Today’s deal is from the European Pairs Championship some years ago. Most tables reached four spades and the play was usually the same. The defense started with three rounds of diamonds, South ruffing the third round. Three rounds of trumps were followed by cashing the king of clubs and leading a heart to dummy’s 10. East could win his queen but he was then endplayed. Making four.
At one table, West was Christer Kristofferson, who we think is from Norway. After two rounds of diamonds, Kristofferson shifted smartly to a heart. Declarer ducked this to East’s queen, and East exited with a trump. South rattled off five rounds of trumps, leaving this position:
Declarer cashed the last trump and discarded dummy’s 10 of hearts. East was caught in a classic criss-cross position. Should he discard a heart, South would lead a heart to the ace, come back to his hand with the king of clubs, and cash his two high hearts. A club discard instead, and South would cash the king of clubs, cross to dummy with the ace of hearts, and cash two high clubs.
A club shift by East earlier, rather than a trump, would have defeated the contract, but that was almost impossible to see.
