Albert Einstein said, “The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.”

The grand aim of all bridge players is to find the winning line after drawing logical deductions from the auction – both bids and passes – and cards played. This deal is a good example. It occurred during a junior match between the Czech Republic and England.

South was in four hearts after West had pre-empted in spades. West led the diamond seven to East’s jack and declarer’s ace. How did declarer analyze the play?

West drew in one notch (not bidding three spades) because he had a relatively weak suit and was vulnerable – but that was uncharacteristically cautious for a junior.

Frederick Illingworth (South) was threatened with five losers: three clubs and two hearts. The first problem was in the trump suit. Typically, a pre-emptive overcall suggests shortness in the opener’s suit, but in this case, declarer felt that if West had been short in hearts, he would have considered sacrificing in four spades; instead, he had passed in tempo over four hearts.

So, South played a heart to the king and ace, won the next diamond in his hand, and cashed the heart queen. Then he took his spade ace, played a diamond to the queen, ruffed the spade queen in his hand, discarded a club on the diamond 10, and led a trump to dummy. Illingworth completed a well-played deal by leading dummy’s club jack. As the cards lay, the defenders could not take three tricks in the suit.