Solving the problem

North-South reached an excellent slam. South won the opening diamond lead with his ace and cashed th

North-South reached an excellent slam. South won the opening diamond lead with his ace and cashed the ace of spades. West discarded, so the excellent slam had become a problem to solve. South found a line of play that was almost certain to work, provided West had the decency to hold seven diamonds for his vulnerable pre-empt. This was not a certainty in the modern game, but South needed that for his plan to work. It was a reasonable assumption.

Declarer cashed the jack of hearts and led a heart to dummy’s ace. It was important to remove all of East’s hearts, so South continued with dummy’s king of hearts. Had East started with four hearts, South would have cashed the queen to extract it, but the 3-3 heart split meant that South could turn his attention to trumps. He led a spade to his 10 and continued by cashing the king and queen of spades, before leading his last spade to East.

East had only clubs remaining and he had to lead one. South’s queen took the trick and gave South his twelfth winner. Very nicely played! This was another example of a preempt giving declarer a roadmap to the winning line of play.