Puzzle 7F80 (Feb 03) by Richard Pavlicek

Trickless Triumph

3 NT x by South

None Vul	K J 7 4 9 8 7 5 6 K 8 5 3
A Q 9 — K J 8 7 5 4 3 2 A Q		10 6 2 A 10 6 4 3 2 10 10 9 7
Lead: 7	8 5 3 K Q J A Q 9 J 6 4 2

West 1 2 Dbl

North Dbl 3 All Pass

East 1 Pass

South 1 1 NT 3 NT

After a routine diamond lead, how do East-West defeat 3 NT and teach South a lesson about overbidding? If it looks easy, note that declarer will duck the first trick (letting East win the  10) to prevent West from establishing his suit easily; then the lucky black-suit lie may allow declarer to succeed.

Solution

South next leads a spade, and West must play the queen, won by dummy’s king. When declarer returns to hand with the  J, West sends his remaining entry to outer space by tossing the  A. Take that! Now declarer cannot establish clubs and spades before East can establish his hearts. (Note that East still has a stopper in both black suits.)

As my title suggests, West has to go trickless for the defense to triumph. With any other defense, declarer can maneuver to lose a black-suit trick to West and develop nine tricks (three spades, two hearts, one diamond and three clubs) while losing only one trick in each suit.