Good defense is mostly a matter of good partnership understanding. When play begins, the defenders have only a vague idea of their combined values. As the play progresses, they must try to clarify their respective holdings to each other in order to make the most of their assets.

Consider this deal where West led the king of diamonds against four spades, East signaling with the eight. South ruffed the diamond continuation, drew trump and tried the club finesse. East took his king and returned a heart, but South went up with the ace, ran the clubs and finished with an overtrick.

However, the defenders should have beaten the contract, and East was the player at fault. He should have overtaken the king of diamonds with the ace at trick one and shifted to the deuce of hearts at trick two.

Declarer could not have prevailed against this defense. If he goes up with the ace, he later loses a club and two hearts to go down one; if he ducks the heart, West wins with the jack and returns a heart to produce the same result.

With dummy’s threatening clubs in plain view, East should base his defense on the hope that his side can score two heart tricks. He should realize that his partner almost surely has six diamonds for his vulnerable overcall, leaving declarer with only one diamond. West then simply follows his partner’s chosen line of defense to achieve the desired result.

This type of partnership rapport constitutes the backbone of good defense. The defenders cannot actually see each other’s cards, but by working carefully together, they can usually achieve the same result as if they did.

Tomorrow: A case of self-delusion.

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