[nige1]

Defensive problem from yesterday's Swiss Teams (Imps to VPs).
Against South's 4♠, West leads ♦4 to East's ♦A, South following with ♦6.
As East, what do you return?
Edited to make defence slightly harder.

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[Tramticket]

Partner has 4-6 HCP. Partner can't have both the diamond king and the club ace. Even if we give partner the diamond queen and club ace, declarer has time to draw trumps and take discards on the ♥K/Q.

I don't think that we are beating this if partner's low diamond is from an honour. Our best bet seems to be that partner led a singleton and we give partner a ruff? This will leave space for partner to hold values in clubs to defeat the contract.

[Cyberyeti]

Tramticket, on 2020-January-21, 04:45, said:

Partner has 4-6 HCP. Partner can't have both the diamond king and the club ace. Even if we give partner the diamond queen and club ace, declarer has time to draw trumps and take discards on the ♥K/Q.

I don't think that we are beating this if partner's low diamond is from an honour. Our best bet seems to be that partner led a singleton and we give partner a ruff? This will leave space for partner to hold values in clubs to defeat the contract.

Is it possible declarer has ♥KQ tight and only has one discard ? in that case you have to get your club tricks first then play the diamond, better hope partner has ♣A8... and return the J to prevent declarer getting a diamond discard on the clubs.

The diamond ruff is the other possibility and not unreasonable to go for.

[nige1]

Cyberyeti, on 2020-January-21, 05:03, said:

Is it possible declarer has ♥KQ tight and only has one discard ? in that case you have to get your club tricks first then play the diamond, better hope partner has ♣A8... and return the J to prevent declarer getting a diamond discard on the clubs. The diamond ruff is the other possibility and not unreasonable to go for.

Defensive problem from yesterday's Swiss Teams (Imps to VPs).
Against South's 4♠, West leads ♦4 to East's ♦A, South following with ♦6.
As East, what do you return?
+++++++++++++++++++++++
As the cards lie, CyberYeti's ♣J return is necessary to defeat the contract.
This surrounding play avoids setting up ♣Q for a second ♦ discard.
After cashing 2 ♣s, East continues ♦s to knock out declarer's ♦K entry.
Now declarer crosses to dummy's ♥A to lead a cunning ♠6.
East must pop up ♠K to block the suit.
South tries to cash ♥KQ but West ruffs to defeat the contract.

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[Tramticket]

Thanks Nigel. An unusual sort of surround play - designed to ensure that East wins the second club trick without promoting South's queen.

Does East need to pop up with the spade king? I guess that if not, south can finesse and play hearts and if west ruffs in the third round south has retained the ♠A as a second entry, drawing the final trumps and allowing the ♥J to get rid of the second diamond loser. I'm not finding that at the table!!