World Championship Misadventures by Ben Norton

A: ♠8. It would be naïve to lead a Heart, since declarer must be prepared for that after your overcall, plus partner didn’t take the chance to Double 2♥ to encourage a Heart lead. Partner won’t have very much in the way of high cards, so a Diamond lead is unlikely to hit him with anything good, and will probably just give away a trick. Besides, if you need to attack Diamonds you can probably do so later.

Your best bet is a Spade, which won’t give anything away, plus you might find partner with some strength there. Also, dummy is known to not have Spade length from West’s failure to Double 1♥, whereas there could easily be Diamond length there. What’s more you must convey the message to partner that he needs to switch to Hearts, through declarer’s presumed Ace, instead of continuing Spades, so you should lead your highest spot card to make it clear that you don’t have a Spade honor and are thus disinterested in a continuation.

Your result so far:

A: ♠K. Declarer will have Spades double-stopped but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t attack the suit, since you’ll be able to get on lead a fair few times to eventually establish them. It would be of no use to lead passively, hoping partner can get in and switch to Spades through declarer’s presumed Queen, since partner isn’t going to have any useful high cards. Leading the ♦A will just give away a tempo.

You must start setting the Spades up right away, and you should lead the King rather than a small one. Kicking off with the King may be necessary when dummy has the singleton Queen, but it will also be best when there’s a singleton Ten on the table and declarer has the Ace and Queen. Leading a low one doesn’t cater for either of these positions, and if dummy’s singleton is the Ace leading a small card will only help when declarer has Q 10 x, hardly a likely holding given the 3NT bid.

Your result so far:

A: ♣2. It’s not attractive to lead from Q J x x into a strong No-trump, but since responder isn’t limited you should try to lead actively. The Spade suit looks to be fairly well positioned for declarer, with all his finesses working. Another incentive to lead aggressively.

A Diamond lead from the Ace will rarely strike gold and will blow a trick far too often. On the other hand a Club lead stands to establish lots of tricks whenever partner has an honor, and you should lead a small one, since you don’t have a good spot card to pick up the Ten in declarer’s hand. Leading a small one may not be so disastrous as the Queen when either opponent has length in the suit, and will be necessary to take three tricks when partner has A x and declarer the King, or when partner has A x x and declarer holds K x or K x x x.

Your result so far:

A: ♦Q. The general idea is to lead passively against 1NT, since the points are usually evenly split between the two sides and declarer won’t often have a big source of tricks. With this in mind a Spade lead, which will so often gift declarer a trick when he has the Queen, is out. A Heart from K 9 x will give away a trick even more often, especially considering that’s dummy’s suit.

Your Diamond holding is just about good enough to lead from. The strength in that suit will be on your right, so you probably won’t give anything away with your Nine holding the fort, and it could be a good offensive option, giving the defense direction.

Your result so far:

A: ♠10. Partner’s Double is Lightner, asking for an unusual lead. If he wanted a Heart, Diamond or Club lead he may well have overcalled that suit at the two-level, thus he must want a Spade lead. Also, in general a Lightner Double asks you to lead dummy’s first bid suit.

Partner would usually have five cashing tricks in the suit he’s asking you to lead, but he can’t have that here, given that dummy has promised five of them. Partner must have an excellent Spade tenace along with two side suit Aces, such that he can see that a Spade lead will set the contract. In terms of which Spade to lead, the Ten is best. The Ten could act as a pusher, picking up dummy’s honor(s). Say partner has ♠A K J 9 over dummy’s Queen. If you lead a low one partner will only take three tricks in the suit when declarer plays low from dummy, because you’ll never get the lead again. By leading the Ten you’ll pick up the suit in this position, and when partner has A Q 9 8 over dummy’s K J x x x.

Your result so far: