Answers to Quiz on opening leads

(1)The ace of spades. It gives nothing away and may be the beginning of a forcing defence.

(2)The three of hearts. Your singleton is a good lead since partner has some points, you have spare trumps and you hold the vital ace of trumps to give you a second shot at getting into partner's hand.

(3) The nine of hearts. This is partner's suit and you are petering to show a doubleton.

(4) The six of diamonds. There is nothing better than the fourth highest in your longest suit here, and you hold an important entry in the ace of hearts. See number five below.

(5) The four of clubs. This is partner's suit and partnership harmony is vital. See number four above.

(6) The king of spades. When a take-out double has been converted into a penalty double by a pass, as here, it usually pays to lead trumps.  The ace of diamonds is certainly an alternative but when this was chosen in a famous tournament of yesteryear, it worked out badly and the contract was made.

(7) The ace of diamonds. This smacks of the forcing defence and you may have to hold up your ace of trumps to prevent ruffing in dummy when you persist with diamonds.

(8) The ace of clubs.  Someone is short in clubs and you hope it is partner.

(9) A small spade. The ace of hearts lead is likely to set up heart tricks for declarer and may well give him the contract. Lead the safe trump.

(10) The ace of hearts or the ace of diamonds. Partner cannot have any points and so your singleton lead would be wasted as partner will never get in. See if you can take four tricks straight off.

(11)  The queen of hearts. You need two tricks to defeat this contract and the king of spades is only setting up one.

(12) A small spade. This is the classic lead after a suit preference. Dummy has implied longer spades than hearts and the likely shortage in hearts could lead to some ruffing in dummy which you must try and stop.

(13) The two of hearts. Leading partner's suit is almost mandatory here, and not the king, please, otherwise partner will think you have a doubleton.

(14) The three of spades. Without an active lead in sight, you are looking for a passive lead and what better than a trump.