What a difference a day makes. In the semifinals of the NEC tournament we had seen Sabine Auken and Roy Welland unable to put a foot wrong; on the next day the boot was on the other foot.

Today’s deal was just one instance of that. Their opponents even managed to locate the correct eight-card fit on what appeared to be a straight toss-up as to whether game or slam might be better — not to mention in which suit one should come to rest.

In the other room, where Rees Milner and Hemant Lall had somewhat pessimistically decided to come to rest in four hearts, they had hopes of gain when all the key suits split so badly.

However, Sjoert Brink and Mikhail Krasnosselski avoided the first hurdle when they landed in six spades, not six hearts, and overcame the second hurdle on opening lead. Either minor-suit lead takes the entry out of dummy prematurely, but you can hardly blame Sabine Auken for leading her singleton heart. Declarer won, tested trumps, then tested hearts, finding the doubly bad news. Then he went to the club ace, played the heart ace, ruffed out the hearts, cashed the last top trump from hand, then ruffed a club to dummy.

East could overruff, but then was endplayed; he had to lead diamonds back into dummy’s tenace. So the swing was 13 IMPs to Russia instead of the same number the other way.

The NEC trophy normally held in February, took place last year in April, so that the international field could then play a week later in the Yeh Bros tournament at the same venue.

In the final of the NEC event, Mikhail Krasnosselski for the winners made a very nice play here. He reached five clubs doubled, and after the lead of the heart king, he knew that diamonds rated to be 7-0.

One reasonable plan now would be to cash two rounds of clubs ending in dummy, and take the spade ace to discard a heart loser. Then he would lead a diamond to the nine, and hope the defenders could not engineer a diamond ruff. This line works today, but would fail if South were 6-4-0-3, perhaps somewhat more likely than his actual hand, given the auction. Krasnosselski found a better solution: He won the heart ace, ran five trumps, then led a diamond to the queen and ace. That forced East to win and return a diamond or spade to dummy, letting declarer discard one heart loser and then take the diamond finesse.

In the other room four spades had gone down one, when North did not raise clubs and South could not bid on to the five-level on his own, so Russia gained 10 IMPs. Credit Sjoert Brink, North, for his three-club call here; raising two-level overcalls encourages partner when he has bid with a good suit (and will teach him to have one next time if he has come in with an insufficient excuse).

The NEC tournament in Yokohama is now one of the strongest and best established invitational team events in the world. After an initial Swiss format, the top eight teams go through to a knockout phase. Today's deal (and indeed all this week's deals) comes from the later stages of last April's event.

Both Wests in our featured match led a club against three no-trump. David Bakhshi led the seven, and East won cheaply and continued the suit. Declarer won in dummy perforce (Bakhshi helpfully following with the eight to suggest spade values whereas his opposite number was not so generous). Both declarers now led a low diamond to the jack and a diamond back to the queen.

The unsuccessful defender — East — now shifted to a heart (perhaps playing partner for the spade ace and heart king) and declarer claimed 600, while Bakhshi’s partner ,David Gold, unblocked his club honor, on which his partner played his highest missing club spot, then shifted to spades for three down.

Gold’s defense was right in theory as well as in practice, but Bakhshi’s suit-preference signal at trick two had made his partner’s life far easier. The general rule is that when a defender has a choice of irrelevant small cards or when he knows that his partner knows exactly what his holding is, he should try to give his partner a suit-preference signal, as here. In virtually every deal the defenders have a chance to signal suit-preference — even if in practice they rarely do so.

By reading, and by learning from other people's mistakes, the expert can sometimes get the play right in a position he has not actually encountered before. Today's deal provides such an example, which comes from the final of the 1986 Australian Interstate Championships. Against four spades West led the heart queen, and declarer took it with dummy's ace to try to camouflage the position as best he could, while East discouraged. Now declarer came to hand, drawing just one round of trumps, then led a diamond. Put yourself in West's shoes: Would you win the diamond ace, or would you duck?

When you’ve made your decision, compare what happened at the table. West knew that his side had no tricks coming in the majors, and that he needed his partner to have the diamond jack — on the bidding there was no chance that he could hold the club king. So on the first round of diamonds West contributed the queen and dummy the king. On the diamond continuation, East rose with the jack and put the club 10 on the table. Curtains for declarer!

As you can see, if West ducks the first diamond, he can subsequently be endplayed in diamonds to lead clubs. And if he goes up with the ace, he can later be thrown in with a heart (declarer pitching a club from dummy on the third heart) to lead clubs, again after the trumps and diamonds have been stripped off.

Today's deal comes from the Arthur Loeb charity game, set up to provide funding for Lennox House in Manhattan by means of a pro-am event. At the table declarer followed the normal enough approach of going after diamonds, leaving herself with one diamond and three hearts to lose.

But how should you play four spades on the lead of the club eight? If the club finesse is wrong, then every other significant card is with West, and you are doomed. You need the club finesse and one diamond honor onside — so you will surely not find the hearts favorably located.

Curiously, you must take the practice finesse in clubs at trick one, then lead a low diamond to your jack. When West wins the trick, he can defeat the contract only by the unlikely shift to the heart king. In practice you will win the likely trump return in hand and cross to dummy’s trump nine to pass the diamond 10. Whether or not East covers, you will be able to win this diamond trick or the next in dummy, then lead the club ace while pitching a heart. Now you ruff the last club, strip off the diamonds if necessary, and exit with a low heart from hand.

With the hearts lying as they do, the defenders cannot unscramble their three winners in the suit. If West flies up with the king and exits in hearts, your queen is good. If West ducks, the heart blockage means West will eventually give you a ruff-sluff, and the heart loser goes away.

Where you have eight tricks in three no-trump, there is usually a way to find a ninth. Today's deal was well-played by Nevena Senior in the round of 16 knockout match against Singapore in the World Mind Sports Games a few years ago. Cover up the East and West hands and give it a try yourself before reading on.

Not surprisingly, the heart four was led at both tables. The Singaporean declarer did not really make much of an attempt to make her game. She won the heart king, crossed to hand with a club, and led the spade jack. When West covered with the king, she ducked, but now the defenders were not hard-pressed to know what to do next.

By contrast, Senior won the heart lead in hand and immediately played the spade jack. When West covered with the king, she won dummy’s ace and ran her club winners. West discarded a diamond easily, but on the last club had to discard a spade. Nevena now cashed the spade queen and exited with a heart. West cashed her four heart tricks, but then had to lead a diamond and it was easy for Senior to guess the position.

In the same position the player sitting West for the U.S. produced a sparkling defensive resource. On the last club he discarded down to the bare diamond king. Now when declarer cashed the spade queen and threw him in with a heart, he had a spade winner to cash.

Before falling prey to the knee-jerk reaction of taking your trump tricks when you can "before the rats get at them," stop to consider the implications.

At the table West naturally led a heart against four spades, and East cashed two of his top hearts, then continued with a third. West was quick to ruff in with the queen in front of dummy. Declarer took the diamond return on the table, and with dummy’s two trumps still intact, he was able to run the nine successfully. South continued by finessing the 10, and with the ace dropping East’s king on the third round of the suit, he was able to claim 10 tricks.

See the difference if West elects to discard on the third heart, rather than ruff. Declarer ruffs in dummy, yes, but the consequence of this is that dummy is now reduced to one trump. This means that only one trump finesse can be taken. Declarer duly takes it, and West wins with the queen and returns a diamond.

With no trumps left in dummy, and lacking the ability to reduce his trumps in hand sufficiently to effect a trump coup, South will continue with the spade ace, hoping that East had started with a doubleton spade king. But this eventuality will not come to pass, and declarer ends with just nine tricks, having to concede a second trump to the spade king.

In every major tournament there is always at least one instance of David defeating Goliath. At the Olympiad in Beijing in 2008, the giant was Italy and they were beaten 16-14 by Albania, playing international bridge for the first time. This was one of Albania's triumphs.

The Italian South found himself in three no-trump, against which West led the unbid suit, hearts. Declarer won in hand with the queen and played a heart back to dummy’s nine. He now played a diamond. East went up with the ace and continued hearts. Declarer misjudged now when he ran the heart around to dummy’s king, and played a club to his 10. When this lost to West’s jack, South was doomed.

The Albanians bid to the delicate contract of four hearts. West led a top spade and switched to a club. Declarer won in dummy and played a diamond, and East won and continued clubs. Declarer won in dummy again and played a spade. The defenders won and played a third club. When no-one ruffed this, declarer had three clubs and crossruffed seven trump tricks to make his game.

Even a trump lead would not have hurt declarer. Suppose West leads a trump at trick one. Dummy wins, plays a diamond, and East plays another trump. Declarer wins in hand, ruffs a diamond, crosses to hand with the club queen, draws the last trump, and plays a top diamond. This establishes two more winners in the suit, allowing South to make five trumps, two diamonds and four clubs.

The swing that arose in today's deal resulted from one team's aggression in both rooms. At one table South opened two no-trump with very little excuse, and North bounced to six diamonds. East closed his eyes and guessed to lead a spade, giving declarer a discard for his heart loser. But when he played the trump suit in normal fashion, he had to go down a trick.

In the other room West stretched to show his two-suiter, and got his opponents to slam the correct way up. Worse was to follow from his perspective since he had a horrible lead problem. It is rarely correct to lead an ace against six no-trump. But eventually West started with ace and another spade, which turned out to do no serious harm, declarer winning in hand as East gave count.

West’s two-suited bid had given declarer a very good idea of his general shape. He knew 10 of that player’s cards, but what was his minor-suit pattern? Declarer set out to find out more, cashing two rounds of clubs ending in dummy. When West followed suit, declarer knew 12 of West’s 13 cards, and it was now a 4-1 shot that he had a singleton small diamond rather than the bare jack. Accordingly, declarer ran the diamond 10 next. When it held, he unblocked the diamonds, crossed to the club king, and ran the diamond suit. He took tricks 12 and 13 with his heart and club winners.