When Sweden and France battled it out in the seniors' contest in the European Championships in Dublin, the match ended 16-14 in favor of the French. However, the Swedes picked up a swing here after a Precision auction had seen them reach five clubs rather than three no-trump.

Sven-Ake Bjerregard got a spade lead, which went to dummy’s king and East’s ace. East then gave declarer a chance when he returned the diamond two. He could have played any other suit and the defense would still have been in control. Bjerregard went up with the diamond ace, cashed the king, and ruffed a low diamond in dummy. Declarer continued with a trump to the king and another diamond ruff in dummy, but this time ruffing with the queen while East threw a spade. Two rounds of trump followed, and on the last round declarer discarded a low heart from dummy. Poor East also had to discard a heart, since he would have given up control of the spades if he had thrown one away. Bjerregard then played a heart to dummy’s ace, stripping East of his last heart, and next led a low spade from dummy. East had no escape: he tried playing low, but when declarer had the eight, he could claim his contract.

This was 10 IMPs to Sweden when the French pair at the other table failed by a trick in three no-trump.

The Scandinavian journalist who first wrote up this deal commented that according to Norse mythology, stormy weather and thunder are caused by Thor and his hammer Mjolnir, and he was sure that Tor Helness' parents had this in mind when he was given his name.

Tor was actually playing for Monaco, though, having managed to transfer his bridge nationality to play for the team led and sponsored by Pierre Zimmermann. And at the bridge tables in Dublin, Tor proved that every day was Thursday — literally Thor’s day in Norwegian — since Monaco duly won the main teams event. Today’s deal is from the match between Monaco and Russia. Against four spades the West’s lead was a low heart to East’s ace. East returned the jack, covered by the queen and king.

Needing a safe exit, West played the spade king to dummy’s ace, and another spade from dummy was taken by West’s queen. West now led a diamond to the queen and ace, after which declarer cashed the spade eight and ruffed his last heart.

The club four disappeared on the spade 10, and West had to surrender. Whether he pitched a diamond or a second club, declarer could take the rest, a classic example of a crisscross squeeze. In the Open Series, Helness was the only declarer who managed to bid and make 10 tricks. Only a diamond lead and diamond continuation when West scores his trump trick can defeat the game.

In today's deal from the 2012 European Open series, both Souths opened a strong no-trump and declared six no-trump on a spade lead. For Poland, Cezary Balicki received the lead of the spade seven. He won in dummy, cashed the top diamonds and top spades, then tried to split the clubs. Though the missing heart honors were both onside, it was too late to attempt to establish a heart trick since West had a club to cash when in with the heart ace — down one.

For England, David Gold received the lead of the spade four, conventionally low from an even number. He won the ace and played the club jack, followed by a second club, seeing East discard a discouraging heart. Obviously, the signal did not have to be honest, but the heart discard seemed relatively unlikely to be from the queen, so Gold’s next play was a heart to the 10. When that won, Gold played the diamond ace and a diamond to the king, to see if the jack would fall. When it did not, he cashed the two club winners, throwing both hearts from dummy. East threw a spade and his last heart, and Gold now read the ending accurately.

He cashed the diamond queen, crossed to the spade king, and exited with the diamond 10 to East’s jack, endplaying him to lead into the spade Q-10 at the end. The no-trump slam was made just nine times out of the 42 times it was bid.

On today's deal from the European Open Series, played in Dublin last year, England's David Bakhshi opened one no-trump and played in two hearts after a transfer response from his partner, Tom Townsend.

Austria’s Gunther Purkarthofer led the spade eight,, and Bakhshi won dummy’s ace, then led to the king, and continued with the queen, ruffed and overruffed. Bakhshi exited dummy with a diamond, winning the ace when Jan Fucik put in the king. A fourth spade was ruffed, West pitching a diamond, and declarer continued with a second diamond. West overtook his partner’s jack to play another diamond, ruffed by declarer’s eight. Now Bakhshi played the heart king to West’s ace, and Purkarthofer switched to the club three. The winning play is to duck, but quite reasonably Bakhshi went up with dummy’s king, losing to the ace, and East, Jan Fucik, returned the jack.

At this point, to defeat the contract, West had to overtake and allow East to win the third club, then lead his low heart to South’s bare queen. When West failed to do so, he had to win the third club himself — and now he had no choice but to lead a diamond at trick 12. When dummy ruffed with the nine, East had lost his trump trick whether he overruffed or not. Granted, the defense could have done better, but Bakhshi had pulled off that rarity, a smother play, to make his contract.

With the European open tournament taking place right now in Ostend, Belgium, this week's deals all come from the most recent European Championships, which were held in Dublin, Ireland, and resulted in a win for Monaco. (Yes, you read that right.)

Today’s deal came from the very first match of the event. While the other members of the Norwegian Seniors Team had played for Norway before, this was the first international appearance for Johnny Holmbakken. He rapidly placed himself in the hot seat against Italy, and on the very first board of the match too. I would not recommend his decision to overcall here, but that’s what he did, ending up in three diamonds.

Holmbakken won East’s club jack with the ace and ran the diamond nine to East’s ace. East cashed a club and exited with a diamond to the jack. A heart to the nine and jack was followed by the heart ace and another heart, which declarer ruffed. A club was ruffed in dummy, and a diamond put declarer in hand with the queen. Holmbakken was sure that West held the spade queen and played accordingly, putting the jack on the table! South covered, and dummy’s king won. Now came the trumps.

The last diamond squeezed East in the black suits, and declarer made the contract via two spade tricks when East kept his club. A menace transfer and squeeze – what a nice debut!

Certain players seem to cause curious happenings at the bridge table. The incomparable Zia is the first name that springs to mind. The late John Collings is another. And a third is Michael Courtney of Australia. This hand won the 2010 International Bridge Press Association's Rose Cliff Declarer Play of the Year Award, and the winning journalist was the prolific author Ron Klinger.

The deal arose at rubber bridge and Michael Courtney came up with an ingenious deception that claimed East as its victim. When North opened three diamonds, Courtney bid three no-trump and West led the spade six to the 10, jack and king. Now Courtney took the losing diamond finesse, leaving East on lead. Keen to show where his values lay, East cashed the heart king. West, keener for East to revert to spades, followed with the heart jack, denying the queen. Courtney knew that the initial spade lead was from at most a six-card suit since he could see the four and three. Thus East held at least one more spade and the contract was hopeless. Accordingly, when East followed up with the heart ace, Courtney contributed the queen! Naturally, West continued his unblocking in hearts, playing the 10, since East clearly had the rest of the hearts.

Now, having read West for an initial holding of J-10-9-7 of hearts with South holding the doubleton heart queen, East continued with a third heart – and Courtney produced the master nine and took his nine winners.

Against four spades West begins with the diamond king, then shifts to the heart five. Is there any chance of making 10 tricks?

The first question that you should ask is “Why didn’t West shift to a trump at trick two?” and the obvious answer is that he doesn’t have one. You have to suppose the full deal is similar to the diagramed one.

You should win the heart ace and lead the diamond 10. If East plays low, throw your remaining heart in an attempt to cut the defenders’ communications. West will win the trick and, with no trump to lead, can do no better than play the heart queen. After ruffing this, you will play off the club ace and crossruff the hand. The best that East can do is to overruff the fourth round of clubs at trick 10 and return a trump, which you will win for your eighth trick. You will then make the last two tricks on a high crossruff to give you your contract.

If at trick three East covers the diamond 10 with the queen, you will ruff this, then cash the club ace and ruff a club, so that you can lead the diamond nine from the board. When East follows with the eight, you will discard your heart nine. The play then develops along the same lines as described above, and you will make the same 10 tricks.

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.