BRIDGE NOTES: Good play motivates good defense

Bridge has a passion about it that takes players to great heights of stardom in their display of bridge skill. True - for an expert, both the aspects of bidding and play synchronise well enough to produce good results. But there is another side of the coin too - the defense, without which expertise cant be achieved.
True it is the most difficult aspect of bridge, for the defender is always at a disadvantage compared with the declarer who has the advantage of viewing 26 of the 52 cards that are on his side. The defender is shut off from his partners cards and therefore needs proper judgment to go through.
Today's illustration is a reflection of both - good declarer play and a fine defensive play as well - both of excellent stature, equally challenging and well taken care of. In an International Championship, at one table in the same contract, 4S bid was made. But on the same lead, in the other room, the contract failed to make. In both rooms, the declarers excelled in their table play but while in the open room, one defender excelled with the defense, the other fell short resulting in the making and failure of the contract of 4S bid as under on almost identical bidding on the following north south hands:
Both opening leads were of course the obvious A.C. KC and a third club, which east ruffed with 10S, to be over ruffed by the declarer who, when he cashed the KS, got his first shock when east blanked out discarding the 4D. As south, how would you proceed to make 10 tricks? Viewing your prospects in the light of west holding all the 4 trumps, it appears that the hearts need to break favourably for with 2 tricks already taken by the defense with the sure AD to follow, declarer cannot afford to give a heart trick. So all would be well if hearts break 3-2. The question is what if the heart break is 4-1? Can you still make the contract? Of course since you can't afford to give away any trump trick, you need to pluck west's trumps out by playing the 8S and 9S first as did the actual south - Maurice Harrison Gray, one of the greatest players of his time. Dummy naturally will be entered with a heart honour to pull out west's last trump with the AS exhausting trumps on both sides. Now what? If I tell you that the hearts were 4-1 all the time. Could you spot the lie of the cards that went in declarer's favour to give him the contract?
Yes you got it if observant enough to view east's discards of the diamonds on the 4 trumps giving a clear inference that he held the 4 hearts to the J109 leaving him with only the AQ of diamonds. Now a low diamond lead from dummy would set up the king and 8 for declarer's 10 tricks. Harrison Gray played excellently for his contract. But at the other table, the play was almost the same but yet the declarer failed in his contract. Can you reason why? And how the declarer could fail in the other room if the lie of the cards was such that the declarer was almost certain to get east. Squeezed in hearts and diamonds as east held the following hand:
Observe that on the 4 trumps with a heart played and 3 clubs already played on with east forced to ruff with his solitary trumps, over ruffed by the declarer, 5 cards need to be retained by east who per force held on to his J109 of hearts and the AQ of diamonds and had no apparent escape when a low diamond was played from dummy. Either way he is doomed taking AD or playing QD, making declarer's third diamond good enough for the contract.
In the other room the declarer who failed was also trying the same plan. But here the defense was with another wizard of Bridge-Howard Schenken sitting as east, who rose to the occasion with his usual brilliant defense that looks almost impossible to achieve on the table.
Can you guess it now? Yes Schenken with his tremendous foresight could see the end coming for him at the declarer's run of trumps. So he brilliantly Jettisoned both his master diamonds - the ace and queen of diamonds to give his partner the vital J as the entry for setting trick. Indeed, good play motivates good defense.

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North     South

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A752       KJ98

KQ84       A653

73          K82

QJ10         82

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     10

  J1092

AQ10964

     65

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S         W     N      E

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Pass     1C   Db1     1D

2D     Pass    3D     4D

4S              All Pass

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