Thrust and Parry
By Mark Horton In 46th World Bridge Teams Championships On 28th August 2023
This deal from Round 20 might easily be overlooked:
When partner opens 1
you respond 1NT and then bid 3
over partner’s 2. When partner raises to 4 you decide, despite the void in partner’s suit to go on to game.
North leads the 2 and this is what you can see:
That’s a very annoying lead, as after anything else you would have been able to pitch a spade on the A and give up a heart, intending to ruff two hearts in dummy. When you play dummy’s 6 South covers with the Q. That’s another blow on the same trick, as otherwise you could have played to establish dummy’s diamonds, perhaps even emerging with an overtrick. Having taken the trick with the A do you see any chance?
Chile’s Marcelo countered the tremendous opening lead found by Switzerland’s Michal Nowosadzki by continuing with the 
Q! It was brilliant example of avoidance play, hoping that an opponent would hold the AK but not the missing trump.
This was the layout:
