play on trumps; instead, he led a spade to the queen and ace.

Pepsi now switched to a club to the ace, and Michal Kwiecien returned a club. Gromov won the king, crossed to a top heart, then pitched his last club on the spade king. He ruffed a spade, led his third heart to dummy, then ruffed a club and got out with a low diamond. Kwiecien overtook the diamond eight with the jack and returned a diamond, but Pepsi was now endplayed to concede a diamond to Gromov’s king for eight tricks, and 6 IMPs to Russia.