Some deals from the annual world championship receive only passing notice because the outcome at both tables is exactly the same. But this one from the Italy-U.S. match in 1973 deserved more publicity than it got.

Nothing much happened at the first table, where the U.S. pair bid and made four spades. West led the K-Q-2 of diamonds. South ruffed, drew trump, lost a club finesse to East’s queen and eventually discarded his heart loser on dummy’s fourth club to score 620 points.

At the second table, where Giorgio Belladonna was declarer for Italy, West led the K-Q of diamonds and shifted to the ten of hearts. This put an altogether different complexion on the matter. It now seemed that Belladonna would lose a heart and a club and go down one.

But Belladonna made the contract anyway. He covered the ten of hearts with the jack, losing to the king, and ruffed East’s diamond return. He then played the Q-K-A of trump, producing this position (next column):

Belladonna now led the ten of spades and discarded the ten of clubs from dummy, eschewing the club finesse in favor of a squeeze.

East had no answer to this play. If he discarded a heart, South would establish an extra trick in dummy by playing the ace of hearts and ruffing the deuce; if East discarded a club instead, South would cash the A-K of clubs to establish his jack as the 10th trick. So the deal was a washout with Italy also scoring 620 points — the hard way!

Tomorrow: There’s only one right play.