One of the deals from the match between Russia and Netherlands in round three is worthy of a look. Board 8. Dealer West. Neither Vul.

         K 10 8 7 4 2
         A 8 7 5
         J 6
         6

		
 A 5            Q J 6
 J 10 9 6       3
 10 3 2         Q 9 7 5 4
  A 8 7 5        Q 10 9 3


         9 3
         K Q 4 2
         A K 8
          K J 4 2

How would you fancy your chances in four spades? Simon de Wijs led the heart jack, which declarer won with the king in hand to play a trump. Simon rose with the ace and continued with his lowest heart for Bauke Muller to ruff. Muller did return a club for the ace and another heart promoted the spade queen into the setting trick en passant. Well done indeed.

West	North	East	South
Khven	Drijver	Rudakov	Brink
Pass	Pass	Pass	1 NT
Pass	2	Pass	2
Pass	4	Pass	Pass

In the other room, the Dutch avoided this trap and duly reached four hearts. A diamond went to the jack, queen and ace and a spade was led, the king winning (the first essential element of the defence). The next spade went to the ace and at this point, at the table, West cashed the ace of clubs before continuing a diamond. This gave declarer an easy ride.

Best defence at that point would have been to continue with the diamond ten. South wins, cashes the heart king and queen and crosses to the heart ace to ruff a spade, and again West must be careful. He must discard, or declarer can cross to dummy to run the spades.

Declarer ruffs a diamond before leading a winning spade for West to ruff, and in the three-card ending West is down to ace-third of clubs. The final trap is that West must underlead his club ace, letting South score his club king but giving the last two tricks to the defence.

Declarer can prevail if he ignores the trump suit, ruffing a diamond and ruffing a spade. It does not help West to overruff, so he discards a club. Now declarer goes to the ace of hearts and plays a club to the jack and ace. He wins the heart return and cashes the king of clubs and ruffs a club with the master trump still to come. It is the old story, declarer establishes the side suit first. The best lead at trick one is the jack of hearts, and then a switch to a diamond when winning the second round of spades makes life too difficult for declarer.