North has an awkward bid after the one-spade overcall, but two diamonds seems as good a bid as any. When South raises to three diamonds (a splinter jump to three spades would also be a sensible option), North is still on the spot, with a constructive but not forcing call of three hearts looking like the least of evils. An alternative would be to probe with three spades, after which reaching four hearts with confidence might be harder.

At pairs four hearts looks the best spot, while at teams five diamonds might have extra chances. But after two rounds of spades South has to tread very carefully, since the risk of getting forced is a real one.

With five heart and three club tricks, South needs only two diamond tricks to make his game. To guard against a 4-2 trump break with the diamond king offside, declarer should discard a diamond (or a club) on the second spade lead. When West leads a third round of spades, South trumps, draws four rounds of hearts (using a club as a re-entry to hand), then finesses the diamond into East. Since that player has no more spades, he must lead back a club or a diamond. If East began with the diamond king and four spades, the contract could never be made against a 4-2 trump split. But as the cards lie, discarding on the second spade is critical to retaining control of the hand.

The women's match between Europe and the United States at the IOC Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland, a decade ago, saw a win for the European team — a squad from four different countries, by a substantial 68 IMPs.

Sabine Auken, who is a German player living in Denmark, has been one of the world’s best women players for several years. Sitting South, she showed her skill on the diagramed deal from that match. Using a strong club, she and her partner climbed to a slightly optimistic three-no-trump contract.

While a club lead would have defeated the game, West had no reason to know that, and after the normal diamond lead, South had plenty of chances. She captured East’s diamond queen with the ace and finessed the spade jack, losing to the queen.

Although South might not have enjoyed a club shift, East returned the diamond 10, and only when this was permitted to win, did she shift to the club king.

Auken held up the ace for one round, then took another spade finesse. When it held, she continued spades, and West won the king and led a third diamond. Dummy’s king won, and when the winning spade was led from dummy in the three-card ending, East had to throw a heart to keep her master club. Now Auken could play off the ace and king of hearts, certain that the remaining hearts were 2-2.

Against four spades West led the club king, then the queen. Declarer ruffed, then simply played trumps from the top. When they did not behave, he eventually cashed the diamond ace and used dummy's heart entry to play a diamond toward the queen. With the diamonds lying the way they did, there was no way to avoid two losers in the suit, and declarer finished up with just nine tricks.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with declarer’s play of the trump suit — the 2-2 break is more likely than a 3-1 break, and the overcall does not materially alter the odds in spades, though East has fewer clubs and thus more vacant spaces in his hand for trumps than does West. But the possibilities of an endplay are very real, and the winning line is one that you might fall into at the table.

After ruffing the second club, remember that since East did not raise clubs, West is likely to have the top club honors and thus be ripe for an endplay. Cash one top trump, then three hearts ending in dummy. If West can ruff in, you may be reduced to taking the diamond finesse; if not, run the spade jack on the second round of trumps.

As the cards lie, the finesse succeeds, but had trumps been 2-2, West would have won and could have done no better than play the third top club. You pitch your diamond loser and leave him endplayed for a ruff-sluff.

An alternative line after three rounds of hearts might be to run the club jack and discard a diamond on the trick.

In today's deal the perfect contract at either pairs or teams will protect the diamond tenace and play six no-trump from the North seat. Since this was a little difficult for North to work out at the table, he concluded the auction with a somewhat exuberant jump to six spades, assuming that his partner had a suitable hand to cuebid at his third turn, whereas South simply felt that he held a maximum for what he had shown so far.

East might have considered a Lightner double of six spades (calling for dummy’s first bid suit), but when he did not, West had no reason to find the killing lead. He kicked off with a heart, and East won the heart ace and continued with another heart. How should you play as declarer now?

With 10 tricks on top, there are two chances for an extra two: clubs or diamonds. As usual in this type of position, it is best for declarer to combine his chances, so he should try to test one suit, then fall back on the other. Take the ace and king of spades, then the king and ace of clubs before cashing the third trump to leave yourself an extra entry to hand. If the queen falls, draw the last trump and discard your diamond on the hearts. If it doesn’t, take the diamond finesse and come to hand while drawing the last trump to repeat the diamond finesse.

In today's deal the three little pigs all found their way to a six-heart slam on a top spade lead from West. The pig who made his house out of straw won in dummy, cashed the heart ace, then went to the diamond ace and took a heart finesse. West won his heart queen to play back a spade, forcing declarer to ruff in dummy. Now, with clubs not breaking, declarer could no longer bring home 12 tricks whether he drew the last trump or not.

By contrast, the little pig who made his house out of wood cashed the ace and king of hearts, and when they split, he snorted smugly to himself and turned his attention to clubs. Even though West could ruff away one of his winners, he was safe.

In the post-mortem the pigs were arguing about whose line was best. The third little pig who made his house out of stone, pointed out that he had found a line that guarded against either a 4-1 break in hearts or clubs (or both) and lost only if West had the singleton heart queen. He had won the opening lead and taken an immediate trump finesse.

When it lost, he ruffed the spade return, drew trumps, and set up the clubs with the diamond ace as an entry. Had the heart jack held, the heart ace and king would have followed, and then he could have played on clubs, with two side-entries to dummy available had he needed them.

While you cannot make a grand slam missing the ace of trumps, I have taken 13 tricks (admittedly in game) on a hand where somebody revoked before taking their trump ace. However, making a slam while missing the ace and king of trumps is rare, but not unheard of.

In today’s six spades, if dummy’s trumps were weaker (with the queen but without the jack), South could lead the queen in the hope that East would naively cover when holding a doubleton king. That would achieve the desired honor crash. But no East would consider covering with the king when dummy has a Q-J combination.

When this deal came up at the table, Ken Barbour of Arizona found himself as declarer in what seemed a hopeless slam after his opponents had effectively crowded the bidding and forced him to guess at the six-level.

Barbour spotted a chance, however, when he ruffed the opening heart lead in dummy and led club winners, trying to look like a man with diamond losers to discard. When he led the third round of clubs, East obligingly ruffed with the spade four. South overruffed and led a trump, bringing about a satisfying clang as the ace and king of trumps fell together.

East should have seen through this. It was virtually inconceivable that South held a losing singleton diamond, the only position in which an immediate low ruff would be essential. But it cost South nothing to try, and he was rewarded for his effort.

Today's deal arose in the Mixed Pairs in Biarritz, France, a few years ago when George Awad was tested as declarer in a tricky heart slam.

South’s rebid of four hearts would normally have ended the auction, but North, Marie Awad, decided that her strong hearts and minor-suit aces justified a slam invitation. Her five-diamond call was a cue-bid implying heart support, and South’s bid of six clubs suggested a club slam. With weak clubs and strong hearts, North reverted to hearts.

The opening diamond lead attacked a vital entry to dummy, and made Awad’s task vastly more difficult. But he found an ingenious plan that would succeed against a normal 3-2 club split, with the trumps divided no worse than 3-1. After winning the diamond ace, he cashed the club king and ace, then ruffed a club with the heart ace, establishing the suit while avoiding the risk of an overruff. He next crossed to the heart queen, led a winning club, and discarded his diamond loser. East ruffed in with the jack, but South was now safe. Whatever that player returned, South could reach the dummy with the heart king to discard his spade loser on a club winner. He emerged with seven trump tricks, three club tricks and two aces.

Awad’s safety play did not entirely rule out the chance of an overtrick. If West’s singleton trump had been the jack, South would have been able to overruff with the 10 on the fourth round of clubs without running any risk.

Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes finished at a somewhat disappointing 11th place in the 2012 Cavendish Pairs. Fantoni, however, produced the best-played hand of the tournament.

Against the heart slam West led the club queen. After East’s double at the three-level, vulnerable, facing a passed hand, Fantoni correctly placed him with a void in hearts, the black kings and some combination of the diamond honors. Even at double-dummy it’s not easy to see how the hand should be played.

However, after a long pause (so long that he ran into time penalties on the deal!), Fantoni made the spectacular play of a small heart to the seven in dummy. As expected, East showed out, pitching the diamond two. Declarer proceeded with the club 10, discarding a diamond when East played small. West won the club jack and continued with a heart to dummy’s 10. Now came the club nine, covered by the king and ruffed with the heart queen. The rest was relatively straightforward: the heart ace, a heart to the king, the two established clubs for the discard of another diamond and a spade, and a claim on the spade finesse. (East had already been squeezed, but that did not matter.)

Not surprisingly, Fantoni was the only player in the star-studded field to fulfill the six-heart contract. The first-round heart finesse may seem unnecessary, but if declarer starts with the heart ace and follows with the heart five, West can ruin his plans by inserting the heart jack, killing a vital entry to dummy.

Today's deal comes from a head-to-head match, where both declarers faced the identical lead in their game contract of four spades, after West had produced a vulnerable two-level overcall.

The unsuccessful declarer thought he saw the danger of this hand coming from the possibility that the defenders might get diamond ruffs — and he was right, but not in the way he had predicted. He imagined he was playing safely by rising with the diamond ace to protect against West’s having a singleton. He discovered his mistake when East ruffed away the diamond ace and led a heart to his partner for West to cash the diamond king and give East a second diamond ruff, for down one.

The second declarer knew that West was a heavy favorite to hold the heart ace, so he was not worried about East’s giving his partner two diamond ruffs. So he put in the diamond jack at the first trick. This turned out to be equally disastrous when East ruffed, crossed to the heart ace, and saw West play back the diamond king. Dummy had to cover, and East ruffed again, leaving West with the diamond 10-8 and a sure diamond winner. Down one again!

Declarer could have made all but certain of his contract by playing low from dummy at trick one. All he is relying on is that West has the heart ace. If that is so, then no matter how the diamonds lie, the defenders can take only three tricks.