In the 2025 Bermuda Bowl, Andrew Robson’s four-club overcall showed both majors, and David Gold’s four diamonds indicated no preference. West, Denmark’s Martin Schaltz, doubled in an effort to find a diamond save. Robson redoubled to suggest better spades than hearts, so Gold selected four spades.
Schaltz led his singleton heart, and Gold inferred West had diamond length, but his decision to open three clubs rather than four suggested that his shape was 2=1=4=6. Declarer’s task was to establish dummy’s hearts, so he could not draw trumps first for fear of losing a spade, two hearts and a diamond. However, simply cashing one top spade and conceding a heart might see West ruff away the heart ace.
Gold correctly played low from dummy at trick one and won with the ace. Then he returned a heart at once, leaving the defense no recourse. If West ruffed in, declarer could later cash one top spade, lead the heart queen to force out the king, and then discard a diamond on the heart jack before ruffing a diamond in hand. If West did not score a heart ruff, declarer could later take two rounds of trumps and ruff the fourth round of hearts in hand.
Note that putting up the heart queen from dummy at trick one would cost the contract if East ducked, as Dennis Bilde surely would. Now West could ruff away South’s heart ace on the next round.
What was Gold’s reward for this farsighted play? A loss of only five international match points when West’s aggressive four-club opening was caught for 800 in the other room.