Knowledge is beautiful

January 29, 2022 04:15 pm | Updated 04:15 pm IST

An opening diamond lead would probably have defeated the contract, but West’s trump lead was reasonable. He was trying to protect partner’s heart holding from ruffs in the dummy. The opening club lead went to East’s king and South’s ace. The spade lead from South was won by West with the ace and he led another club, this time to declarer’s nine. South cashed the ace of hearts and ruffed a heart as West discarded a spade.

South cashed the king of spades, shedding his diamond loser, and noted the jack from West. Judging correctly that a second spade would not cash, South ruffed a spade in hand and drew the last trump.

This was the position: [Grid 2]

East was known to have started with 4-6-1-2 distribution, so South cashed his ace of diamonds to remove East’s singleton, and exited with a low heart.

East won, but he had to lead a heart or a spade. Either way, South had his game-going trick. Nicely played!

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