The defenders missed a couple of opportunities in today’s deal from the 2025 World Bridge Tour. See if you can spot them.
West had a tough lead against three no-trump. The unbid suit is often fully stopped on an auction like this, dummy’s shape frequently being 5-4-3-1 with shortness in responder’s suit. Similarly, a diamond lead could make declarer’s life easy if East holds K-x and South J-x, say, or if East has A-x and dummy the diamond eight. West settled on a heart instead, which did not set the world on fire but gave nothing away.
Joe Grue, the declarer, covered East’s heart nine with the queen and then advanced the spade 10, which went to the queen and ace. A second round of hearts went to the jack and king, and then West tabled a belated diamond 10. Grue took that with the ace and played a spade from dummy. East played low, allowing Grue to score the spade nine, cash three hearts (discarding two diamonds and a club from dummy) and then clear spades for his ninth trick.
So, what did the defense miss? First, if West plays low on the spade 10, East can also duck. Now declarer has no reentry to the hearts in his hand. However, from West’s perspective, it might seem necessary to cover the spade 10, say if South’s spades were only 10-9-x and his hearts were weaker.
The second opportunity came late in the day. East could have risen with the spade king and switched to clubs, removing the late entry to dummy’s spade jack. However, the club shift would have to be the queen specifically, to create an entry to the West hand for a diamond continuation. A low club instead would go to the jack, king and ace, whereupon declarer could force a ninth trick in clubs. This play of leading an unsupported honor to create an entry to partner’s hand is known as a Deschapelles Coup.