Bridge

One occasion when it is almost always wrong to cover is when declarer leads an honour in his trump suit – you are unlikely to promote much for partner, and you'll often cheer declarer up.

The deal comes from the Nordic Junior Championships. The North-South auction bears the stamp of Junior scientific optimism. South does not really have an opening bid, so he tried to sign off over partner's slam try. That cut out Roman Keycard Blackwood, which would reveal that two keycards were missing, thus keeping them out of the poor slam.

West led the jack of spades, and East was depressed when he saw dummy.

Diamonds were breaking kindly for declarer, and his king of clubs could be picked up. Declarer won the ace of spades and led the queen of clubs. East covered, hoping forlornly that partner might have 109x or 108x. Declarer won the ace, ran the nine of clubs, drew trump and knocked out the ace of diamonds to make his slam.

Since West is unlikely to have either specific trump holding, East does better to duck nonchalantly. Declarer will know he has the king of clubs, but not how many he has. If West has the doubleton ten, declarer should continue by leading the jack of clubs to pin it; on the actual layout he should continue with a low club so that the king falls on air. Contrary to popular belief, if you force opponents to guess they will not always guess right.