These days your opponents will bid so many thin games that you need to defeat them whenever possible, or you will be at a severe disadvantage.

In the finals of the 2008 world championships between England and China (England sat North-South), West opened a multicolored two diamonds, showing a weak two-bid in either major, or various strong options. North passed and East pre-empted further, bidding three hearts. Three hearts was passed out and went three down, for 150 to England.

When England was East-West, the Chinese North doubled the two-diamond opening (showing a balanced 13-16), causing South to jump to three no-trump. If the Chinese made this, they would gain 10 IMPs; if they went down, England would gain at least six IMPs.

Against three no-trump, West, Heather Dhondy, led a heart won by dummy’s king. Declarer now played a club to her queen. Had West won this, the defenders could have cleared the hearts, but then declarer would have finessed a club safely into the East hand and guessed the diamond queen for her contract. West would do better to shift to spades, but declarer might still have come home.

However, Dhondy smoothly ducked the club queen, causing declarer to place the ace with East. So she next ran the club 10. East won the jack, cleared the hearts, and, in due course, West won her club ace and cashed three hearts to beat the game by two.

Life can sometimes be very tough at the bridge table. Here, from the U.S. Nationals, is an example of an elegant defense, to no avail. In Standard American, fourthsuit is game forcing by an unpassed hand, so North compromised at his second turn with a heavy raise to two spades, coming to rest in a sensible spot. Declarer won the opening lead of the spade 10 in dummy (an intelligent shot from West, who could see the threat of a crossruff looming) and played a diamond to the king and ace. Now West played the club ace and a second club, and declarer guessed well to put in the jack. East ruffed and returned a low spade, and South rose with the ace, finding yet more bad news.

Declarer next took the diamond queen and ruffed a diamond. At this point, needing four more tricks for his contract, South led the club king, which East had to ruff. Now East made another good play. It would have been easy to exit with a diamond, but South would have ruffed, drawn the last trump, then played a heart to the jack to endplay East. Foreseeing this, East got off lead with the heart queen, ensuring another two tricks for his side for one down. Not surprisingly, though, EastWest lost IMPs on the board for their performance. At the other table NorthSouth were unable to stop so low, and went quietly two down in two no-trump.

The best sort of finesse that declarer can take is one that falls under the heading "Heads I win, Tails I don't lose" because something equally good will come declarer's way in return when the defenders are on play.

In today’s deal from the Dyspeptics Club, when North jumped to five no-trump to offer a choice of slams after transferring to spades, South selected spades of course.

On West’s passive trump lead, South jauntily exclaimed that they might have missed seven. His bonhomie did not continue through the hand. After drawing trump, he cashed the top diamonds without success, then played a club to the king and finessed. On a club return he had no option but to take the losing heart finesse, and so went down.

As South was about to expound on his remarkable bad luck, North cut him short by telling him that he had rejected a near 100 percent line for the hand once trumps split. Can you see it?

After drawing trumps, play the diamond king and queen, then lead a third diamond. When East follows suit, put in the 10, not the ace. If West wins, he will have to open up clubs or hearts and give you your 12th trick. If the finesse wins, you have your choice of finesses for the overtrick. And if West has four diamonds to the jack, simply throw him in with the fourth diamond to develop an extra trick in clubs or hearts for you.

One general tenet of defense is to lead low cards from honors and high cards from poor suits. Obviously this is a good general rule, but, as always, rules are no substitute for thought. Cover up the West and South hands on today's deal and plan the defense against three no-trump before reading on.

West leads the club five. You, East, win your ace, declarer dropping the queen. What is your best chance of defeating this game?

At the table, one East switched to the heart six. Declarer played low and West’s jack won the trick. West continued with another heart to the nine, queen and king. Note that even if East had been able to gain the lead to play a third round of the suit, declarer could simply duck East’s eight, preventing the defense from taking two more tricks in the suit. As it was, declarer won the heart king and played on clubs. West ducked twice, but declarer pressed on with clubs, guaranteeing his contract. In fact, he ended up with 10 tricks.

At the other table, East, realizing that he was likely to be on lead for the one and only time that hand, tried the effect of switching to the heart queen. This worked like a dream. Declarer covered with the king and West won his ace. He then continued with the heart jack and a third round of the suit, East’s eight forcing the 10. When West gained the lead with the club king, he could cash the heart seven for one down.

The role of computers in bridge is an interesting one. At the moment their bidding is unpredictable — they are a long way away from learning the nuances of constructive or competitive auctions. Their card play is another matter. While they struggle with complex low-level contracts, they are not afraid of squeezes. (They understand how to play them, but they don't know what a squeeze is!)

Onno Eskes recently wrote a series of deals for IMP magazine in the Netherlands featuring the computer GIB — which stands for Goren in a Box or Ginsberg’s Intelligent Bridgeplayer. Here is a deal in which GIB did not disappoint.

At the table, the defense against four hearts began with two top diamonds, a diamond ruff, and a spade exit. The question was whether GIB would spot the winning line: spade ace, spade ruffed with the jack, then a heart finesse, spade ruffed with the ace, and another heart finesse.

And indeed, GIB found this line immediately. The next question was how West should have defended. There are two ways to set the contract: the first is by returning a trump after the diamond ruff; the second is to refuse the diamond ruff.

GIB proves that it can work through all aspects of the hand: It refuses to ruff the third round of diamonds, pitching a spade instead. Then it ruffs the fourth diamond to play a trump, and now declarer cannot set up and enjoy dummy’s long spades whatever he does.

West, a relative novice, had memorized the mantra "Cover an honor with an honor." And, in a more recent lesson he had learned the reasons for not covering the first of touching honors, and resolved to apply this too. But which of those pearls was he to apply when the lead came from the closed hand?

In spite of his being at the top end of his no-trump range, South, in three no-trump, could see little chance of coming to nine tricks. West led the diamond queen, and as no suit had been mentioned in the brief auction, declarer had no reason to believe this lead to be anything other than from a four-card or longer suit, so he wasn’t expecting an extra trick to materialize from diamonds. South would gladly have exchanged his spade jack for the heart nine and then would have played for split heart honors. But although he didn’t possess that luxury, it was to the heart suit that he turned as his only chance, legitimate or otherwise.

He won the diamond lead in hand, then immediately tabled the heart jack. West was in a quandary as to which of his mantras he should apply. Unfortunately for the defense, “Cover an honor with an honor” got his vote. Dummy’s ace captured the queen, and at the next trick declarer could play low toward his 10. East could make his king, but with hearts breaking 3-3, there were the extra two tricks that South sought.

In 1974, BOLS Royal Distilleries, a Dutch company, first sponsored a competition in which the world's best players were asked to write articles promoting their favorite bridge tips. Inevitably, the first crop of tips was the best, and one of the best of those was called "The Intrafinesse," submitted by the Brazilian superstar, Gabriel Chagas.

Today’s deal is an extremely challenging example of the theme. North-South had done well to avoid four spades, which would have had to go down when East turns up with the heart jack, and there is a virtually inevitable diamond loser.

Against three no-trump West found the best lead of a club. In practice declarer broached diamonds by running dummy’s queen (hoping for West to have a singleton honor or two honors doubleton), but still could manage only two diamond tricks, bringing his total to eight.

Declarer could have succeeded if he had relied on an intrafinesse, which involves first finessing against a significant missing card, then pinning it on the next round. He should start with a diamond to dummy’s six, which would have lost to East’s eight. On the next round of the suit declarer leads dummy’s diamond queen covered by the king and ace, and West’s 10 falls. Now declarer’s J-7 are poised over East’s 9-2, Declarer cashes his spades ending in dummy, then plays a diamond to his seven, thus making the three diamond tricks he needed for his contract. This line works against a doubleton eight, nine or 10 in West.

Today's problem comes from a relatively new bridge book, Patrick Jourdain's "Problem Corner," published by Master Point Press, and is typical of the author's challenging but fair tests of your skill. The author was for many years the editor of the International Bridge Press Association, the bridge journalist's bible, since it publishes news and hands from all around the world. Bridge magazines are becoming thinner and thinner these days, but you can read a selection of scintillating deals here.

If you want to set yourself a realistic test, consider how South should play four hearts here, but first cover up the East and West cards. West, who has overcalled one spade, cashes the club ace at trick one and then switches to a low diamond. What are the dangers, and how can you short-circuit them?

The danger is that West has led a singleton club ace and is planning to win the first trump and put his partner on lead with a second diamond in order to obtain his club ruff.

The only entry to the East hand rates to be in diamonds. How can you prevent him from coming on lead? The secret is that you should win the diamond lead at once and play the spade king, discarding a diamond from hand when East is unable to cover. This elegant maneuver, aptly named the Scissors Coup, cuts the defenders’ communications.

In today's deal your best slam is six diamonds, but at matchpoints it is frequently hard to locate minor suits. In six no-trump you receive the lead of the heart queen. It is worthwhile giving the right approach a fair amount of consideration; the answer might well surprise you.

Let’s look at three approaches. The fair-weather player cashes the club ace and king and tries to run the club suit for four tricks. If that line succeeds, he moves on to the next deal, oblivious to his own failings.

The more cautious player notes that if West has a singleton honor, he can cash a top card from dummy, then lead a low club toward his 10 to hold his losers in the suit to one. Nice try, but when you win the first heart with the ace and cross to a club to lead up to your hand, East would win his honor and return a heart, removing dummy’s entry to the clubs while the suit is blocked.

In summary, after the heart lead, if either defender has a singleton club honor, there is nothing that you can do, assuming best defense.

But there are precisely two singletons you can cope with — the bare club eight or nine in East. Win the heart lead and immediately advance the club 10, planning to run it if West plays low. If he covers, win and lead back to your seven, insuring four club tricks for your side.