The Dispatch – 11 Jun 1980
Once every 20 or 30 years you’re sure to see today’s hand. Why not in this column? Can you make the grand slam?
South dealer North-South vulnerable
Opening lead — K
If you draw trumps, how can you clear the diamonds and get back to dummy?
Don’t even think of ruffing clubs in dummy. Each ruff would set up a trump trick for East.
Obviously, you must win the first trick with the ace of clubs. What’s not so obvious is what you discard from the dummy. You discard a diamond since you need all three hearts.
Lead a spade to the Jack, ruff a heart, lead a spade to the queen, ruff another heart and then cash the queen of diamonds.
DISCARDS
You now have one trump in your hand and two in the dummy. Draw trumps, discarding the king of diamonds from your hand on dummy’s ace of trumps. Then lead dummy’s ace of hearts and discard the ace of diamonds from your hand. You are now in dummy with the trumps drawn and the diamonds ready to run.