The Bridge World magazine is published monthly in New York state. It is written primarily for serious duplicate players, but it has articles and quizzes for those wishing to improve their game.

Readers can also interact. Every month, two expert pairs bid 10 hands. Readers may bid them the month before, then compare their results. And each month there is a bidding and opening-lead quiz. Readers may send in their answers, then see what a group of experts did.

Try this declarer-play problem from the section for those wishing to become strong club-players.

South is in three no-trump. West leads his fourth-highest heart, the six. What should South do?

Declarer has eight top tricks: one heart, four diamonds and three clubs. There is a natural reaction to call for dummy's heart queen. If West has led from the king, the contract is secure. But here that play fails. East wins with his king and returns a heart, establishing West's suit while West still has the spade ace as an entry.

Taking the first trick with the heart ace, playing a diamond to hand, and leading the spade jack could work. First, West might duck and South could guess correctly. Or West might win with his ace and continue with a low heart, declarer guessing to play low from the board.

However, the best play is dummy's low heart. Here, East will win with his 10 and probably shift to a club. Now South has time to attack spades. But if East could underplay with the heart two, declarer can finesse dummy's queen at trick two, not having lost anything.

Full details are at www.bridge world.com.

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