9 Make it easy for partner to do

9 Make it easy for partner to do the right thing in defence

ª J 10 7

¨ A 6 3

§ 6 4

ª K 9 6 4 2 ª Q 8 5

¨ K 10 4 ¨ J 8 7 2

§ 3 2 § A K 8 5

ª A 3

¨ Q 9 5

§ Q J 10 9 7

South West North East

1NT Pass 2¨ Pass

2© End

East should get in the action with a double and that would result in 2ª bid and made. But the defence to 2© has an interesting point.

West led ª4 to ªJ ªQ and ªA. Declarer played a heart to ©Q and ©A and East was in the spotlight. The defence have two club tricks, possibly two heart tricks (as the cards lay) and therefore need diamond tricks to beat the contract. East cannot play §K before switching to a diamond as that allows a club trick to be established and, if South has ¨K, the contract will make. So he needs to switch to a diamond immediately. The problem is that partner does not know who has ¨Q.

This is a position where East must make a lead which will not make West lay down his ¨K if he wins a trump trick. Without any prior arrangement it seems clear that ¨2 will leave partner in some doubt if he has ¨K 10 x so the card which should lead partner down the right route is ¨7 (or ¨8). There should be no confusion. There is another point. As the cards lie, playing back ¨2 would force West’s ¨10 if declarer plays low from hand. Then the defence can never make more than one diamond trick if declarer plays for ¨J and ¨10 to be in different hands.

Of course, declarer’s play was not top class. Surely it must be right to establish either a spade trick or a club trick for a diamond discard before touching trumps. If he played on clubs he would lose two diamonds as well but playing on spades would limit the result to one down at worst. In fact, he should get the hearts right once he is in dummy with ¨A to take the diamond discard on the spade.