Bridge Column for April 10, 1994 
Neither vulnerable.  East deals.
                              NORTH
                              S: A 10 8 2         
                              H: K Q 7 5 3   
                              D: N o n e     
                              C: 10 9 6 3
            WEST                             EAST
            S: J 9 7 6 3                     S: K Q 5        
            H: 9 4                           H: J 8 6 2    
            D: Q 6                           D: A 7 5 3 2         
            C: 8 7 5 4                       C: J           
                              SOUTH                         
                              S: 4    
                              H: A 10       
                              D: K J 10 9 8 4
                              C: A K Q 2  
                   EAST   SOUTH     WEST   NORTH                  
                   Pass    1D       Pass    1H  
                   Pass    2C       Pass    3C  
                   Pass    3D       Pass    3S  
                   Dbl     Pass     Pass    Rdbl
                   Pass    6C       (All Pass)
     The 1994 spring North American Bridge Championships were
held in Cincinnati, Ohio from March 11th to 20th.  Over 11,000
tables of bridge were in play during the 10 day event.  The deal
diagramed above was played during the second final session of the
four session open pairs.
     The bidding was fairly standard.  When North bid three
spades he implied a three suited hand, which is what he had. 
East's double was asking for a spade lead, and North's redouble
guaranteed first round control of the spade suit.  At this point,
South felt that the chances for the club slam were excellent, so
he bid it.  As it turns out, bidding it was the easy part. 
Making it was really tough.
     West led his fourth best spade.  Declarer won this trick
with the ace in dummy and led a club to the ace.  When he saw the
jack fall from the East hand he was pretty sure that clubs were
not breaking well.  Abandoning trumps, declarer switched to the
king of diamonds.  East won the ace and led the king of spades. 
Declarer ruffed with the two of clubs and led the jack of
diamonds.  West had to cover with his "now singleton" queen of
diamonds, so the ruff set up the entire suit.  The king of hearts
was played from the North hand followed by a small heart to the
ace.  Here is the end position with six tricks to go and South on
lead:
                              NORTH
                              S: 10           
                              H: Q 7 5     
                              D: N o n e     
                              C: 10 9 
            WEST                             EAST
            S: J 9 7                         S: Q          
            H: N o n e                       H: J 8        
            D: N o n e                       D: 7 5 3             
            C: 8 7 5                         C: N o n e     
                              SOUTH                         
                              S: N o n e
                              H: N o n e    
                              D: 10 9 8 4
                              C: K Q   
     Notice that West has three trumps left while the North and
South hands have only two trumps each.  South plays the ten of
diamonds, and continues to play diamonds until West trumps.  When
West ruffs, declarer over ruffs in dummy, leads a trump back to
the South hand, pulls all of the remaining trumps, and wins the
rest of the tricks with good diamonds.
     The key play came at trick three when declarer played the
king of diamonds.  Had he led any other diamond, West could have
won the queen and East's ace could not be ruffed out.  In that
case, the diamonds could not be set up without losing another
trick, and the slam would be defeated.  Declarer did not know
which opponent had the ace of diamonds, but the actual layout was
what he was hoping for.  With the diamond suit established, the
slam could not be beaten.