Here is one of Edgar Kaplan's favorite deals, from a duplicate pairs long ago. To appreciate it fully, cover up the East and West cards.

Against four spades doubled, West led the heart king, then played the ace and a third heart, hoping partner could overruff dummy. Kaplan, sitting East, could infer that West was void in spades and that four hearts would make 10 tricks. So the task at hand was for the defense to set declarer three tricks. When North played the third heart, declarer ruffed in dummy with the nine. Kaplan casually discarded the diamond five, apparently unable to overruff. Declarer now played a spade from dummy to his ace and was shocked when West discarded.

Declarer could do nothing but lead another spade. Kaplan won, played his last diamond, and obtained the diamond ruff for the necessary penalty of 800 and matchpoint top.

Of course, there was considerable discussion between North and South. South explained to his partner that despite all appearances to the contrary, he had heard of a finesse, but he argued that he could never play East for the king when he didn’t overruff the heart.

North had little sympathy for his partner, but 20-20 hindsight makes the game much easier. In my opinion it was a neat play and apt to work against almost anyone. However, it wouldn’t have succeeded against you or me. Or would it?

Today's deal emphasizes the point that bridge is not a game that you can learn by mastering one theme and extrapolating it to other deals.

First of all, let’s see what happened at the unsuccessful table in a teams match. Against three no-trump, the heart queen was led to the ace. The diamond 10 went to the ace, and declarer took the losing spade finesse. The next heart was ducked and South won the third rouind of hearts, throwing a spade from dummy. At this point he must have felt confident he was going to succeed. After all, if West had the diamond queen, the finesse would work. If East had it, the hearts were not a threat.

But when declarer led the diamond nine and West showed out, East ducked. Now the contract was no longer makable. With no entries to dummy there were just eight tricks.

Declarer had in a sense done well. If he takes the diamond finesse immediately, East clears hearts and the contract will depend on the success or failure of the spade finesse. However, at the other table South led the spade jack from his hand at trick two, a truly unnatural play, but one that would generate nine tricks no matter how the defense played. When West took the trick and continued the attack on hearts, South ducked, won the third round of hearts, and now ran the diamond 10. Whether East took this or the next diamond, South had four diamond winners and nine tricks.

I am always happy to receive deals from my readers. It doesn't matter that they didn't find the right play at the table, as long as the theme is an interesting one. We can all learn from real-life hands, even when not played by experts.

Today, Orville St. Clair, declarer in six no-trump, won the helpful spade lead in hand with the jack. West should surely have led a heart here — not that it would have worked out any better.

Now declarer finessed the spade queen, more to find out how many tricks he needed in the other suits than with great confidence that it would hold. Once the finesse worked, South was up to 11 sure winners, so correctly decided to set up a threat in hearts by leading a low one from dummy and putting in the nine. He was delighted to see it hold the trick.

Of course, if East had split his honors, declarer would have had 12 top tricks. As it was, South was now playing for a 13th winner. The best order to take the tricks is the heart ace, then one club and the spade ace, discarding a heart from hand. East has to pitch a diamond, and declarer must decide if he had begun with three diamonds and four clubs (when the three top diamonds would squeeze him in clubs and hearts) or with his actual hand, when cashing the clubs squeezes East in diamonds and hearts. St. Clair read the position accurately and brought home 13 tricks.

When defending against a major-suit game, you might be tempted to try to cash an ace in another suit. But sometimes you have to resist temptation.

Not every North-South reached four spades in this deal from the 2002 European Teams Championships. Those who did, but did not receive a club lead, had no difficulty in coming to 10 tricks by way of five spades and five diamonds. However, in the match between Israel and Poland, Michael Barel had no problem leading clubs after Yoram Aviram’s helpful hint in the auction. The four-club call guaranteed heart support and showed where his values lay. Aviram’s bid led Barel to the best lead, the club ace. East overtook the club jack continuation, then cashed the club king. It must have been tempting to continue with the heart ace, as West’s overcall promised no more than a six-card suit. But when West pitched a low heart, Aviram realized that his partner had started with a seven-card suit, and the heart winner was not going to stand up. Had West started with six hearts, he would have pitched a high heart.

Equally, with his trump holding of 10-9-8, Aviram appreciated that West only needed to hold the spade jack or queen, be it doubleton or singleton, for the contract to be defeated. So he continued with a fourth round of clubs, and sure enough, West ruffed with the spade jack, elevating East’s trump holding to the setting trick.

Against your six-spade contract the opening lead is the diamond three. You win the ace, RHO playing the eight. Plan the play to protect against as many bad breaks as possible.

After winning dummy’s diamond ace, play the spade ace, and now switch your attention to hearts. Lead out the queen, then play to the heart king.

If West discards on the second heart, win, ruff a heart, then lead a trump to dummy and run the hearts. It doesn’t matter if the third heart is overruffed since you can ruff a diamond in dummy, then draw the last trump; equally, West’s ruffing in on the second heart would clearly be fatal.

If it was East who could ruff the second heart to play a club, win with the ace, cross in spades (drawing the opponent’s last trump), then ruff a heart, ruff a club, and run the hearts.

What happens if hearts are 5-0? If RHO ruffs the heart queen, you may still survive in much the same way as before. You simply need to take a heart finesse somewhere along the line after drawing the last trump. If LHO ruffs the heart queen, you will still survive if he does not have a third trump to play. (You have just enough entries to set up the long heart.) All in all, six spades makes except against 4-0 trumps or against a combined very bad heart break and trump break, when nothing would have worked.

When the world championships took place in Beijing four years ago, the main event followed the qualifying stages. Here is a sparkling piece of play from Round 16 of that event.

As Mark Horton, a journalist, remarked, one of the delights of Beijing is the opportunity to enjoy its famous Peking duck, but that is not the only dish it offers. This cosmopolitan city ofers a wide range of international cuisine. Poland’s Ewa Harasimowicz conjured up a wonderful dish at the table. It featured a coulis of squeeze, a dash of throw-in garnished with an endplay, the whole thing being stirred with a Morton’s Fork.

Against four hearts West led the club seven. East took the ace and returned the suit, West winning and playing a third round, ruffed by declarer. Knowing that East, who had already showed up with the club ace-queen, was unlikely to have the diamond ace, declarer played a low diamond toward dummy’s king. West could not afford to play the ace or the spade loser would go away. When the diamond king held, declarer settled down to run the trump suit.

In the five-card ending, West had three spades and the ace-jack of diamonds, but had to discard the diamond jack on the last trump. Now declarer could exit with the queen of diamonds to endplay West to lead a spade around to declarer’s jack.

Today's deal was played in the quarterfinals of the world championships in Beijing four years ago. At most tables East showed both minors, West selected diamonds, and North doubled for takeout. Can you guess what should happen next? Let's see what happened in the match between the Netherlands and Germany.

In the first room the German South, Joseph Piekarek, sat for the double of three diamonds. The heart lead got the defenders off on the right track (not everybody found it). Declarer now had no chance to avoid losing one trick in each major, two clubs and two trumps, down 500.

The Dutch South, Huub Bertens, escaped from three diamonds doubled to three spades, and I’m sure if the German East-West had known their teammates had collected 500, they would have happily conceded 140. But East chose to double Bertens in the pass-out seat to show extras for his two-suited action, a good idea in theory. West passed it out, and his opening club lead went to the queen and king. But that persuaded East to continue the suit rather than shift to diamonds. Declarer won the club ace, then led a heart to the queen and another heart to the 10 and ace. Now he ruffed a club, led a spade to the six, cashed the heart king, and led a fourth heart, pitching a second diamond.

West could ruff in, but Bertens could trump the next diamond in dummy, draw one more round of spades, then run hearts and give West his trump trick for plus-730.

In today's deal, from the World Olympiad four years ago in Beijing, West has a splendid hand, but until he finds a fit, he can hardly drive his hand to the four-level,

Few pairs judged the East-West cards that well; let’s focus on the match between Norway and China.

In one room Glenn Groetheim as West played four clubs doubled after he had overcalled two no-trump to show the minors, then had doubled three spades. The defenders cashed their hearts and played a third heart, ruffed with the queen and overruffed. That had the effect of promoting a trump trick for the defenders, to go with their diamond winner, for down one.

It was good, but not good enough. In the other room the Chinese West overcalled two no-trump and also balanced with a double of three spades, which East gambled to pass for want of anything better to do. After three rounds of clubs, ruffed and overruffed, declarer played the side-suits, ruffing diamonds high and hearts low, and made nine tricks.

In England v. Romania both East-West pairs defended to three spades (one contract doubled, one not). Both Wests led three rounds of clubs and both Easts ruffed in and were overruffed. In each case declarer handled the trump spots sensibly to bring home nine tricks. None of these three Easts noticed they had a guaranteed way to set the hand. All they had to do was discard a diamond on the third club, instead of ruffing in, to ensure they could collect their ruff and beat three spades.

In today's deal from the finals of the Women's World Championship between England and China, which finished in a 1 IMP win for England, a nice defensive play paid dividends.

Both Wests opened a conventional call of two diamonds to show a weak-two in one major or the other. The English North had no convenient way into the auction on the first round, then had to guess whether to bid or pass on the next. The singleton heart king was of dubious value, and her main suit was hardly robust: She decided to pass.

The defenders led a trump and declarer was easily held to six tricks, minus-150.

By contrast the Chinese North took immediate action, showing a balanced 13-15, after which South jumped to the obvious game.

West led the heart seven, declarer winning with dummy’s king. With some good guesses 11 tricks are available, but when declarer started with a club to the queen, Heather Dhondy followed smoothly with the eight!

Naturally, declarer now ran the club 10. East won with the jack, cashed the spade king, and then went back to hearts. Declarer ducked, won the next heart, and knocked out the club ace, assuming that East would win the trick. All she would then have needed to do was locate the diamond queen, except that it was West who now produced the club ace and proceeded to cash her heart tricks for plus-300.