Abraham Lincoln said, "No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens."

In bridge, cats fight for every trick, but there always seem to be plenty of cautious kittens.

This deal provides an example. How should East plan the defense against four spades after West leads his fourth-highest diamond?

West, with five-card support, might have bid more than two diamonds, despite his balanced hand. North's four-spade rebid was a slight underbid, but if, for example, he had made a splinter bid (a four-diamond jump cue-bid to show spade support and a singleton or void in diamonds), he might have persuaded West to lead a heart, which would have worked well.

When the deal was originally played, East won the first trick with his diamond king and, kittenishly, continued with the ace.

Declarer ruffed in the dummy, cashed the spade king, played a spade to his ace, and took the club finesse. It lost, but declarer conceded only one spade, one diamond and one club.

East should have wondered where four defensive tricks were coming from. He would have realized that his side probably needed one trick from each suit. So he had to fight for a heart trick and shift at trick two to a low heart. Suppose South inserts the eight. West covers with his nine to force out dummy's queen. After two rounds of trumps and a losing club finesse, a second heart lead from East establishes a trick in that suit. Declarer will try to run the clubs, but West ruffs the third round, and East takes the setting trick with his heart jack.

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