East-West vulnerable. South deals.

East-West vulnerable. South deals.
NORTH
A J 4 3
A Q 9 4
K 8
A K 3
WEST EAST
10 Q 7 5 2
K 10 6 3 J 8 7 5 2
A 7 5 Q 9 3
Q J 10 6 4 2
SOUTH
K 9 8 6
Void
J 10 6 4 2
9 8 7 5
The bidding:
SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST
Pass Pass 2NT Pass
3 Pass 3 Pass
3 Pass 4 Pass
Pass Pass
Opening lead: Queen of
They have a saying in the Old Country: "If you can, play. If you can't, write!" By and large that does not hold true for bridge. The best writers are also great players. The star of this hand from a match between Denmark and Austria is Steen Moller, a Danish internationalist who is his country's leading writer.
At both tables the final contract was four spades, and the lead was the queen of clubs. At both tables dummy's king won the first trick. The Austrian declarer led a trump to the king and continued with a low trump, and soon lost control of the hand and went down three tricks. Moller showed that the hand could be made even if declarer lost the diamond finesse.
At trick two declarer came to hand with a heart ruff and ran the jack of diamonds to East's queen. East returned the suit to West's ace. The jack of clubs was covered with the ace and ruffed by East. Reluctant to break a major suit, East returned his remaining diamond to declarer's ten, on which dummy's remaining club was discarded.
A spade to the ace fetched the ten from West and, when a spade to the nine held, the hand was over. Declarer cashed the king of spades and led two winning diamonds, discarding hearts from the table. Dummy scored the last two tricks with the remaining trump and ace of hearts.
This column is written by Tannah Hirsch and Omar Sharif. For information about Charles Goren's newsletter for bridge players, call (800) 788-1225 or write Goren Bridge Letter, P.O. Box 4410, Chicago, Ill. 60680.
& copy; 2006, Tribune Media Services
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