On an unopposed sequence Gaylor Kasle declared six hearts as South. (It might be better not to ask why, but it involved North's missorting his hand). He received the spade queen lead, and he won the king and drew four rounds of trump,while East pitched a couple of diamonds and a couple of spades.

Now the simple analysis might be to assume that since West has four hearts and East none, West (who must hold the club king to give you a chance) is more likely to have the doubleton king than four clubs to the K-10.

However, Kasle saw there was no need to commit himself at once. He carefully found out more about the hand by playing ace and a second diamond toward the queen. East took his king and declarer saw the spade nine discarded on his left, after some thought.

Now the odds in clubs had changed dramatically. Since his LHO had started with five red cards and his RHO with six, the odds favored the double finesse in clubs rather than playing for the doubleton king onside — and that is what Kasle did, by running the club jack. When it was covered, he crossed back to hand to repeat the club finesse against the 10 to bring home the contract.

In this deal from the Cavendish pairs I thought Geoff Hampson made a nice play to disguise his intentions although the defense certainly missed a chance or two. Having opened a precision one diamond with the South cards, Hampson was driven to three no-trump after Brad Moss (West) had overcalled one spade. Eric Greco as North made a negative double, Hampson rebid one no-trump and Greco raised him to game. The one good thing about this auction was that Hampson had suggested more in spades than he had, so naturally Moss did not lead the suit he had bid, since he held just four spades.

On the lead of the heart nine Hampson took the king and played the club eight to the king and ace, and now Moss did not see the danger of the club suit, whereas if declarer had run the club eight or 10 from dummy at once, the position would have been obvious. When Moss pressed on with hearts, declarer could win dummy(s queen and run the club 10.

Moss ducked this trick, so Hampson played a diamond to his king and a third club. Moss won his queen and exited with another diamond, but when that suit split, declarer had nine tricks.

Curiously, Moss might still have beaten the contract in the ending had he shifted to a low spade after winning the club queen. Declarer had formed the impression that Moss had a broken five-card spade suit to one top honor, and would have ducked the spade — letting the defense run the spade suit.

In the Dutch bridge magazine IMP, Onno Eskes has investigated the limits of computers' abilities at bridge. He predicts that the next generation of bridge programs will beat world champions within the next five years. Here is the computer at work.

Against three diamonds doubled, West leads out the three top clubs and East follows suit with the two, eight, and jack (suggesting an original odd number). Can the hand still be made?

The problem is virtually an open book after West’s Flannery opening, the penalty double, and East’s signals. It may not seem possible that you can prevent East from taking three trump tricks, but for the computer, these types of problems are a cinch. It ruffs the third round of clubs, takes the heart finesse, and ruffs a spade in dummy. The heart ace is cashed and we have reduced to a five-card ending where dummy has three trumps, a club loser and a heart loser, South has three trumps with a spade and a heart loser, and East has all his five trumps.

When the last club is led from North, East must ruff high to prevent the diamond eight from becoming South’s ninth trick, allowing declarer to discard the heart eight. East is now forced to exit with a high diamond, taken by North’s ace. East is then forced to play yet another high trump on the lead of dummy’s heart, and now he is endplayed, having to lead away from his 9-7 of trumps; his third trump winner has vanished!

When I collected the bronze medal at the 1994 Generali Individual, Wubbo de Boer (who was part of the Dutch team that had won the world championship a couple of years previously) was sitting South and received a club lead against his contract of four spades doubled.

He ruffed it, then realized that if he played a heart to the king, the defense could simply draw trump, and leave him with a probable second heart loser. So he guessed correctly to run the heart 10 around to East’s ace. Back came a second club, which he ruffed again.

Now if declarer plays on trumps, the defense can duck the first round. When they win the second trump and play a third club, the hearts are blocked. Declarer would have to ruff to get back to hand and would run out of trump. However, if South unblocks the hearts at once before playing the spade king, East wins his spade ace, leads a diamond to his partner, then gets a heart ruff.

De Boer saw the problems, and having gone to all those lengths to finesse in hearts at trick two, he now led the heart king from his hand, crashing the queen, then ruffed a heart with dummy’s spade king! Next he simply drew trump, having retained control of the hand, and could not be prevented from making 10 tricks.

It is psychologically very difficult to reverse your strategy in midhand as De Boer did, and even more difficult to find these plays at the table rather than in the post-mortem.

When Snow White was discovered by the dwarves, you may be surprised that their first reaction was delight that she would be the eighth player to make up a duplicate teams event.

On the first deal, Snow White partnered Sleepy, who had forgotten what the contract was by the time the auction was complete and selected the spade 10 against what he thought was a four-heart contract.

Grumpy allowed the spade 10 to hold the trick, and Sleepy was just awake enough to continue with his remaining spade. Grumpy played small from dummy, and Snow White deceptively played the king.

Her plan worked. Eventually Grumpy played small from his hand, and Snow White played a third spade. Alas, Grumpy’s pause had distracted Sleepy, and as he dozed off yet again, the club ace fell from his hand.

Grumpy insisted that the card be played, but now when he played off the top clubs, he found Snow White controlled the suit. Grumpy now took his three top diamonds, and next played the heart king, then the nine, cunningly playing low from his own hand. If Sleepy had taken this trick, he would have had one diamond to cash, but would have had to concede the last two tricks. However, all Grumpy’s planning had proved too much for Sleepy, and he allowed the heart nine to win the trick!

With the lead in dummy and only clubs left, Grumpy had to concede the rest to Snow White and go one down.

Erstwhile President of the European Bridge League, Bill Pencharz, who was both a top player and for many years a nonplaying captain of the Great Britain team, now resides mainly in France. Today's is deal from the French interclub tournament, which allowed him to reach the finals last summer.

To see the problem that led to his qualification, put yourself in declarer’s shoes and cover up the East and West cards. Plan the play in four hearts on the lead of the club king. East overtakes the club king with the ace and continues the suit to West’s queen. West now plays a third club. Do you ruff, and if so, with what?

Now ‘the trump 10’ from dummy sees East play the two; what next? At the table declarer carefully overtook the heart ‘10’ with the ace, planning to strip off the diamonds and exit with a second heart in an attempt to endplay someone with the second round of trump. This would succeed unless West had neither heart honor. All of that sounds reasonable; but there was a catch, as you can see when you look at the full deal.

Pencharz’s decision not to overruff had given declarer a problem that he did not solve. Would South have got the trump right had East overruffed? Only the Shadow knows!

I was given this deal with just the North and South cards and was told that this hand was originally published in a French newspaper. I thought it was an extremely challenging problem. Do you agree?

As South, you reach four spades after making a disciplined pass in second seat, despite the vulnerability. However, facing partner’s double of one heart, you can hardly do less than bid game. When dummy comes down, you see a disappointing wastage in hearts. How should you plan the play?

A natural move is to come to hand and lead up to the spade king, hoping for the ace to be favorably placed for you. As the cards lie, that line will not work. A better approach is to assume that at least one of the two missing aces must be onside, but you should first try to find the diamond ace onside. If it is not, you can fall back with complete confidence on the play of leading to the spade king.

Almost the only line to succeed is to ruff the first trick and lead a diamond toward the king. If West ducks his ace, you win dummy’s king, pitch your diamonds on dummy’s hearts, then lead a spade to the king for overtricks. If West flies up with his diamond ace, you have only one diamond loser, so can discard both your club losers on the hearts and again play on spades for overtricks.

In today's deal South plays in four hearts after West has opened one diamond. West's opening lead is the diamond queen. How should you plan the play, seeing just the North and South cards?

One declarer won the diamond lead, drew trump, and exited with king and another diamond, hoping to endplay West. This line would have been successful had diamonds broken 5-2, or had East been unable to beat dummy’s diamond spot. Alas for South, East’s possession of the diamond 10 meant that he could win the trick. He played a spade through and declarer had to go down, eventually losing two spades, a diamond and one club.

Better is to endplay West to give you a trick in the black suits. You cannot avoid a diamond loser, but losing the trick to West is very much in your interest. The way to do that is to duck the first diamond, then win the diamond continuation, draw trump, and take the club finesse.

Next, you cash all your minor-suit winners and exit withthe club ace and another club, knowing that West will win. That player is forced to lead a spade, whereupon all your worries are over, or he has to give you a ruff-sluff. If he does that, you pitch a spade from hand while ruffing in dummy.

Of course, if diamonds break 6-1 and West had the doubleton or singleton club king, you would have to prepare your own excuses — or blame me. My shoulders are broad.