A little knowledge in bridge can be a dangerous thing

  The bidding:
  West   North   East   South
  1 [D]   1 [S]   Pass   3 [C]
  3 [D]   4 [C]   4 [D]   6 [C]
  Opening   lead   --   two   of
hearts.

It is said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and this deal, where South reached six clubs on the sequence shown, would certainly seem to provide support for that argument.

Most players with the West hand would choose the king of diamonds as their opening lead. It simply wouldn't occur to them to make any other lead, and in the end, they would wind up defeating the slam.

In the actual case, however, West, a well-known player, led a heart. He realized from the bidding that South almost certainly had no diamonds, and thought it might be essential to establish a heart trick for the defense before declarer could establish dummy's spades and dispose of his heart losers.

But, alas, West's opening heart lead proved fatal. Declarer won with dummy's queen, ruffed a diamond, played the KQ of trumps and then led the four of spades.

This presented West with an insoluble problem. If he went up with the ace, South would later discard his J-8-5 of hearts on dummy's spades. And if West followed low instead, declarer would win the spade with dummy's queen and return a low spade to the jack and ace, forcing West to concede the slam whatever he did next.

If West had led a diamond originally -- the so-called automatic lead -- declarer would have gone down regardless of how he proceeded. There would have been no way for him to avoid losing a spade and a heart, assuming best defense.

Was West simply unlucky because he was smart enough to figure out that South was void of diamonds, or should he have led a diamond anyway? It's hard to say, but of one thing we're sure: Alittle knowledge can be a dangerous thing!