BRIDGE NOTES: The move after next

Those who play Bridge with foresight anticipating what can possibly thwart their winning line of play and they are the ones who are invariably at the top echelon of Bridge competitiveness. Just like the beginners in Bridge are taught to prepare their opening bids, knowing that the possible responses from partner or even interferences from opposing side would not put them in some sort of guandry for they would be well versed in their bids, a classic example of which is the opening short club allowing the rebid at the one level over any suit response from partner. There is nothing special to learn about it. It is simply a matter of anticipation and looking far ahead with foresight and imagination. Just like in this bidding, the same mechanics cater to the card play, for before making a move a Bridge player with foresight would plan his next one and of course even the ones following that. He shall follow this plan keeping all margins for the enemy interference that is bound to occur to thwart his planning. Hence the good and experienced Bridge player keeps a contingency plan in reserve so that no move from the opponents can upset his timing which is so planned as to keep him a step ahead of his opponents.
The following illustrations are a good example of the above them. See if the reader can plan as well as the declarer in the following hand where north south hands in a contract of 4S:
The opening lead from west is the 6S. Take it from there sitting south.
As you can see declarer can see 5 solid trump tricks. Plan the 3 side aces making a tally of 8 tricks. A club favorable distribution can yield him the 9th trick or possibly the successful diamond finesse can solve all his problems but for that he needs to enter his hand with a heart ruff. Giving up a diamond trick early after playing the AKQ can yield him 3 diamond tricks, 2 sides aces, and the 5 trumps. But here again the player with foresight will anticipate the possible bottleneck that can upset his applecart if he draws trumps early for you can see that the declarer can only get to his hand once to draw trumps by ruffing a heart which leaves the hearts wide open if and when the opponents gets the vital entry with the KD which finesse the declarer was banking on.
Well how did your planning go for the perfect solution? Giving up a diamond early can be a possible solution but has the risk of a ruff in case diamonds break 4-1. Let us now see how the declarer fared who was no less than the famous legendary international film star Omar Sharif was playing against the bored famous Italians.
Omer Sharif found a neat solution. Can you spot it now? No! Well he cashed the top 3 spades with west discarding the 9H on the second round of trumps. By now he knows that east held 4 spades to the 10. So to thwart the Evenny's counter attack in case he came to hand with the heart ruff after cashing the heart ace, Omar Sharif the Bridge expert that he was and known for his brilliance in play, led a low heart at trick 4. Now no matter what the opponents did next, the defense was blunted for the declarer would now always be in control. For with the AH still in dummy, he could afford to ruff a heart, gave himself without trumps and still be able to set up the diamonds with west east hands as under:-
Although the problem here was a bit perplexing, the solution was simple for Omar Sharif anticipating the move after next.

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North

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A K Q

A 7 4

A Q 6 3

A 10 3

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South

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J 9 5 4 3

3

J 10 5 2

Q 8 4

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W    E

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6    10 8 7 2

K 10 9 6 5    Q J 8 2

9 7 4    K 8

K 9 5 2    J 7 6

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