The biennial European Transnational Championships provide two weeks of top-class competition in the mixed, seniors, open and women’s categories.As South, try this first deal from the knockout held in Poznan, Poland, in 2024 as a play problem. You reach four spades after East has doubled Stayman (showing clubs), and you receive the club jack lead. How do you plan the play?Many declarers put up the club queen from dummy, captured East’s king, then took a spade finesse and returned a diamond for a finesse. They hoped to get rid of dummy’s club on the third diamond but were unlucky.You do not need the diamond finesse as long as you can establish the hearts. The key, then, is to pull trumps and set up hearts without letting East in for a diamond shift.The best line is to duck the club lead in both hands. You take the next club, finesse the spade jack and then cash the spade ace. Now, if you trust that West began with only two clubs, your safest bet is to knock out the spade king. West will not be able to force the dummy in clubs, so you can knock out the heart ace in peace and quiet. This line would be necessary if East had the heart ace; otherwise, that player would take the first heart and put a diamond through while West still had the spade king.You might prefer to knock out the heart ace first instead, rather than run the risk of a 5-3 club split. Either approach would work on the given layout, but covering the club jack at trick one would have been fatal.