See if you can play four spades as well as Philip Soulet did in the round of 64 in the Spingold Knockout Teams from Philadelphia last summer.

West led the diamond three, and. East covered dummy’s diamond 10 with the king. Soulet (South) won the diamond ace, took the top two spades (learning that West had three to the queen), then cashed the top two hearts, West following with the queen and 10.

Soulet then exited with the diamond jack. West won the queen and could cash his spade winner, but had no good play from there. Since a diamond would have given a ruff and discard and let declarer pitch his heart loser from hand, West switched to a club, but Soulet could put in dummy’s nine. Had this forced the king, he would have had no club loser at all. When East could cover with the 10, Soulet won cheaply and drove out the heart jack. He could win the club return with the ace and lead a trump to dummy to discard his losing club on the heart eight.

In practice, though, so long as West held either the 10 or king of clubs, it didn’t matter whether West’s doubleton heart consisted of high or low cards. Had the queen and 10 of hearts not appeared, then after winning the club queen, Soulet could have cashed the club ace and thrown West in with the club king. That would have forced a ruff and discard to make the contract.

At last summer's nationals, the winners of the von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs were Alan Osofsky and Alan Sontag. This board came from the final session. Against the uninspiring contract of one heart, West led a diamond. Sontag won, cashed his other diamond, and exited with a spade. East took this with his queen and shifted to a club, West capturing declarer's 10 with his queen. West returned his second club, dummy's seven winning.

Declarer called for the diamond queen, and now East erred. If he had ruffed low, the defenders would still have been in control. But he ruffed with the 10, and South discarded a spade. West ruffed the third club, cashed his spade king, then led his last spade. Sontag carefully ruffed with his heart five and made his second nice play when he led the heart eight to dummy’s queen. East won with his ace and played his last spade, but South ruffed with his heart three and could overruff with dummy’s heart four, since West was reduced to nothing but diamonds and could not overruff. Now a club lead executed a trump coup, declarer’s K-9 of hearts being poised over East’s heart J-6.

That brilliant play by Sontag for plus 80 was worth 49.5 matchpoints out of 51. If the contract had gone down one, he and Osofsky would have received 38 matchpoints – a difference of 11.5. And they won the trophy by just 11 points!

When today's deal came up at the summer nationals last year, Ziggy Marcinski of Canada not only solved this problem, but also submitted it to the bulletin, thereby earning himself special thanks from those who like a good puzzle.

Put yourself in his position: You declare four spades after East has suggested a two-suited hand with diamonds and a major. Against your game, West leads the diamond 10. Plan the play.

The key to the deal is not whether to finesse or play for the drop in trumps — it is surely right to finesse. Given that the spade finesse rates to work, can you guard against a 3-0 break in trumps when you might lose a club, two diamonds and a trump?

The answer is yes, but you must be careful to strip the hand. You should win dummy’s diamond ace and lead a heart to your jack at trick two! Your idea is to try to keep East off lead for the duration of the deal, thus preventing him from being able to cash his diamond winners.

West takes the heart and plays a club. You win and run the spade queen, ducked by West. East shows out, so you cash the heart ace to pitch a club, then ruff out the clubs, cash the spade ace, and throw West in with the spade king to give you a ruff-sluff for the contract.

In this deal from the Morehead Grand National Teams Championship Flight at Philadelphia last year, both defenders found the same winning play (both ducking). The featured defenders are Chris Compton and Bart Bramley.

Against four hearts Compton started with the diamond king, switching to the spade three at trick two. Declarer won in hand and played the diamond nine. Compton covered with the 10, knowing his partner was going to ruff. Bramley did so, returning the heart jack to dummy’s ace. Now declarer played the club ace, fetching the king from Compton, followed by the club seven. Bramley, with no trumps left, inserted the club eight, and when South covered, Compton ruffed and played his last trump to defeat the contract.

A trump lead always defeats the contract, but declarer could have succeeded after Bramley ruffed and returned the heart jack. After winning the heart ace in dummy, declarer should play as follows: ruff a diamond, play a spade to the ace, ruff a diamond, lead a club to the ace, ruff a spade, exit with a low club. From there, declarer cannot be prevented from taking three trump tricks in dummy for the contract.

However, once declarer embarked on the losing line by cashing the club ace and continuing the suit, Compton needed to get in to play a second round of hearts. Bramley made it easy for Compton by not trying to win the critical trick. Protecting your partner from error is never a bad idea.

Paul Trent was one of the top players in the country in the '60s. His wife, Sandy, may be less well-known but is no less accomplished, as this deal from the second qualifying session of last summer's von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs demonstrates. Sandy was South.

Against the club slam, West led the diamond nine to the king and Sandy’s ace. She played a trump to the queen and ace, won the diamond return to test trumps, and found the bad news.

Now she cashed the spade ace and king, carefully discarding the heart ace. She ruffed a spade to hand, led a heart to dummy’s 10, then ruffed another spade to play the heart queen from her hand to dummy’s king. Next she advanced the heart jack, prepared to overruff if East could ruff in. Whether East could follow or not, his sure trump trick was about to vanish. At the table Sandy could discard her diamond when East followed suit, and the lead was in dummy at trick 12 for a trump coup.

Note that the defenders would have probably beaten the slam on a spade lead. Declarer’s normal line of play is to win the ace and play a trump (though yes, ruffing a spade is probably better, to prepare for the possible trump reduction against the 4-1 break). East can take the first trump and return a trump, dislodging a critical entry from dummy. After that, declarer would be unable to make the contract.

Since the summer nationals will be starting very shortly in Atlanta, all this week's deals come from last summer's national tournament in Philadelphia.

This deal was played in the first qualifying session of the von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs. See if you can find the textbook defensive play found by at least two defenders.

As West you are happy to pass for penalties when your partner finds the reopening double of the pre-emptive two-spade call. For want of anything better to do, you lead partner’s suit, kicking off with the diamond king. The singleton diamond in dummy is not a welcome sight. How do you proceed?

At least two defenders — Billy Eisenberg and Glenn Milgrim — found the play to collect the maximum penalty: the spade king. After that shift, declarer could win the ace, but if she ruffed a diamond with dummy’s queen, the trump trick West had seemingly given up would come back.

Incidentally, on a medium spade switch, declarer could have put up the queen, ruffed out the club ace, then ruffed a diamond low and taken a discard on the club queen. At the end, West would be the victim of a trump endplay, and declarer would have finished only one down.

At these two tables, and quite possibly a few others, the end result was plus 500 for the defenders, good for close to a 90 percent result.

Dummy did not have much to offer in this deal, but declarer wrapped up 10 tricks in his spade contract with seeming ease. In fact, West had missed a defensive point that might well have eluded almost everybody.

West led the diamond queen against four spades, and, after winning in dummy, declarer finessed the heart queen successfully, cashed the ace, and led a low heart. West was quick to rush in with his trump jack and followed by forcing South with a diamond.

Now the fourth round of hearts was ruffed in dummy with the nine, and the spade eight led and run when it was not covered. At this point another trump lead from dummy finished matters, and declarer made game with the loss of just two spades and a club.

Hard as it may be to see, West’s ruff of the third round of hearts was premature. Say he discards a diamond instead and allows dummy to ruff. Declarer comes back to hand with the club ace and plays a fourth heart. It is only now that West ruffs with his spade jack and plays a diamond. With no entry to dummy, South must lose two more tricks to East’s remaining trump holding, as well as a club.

It was certainly a difficult defense to find at the table, and you may need to work through the play in detail before you are convinced — just as I did!

In the following deal, while South's breaking the transfer with the leap to four spades may have been a marginal action, the final slam contract is superb. How would you play it when West leads the club jack?

The best plan is to win the club ace and draw trump in three rounds. After crossing to the club king, eliminating that suit, try a heart to East’s six and your queen. The only dangerous situation is when the full deal is as shown today.

If West trusts his partner’s echo to be based on a doubleton heart (and since he knows his partner has a Yarborough, he ought to get this right) he may well be able to work out that if he wins his heart king, he will be endplayed. A red-suit return would concede an extra trick, either to the heart nine or to South’s diamond jack. A club return would give declarer a ruff-and-discard for the losing diamond.

Suppose therefore West smoothly plays low, allowing South’s heart queen to win. If you have not considered this situation, pause to think how you would continue from this point. It is no good crossing to the diamond king and playing a heart to the jack. West will win and exit safely with the heart 10, killing the heart discard.

Remarkably, the winning continuation is to cross to the diamond king and run the heart nine when East follows low! Here, West can win with the 10 but now he is truly endplayed.