“I say, Holmes, I don’t see how you knew. The winning defense would not have occurred to me.”

“That is why you are a card-pusher, Watson. You fail to reason logically.”

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were at Holmes’ Baker Street diggings, reviewing a match against Professor Moriarty.

(Look at the West and North cards and the auction. You lead the king of clubs against 3NT: four, deuce, seven. What next?)

“At the second trick,” Watson said, “you guessed to shift to a low heart. That would have been my last choice; after all, Moriarty had opened one heart as South.”

“I do not guess,” the detective said. “Let us consider. I had 11 points, dummy had 14 and South had opened the bidding. You had at most three points, but you couldn’t hold a king since all four lay in my hand and dummy. I assumed you had a queen.

“Suppose you had the queen of clubs,” Holmes went on. “Then we couldn’t beat 3NT. If I exit passively with a diamond, Moriarty wins and leads a club to your queen. You can shift to a heart, but he takes the ace and forces out my ace of clubs. We get three clubs and a heart, but he would have four spades, a heart, three diamonds and a club.

“Now say you had the queen of diamonds. If I lead a diamond at Trick Two, declarer wins and loses a club to my ace. He has four spades, two diamonds, two clubs and a heart. So I must play you for the queen of hearts despite South’s bid.

“Eliminate the impossible, Watson, and what remains must be the truth.”

“Amazing, Holmes.”

“Elementary.”

South dealer

N-S vulnerable

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