Against three no-trump West leads the spade queen, and, as expected, East has to discard; he chooses a heart. Is there any way to make nine tricks against the best defense?

You need East to have begun with three clubs headed by the king and jack. At trick two, you should cash the club ace. East’s best defense is to unblock the king. You then cross to dummy with a diamond to the ace to lead a club. If East plays the jack, you will play low from hand. After winning the red-suit return in hand, you will cash the club queen and claim nine tricks: a spade, two hearts, three diamonds and three clubs.

You should note that it would not have been a good idea to cross to dummy at trick two to lead a club. East would play the jack, forcing you to play the queen. Now, when you played the club ace, he would drop the king, and you could not set up your third club trick without letting West on lead.

Incidentally, on the club-10 lead, you would have set about clearing the club suit at once. Then you would have cashed three diamonds and two hearts, hoping to exhaust West of red-suit cards. Finally, you would have ducked a spade to West, forcing him to give you a ninth trick in spades.

Finally, did you spot the winning defense? West begins with the spade ace and queen, allowing East to unblock the club king and jack!

In today's six-spade contract, there are two potential problems that declarer might be faced with. The first is a bad trump break; the second is a bad diamond break. With considerable shortage of entries to dummy, against which of these problems should you protect — or can you guard against both of them?

When West began with two top clubs South ruffed with the nine and saw the only dangers for the contract were the 4-0 break in either trumps or diamonds. She could not play either suit without loss if West had four cards there. Entries were such that she could only manage to pick up diamonds by drawing trumps first. However, that risked failing when East had four trumps.

Finally she came to the right conclusion when she decided to focus her attention on trumps and led the spade eight to the queen. When West showed out, she led a trump from dummy to the 10 and ace. She returned to dummy with a heart ruff, finessed against East’s spade jack, then drew East’s last trump with her king. When all followed to the diamond ace, she had 12 tricks.

Note that had spades broken 2-2, her careful play at tricks two and three would have left her two entries to dummy to take two diamond finesses. Had she ruffed the club low, there would have been only one trump entry to dummy, and thus no way to protect against 4-0 diamonds after leading a spade to the queen at trick three.

These days Ely Culbertson is regarded with a somewhat jaundiced eye. Players remember the tales of his histrionics, but forget that he was both a trailblazer in the theory of the game and a fine card-player at a time when there were no textbooks to teach you technique. He was credited with defending today's deal.

The bidding may look strange to a modern eye, but the call of four no-trump showed rather than asked, while the response of five no-trump promised two aces.

The partnership had nonetheless reached a slam that appeared to hinge on the heart finesse, and the auction had made this somewhat unlikely to succeed. Against six diamonds, Ely (West) led the spade king. Declarer took this with dummy’s ace, then ran six rounds of trump, throwing a heart from the table. Next came the three top clubs. Culbertson is credited with discarding the heart eight, spade 10, his four clubs, then finally the spade queen and jack. Meanwhile East discarded his club first, then two hearts and next the spade six.

Accordingly, when declarer led the spade eight from his hand at trick 11, Culbertson was able to follow low. East could win the spade nine and exit with a heart through declarer, insuring that Culbertson scored his heart king at the end.

If Culbertson had not unblocked all of his spades when discarding, he would have been thrown in to win the second spade and thus have been forced to lead from his heart king into declarer’s heart tenace.

A word about today's auction: After a reverse, a raise by responder of either of opener's suits is best played as forcing. However, at his second turn North simply asked for keycards with hearts as trump, and then for the trump queen. South's answer showed the heart queen and the club king. North might now have bid the grand slam, but the partnership settled in six hearts. West led the spade nine taken by dummy's ace as East followed with an encouraging signal. Thirteen tricks might be available on a crossruff, but that is irrelevant. Assuming that neither defender has a singleton in a minor suit, what is the safest line to make 12 tricks?

After winning the first trick with dummy’s spade ace, lead a club to your ace, followed by a diamond to the king and a second club from dummy. Once the club king holds, throw the club jack on the diamond ace.

Now comes the fun part. You have five tricks already, and you make sure of the next six tricks by conducting a high crossruff. At trick 12 you will ruff the minor-suit card left in your hand with dummy’s heart six. Either that will win the trick or East will be able to overruff it with the heart eight. In that case, your heart seven will be high and will take the last trick. You will make a spade, seven trump tricks and four tricks in the minors.

In today's deal the situation in three no-trump is complicated by South's desire to keep West off lead. Declarer will have seven top tricks once he has knocked out the heart ace, so must find two more tricks from somewhere. Fortunately, there are lots of extra chances: the spade finesse, an additional heart trick, and an extra club winner or more. The key, though, is for South to combine his chances in the right order.

Duck the opening lead (East playing the queen) and win the diamond continuation with dummy’s ace. Now play a heart to your queen — all things being equal, it is best to knock out the opponents’ sure winners first. West takes his ace and continues with diamonds, East showing out.

Since you cannot afford to lose the lead to West, next play a small club to dummy’s jack. East wins the queen and returns a club. When West’s club 10 appears, you now have eight tricks on top: one spade, two hearts, two diamonds and three clubs. It looks as though you still need something nice to happen in one of the major suits. Not so. Provided that East does not have five hearts, you now have a sure line of play for your extra trick.

Take your clubs, cash the heart jack, then play a heart to dummy’s nine. If this holds, the heart king will be your ninth trick. If it loses, East will have nothing left but spades and will have to lead a spade into dummy’s ace-queen.

South did two bad things on this deal. The first need not have been too expensive; the second proved very costly.

When East opened three no-trump, conventionally showing a four level pre-empt in a minor with a broken suit, South doubled and West retreated to four clubs. North doubled — right he was, since the contract can be set four tricks — but South was concerned that the double was cards not for blood, and that any penalty might not compensate for a vulnerable game.

Accordingly he bid four spades, and West led the heart jack against this contract. East won the ace and returned the club three for his partner to ruff. Now West switched to the diamond seven, and South won in hand and drew trump, throwing two diamonds and a heart from dummy.

South now knew that East had started with eight clubs, two spades, and had shown up with one card in each red suit. If his missing card was a diamond, an extra trick could be established there. However, when declarer tried the suit, East showed out, and the contract failed.

South should have known that had East begun with a singleton heart, he would surely have returned the club 10, suit preference at trick two. So instead of testing diamonds, South could have played a heart to dummy and ruffed a heart. That would have left East with only clubs. Now comes a losing finesse of the club queen; on the forced club return, West is squeezed in hearts and diamonds.

If you asked the top players in the world how much their success was due to competence, how much to brilliance, I suspect most would say that simply mastering the act of drawing trump, taking finesses and cashing winners would suffice to succeed at all but the very highest levels of the game.

Still, sometimes one needs imagination, or flair, to bring home the impossible contract or to defeat the laydown game. Today’s deal decided the qualifiers for the 1991 Venice Cup (the Ladies’ World Championships). Had Great Britain not gained a game swing on this deal, they would not have qualified.

The Spanish ladies had played in five diamonds from the North seat, and the defense did their best by leading three rounds of clubs. To succeed, declarer must draw only two trumps before testing the spades. When they do not split, she can ruff out the spades and cross back to dummy by drawing the last trump. The Spanish declarer failed to get it right and went one down.

Pat Davies of Great Britain declared four spades from the South seat, after East had shown a two-suiter in hearts and clubs. The defense also led three rounds of clubs, giving declarer an easy plus 420. But how would declarer have played if the Spanish defender had cashed two clubs and deviously switched to a low diamond? If you believe East is 2-5-1-5, you might easily rise with the diamond ace and rely on the spades to behave.

If it is satisfying to make a contract on an endplay, then declarer on this deal from nearly 50 years ago must have really enjoyed himself.

South reached three no-trump after a weak two-spade opening from West, who did well on lead, in a sense, to avoid opening up the spades. Unfortunately for him, his choice of a low diamond was even less successful. Declarer was able to duck in dummy, and when East put up the king, it lost to the ace. Declarer played back a diamond, to the 10 and queen, and a third diamond went to West’s jack. Now West switched to his singleton heart, and South won the ace and played a club to the jack and king. West exited with a club, and declarer took his ace and played off his master diamond to reach a six-card ending in which West was known to be down to his six spades.

When declarer led a low spade from his hand, West was forced to win and exit with a low spade, the first endplay. South cashed both his spade winners, to produce a three-card ending in which East was compelled to retain two hearts and thus the bare club queen.

At this point declarer returned the favor to East, exiting with a club to endplay him. He was compelled to lead a heart and concede the last two tricks when declarer ran the lead around to dummy’s jack.

Against five spades West leads the club ace followed by the king, which you ruff. How do you plan to make 11 tricks when it is West who has the outstanding trump?

Can you do better than taking the diamond finesse?

A solution that wins whenever West has the heart ace is to crossruff hearts and clubs, coming back to hand with trumps as required. At trick nine, lead the heart king to West’s ace, discarding a diamond from table. West has to concede an extra trick no matter what he plays. If he plays a diamond, then you have two diamond tricks, and if he plays a club or a heart, you will throw a diamond from the table and ruff in hand with your last trump. After cashing the diamond ace, dummy’s two remaining trumps will be high.

However, as you expect West to have 10 cards in hearts and clubs, and thus at most two diamonds, the play that wins against any distribution is to ruff a heart, draw the trump in hand, ruff a heart, ruff dummy’s last club, ruff a third heart, cash the diamond ace, and ruff the fourth heart.

Next comes a diamond, and you put up the queen when East follows low. Here, West takes your queen with his king but has no safe exit card. Whether he exits with a club or a heart, you ruff in hand and discard dummy’s last diamond.