Norwegian star Geir Helgemo, one of the world’s best, was South, in today’s deal. The best route to 10 tricks would be to ruff a diamond in dummy, but the excellent opening trump lead prevented that.

Second choice was to set up a long spade in dummy, needing a 4-3 spade split. Helgemo went after this by winning East’s queen of hearts with the ace at trick one, cashing two top spades in dummy, and leading a third spade. When East discarded a club on the third spade, Helgemo ruffed and led the jack of hearts. East won and led a heart to dummy’s nine as West discarded the king of diamonds. This was the position:

Helgemo now made the elegant play of leading the two of diamonds from dummy! East won with his jack. A club from East would see Helgemo duck, end-playing West, so East led a diamond to dummy’s ace. West had to shed a spade. A spade ruff, establishing dummy’s 10, and a low club now finished West. He had to win and lead another club, giving dummy an entry for the established spade. A beauty!