Perfect defense can defeat many contracts. Today’s deal features the defenders doing great work. The declarer was Michael Byrne from England, who found a way to succeed anyway. East, with no real chance of outbidding his opponents, threw in a lead-directing bid at the two level. Guided by this, West led a diamond. Note that a spade lead would have given Byrne an easy time.

East played the nine of diamonds at trick one, losing to South’s king. Byrne led the queen of hearts. Had East ducked his ace, Byrne would have knocked out the king of clubs and had nine easy tricks, provided East held the ace of diamonds. East, however, won with his ace of hearts and led the jack of diamonds, losing to the queen while keeping communication open with his partner. East had not opened the bidding despite holding two aces and a jack, so South knew that West held the king of clubs. Byrne cashed the jack of hearts, learning a lot about the distribution, and exited with his remaining diamond. East had to take his diamonds or lose them.

East cashed two diamond tricks and exited with a spade. No other lead would have helped the defense. Byrne won with his king and cashed two heart tricks. West could not defend the position. In the three-card ending, West could not keep two spades and two clubs and had to surrender the contract with a tip of his hat to Byrne for his outstanding play! (Bob Jones welcomes readers’ responses sent to Tribune Content Agency LLC, 16650 Westgrove Drive, Suite 175, Addison, TX 75001. Email: tcaeditors@tribpub.com.)