BRIDGE

THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2022

East dealer.

Both sides vulnerable.

The bidding:

East South West North Pass 1 [H] Dble 4 [H] Opening Lead – king of diamonds.

Good defence is not difficult if you keep the ultimate objective – defeat of the contract – in mind. Most defensive errors are usually due to a failure to view the play of the hand as a whole.

Assume you’re East, defending against four hearts, and partner leads the king of diamonds. When dummy appears, you should feel there’s a reasonable chance to defeat the contract. This is because the dummy does not pose much of a threat.

You signal with the seven of diamonds, asking West to continue the suit in hopes of snatching three quick diamond tricks. But declarer ruffs the next diamond lead, and you must now reconsider how your side is going to collect the four tricks needed to set the contract.

At trick three, South leads a trump to the 10 and returns a club from dummy. If you follow the general rule of secondhand low, you will later regret it. South plays the queen of clubs and West the ace, but the battle is just about over. Declarer soon leads another club from dummy. You win the king and return a spade, but South rises with the ace and discards dummy’s queen of spades on the jack of clubs to make the contract.

Note, however, that if you go up with the king on the first club lead from dummy and return a spade, South goes down one.

After declarer trumps the diamond at trick two, it is clear that your side must score three tricks in the black suits to stop the contract. If South has the A-Q of clubs, your king is dead no matter what you do, so rising with the king can do you no harm. But if West has specifically the club ace and spade king, going up with the king and returning a spade is the only way to defeat the contract.