South’s two no trump rebid showed 22-24 points. North didn’t know how to both use Stayman and also check for aces, so he just used Stayman and leaped to the no trump slam when there was no heart fit. South was Bas Tammens, of the Netherlands, who was 14 years old when this deal was played. Dummy’s jack of clubs won the opening lead.
There were 10 top tricks and a successful spade finesse would provide two more. Misguessing the queen of spades, however, would probably lead to defeat, as the king of clubs appeared to be offside. Tammens chose a line of play that gave him chances beyond a spade guess. Tammens cashed the ace and king of diamonds, the ace of hearts, and crossed to dummy with the jack of diamonds.
He discarded the queen of diamonds on the king of hearts and the queen of clubs on the jack of hearts. This set up an eleventh trick and left West on lead with the queen of hearts. West had only black cards remaining and had to present declarer with the twelfth trick no matter what he led next. Should West be able to exit safely with a fourth heart, or if it was East who held the heart queen, South would still have a spade guess to fall back on and there were some extra chances as well. Nicely played by anyone, and especially nice for a 14- year old!
