Placed in Group D of open team contest in the 12th World Bridge Olympiad held in Istanbul, Turkey in 2004, France had a good run of luck - so to say - until the middle of their rounds in the championship. The French team, winner of many a time European championship, was considered a good challenger for one of the top positions in this Bridge Olympiad also.
In a match between France and Hungary the French team, which has been performing well with form and consistency, displayed inspired moves against their opponents. But in the later sessions the French team showed signs of fatigue and weakness in the grip over the game so they were relegated to lower position in the final stages of the tournament.
The match against Hungary was held in a serene and congenial atmosphere that was the hallmark of the entire proceedings of 12th World Bridge Olympiad. The French team gained a great deal of confidence having had victories over their opponents in the earlier rounds.
In one of the deals the French team overwhelmed the Hungarian opponents with their superb performance in bidding, play and defence. A deal is reproduced below which reflects a textbook treatment in defending a contract, which could tilt the result in favour only by imaginative defense.
WEST LED DIAMOND KING: The bidding has gone as shown above with no hope for the defence to defeat the contract except that the West held four cards of trump. And the West saw some ray of hope if he could get trump promotion by making the declarer to ruff diamond if he was short in that suit. His thinking came true on the king of diamonds South dropped the queen, so he continued with the ace of diamonds, which the South ruffed with ten of spades. Then the declarer played two rounds of trump and learning a bad break in trump suit he played a small heart to the queen of hearts in dummy which Jean-Christophe Quantin sitting in the East position won with the ace of hearts and moved back ten of diamonds which the South ruffed with the jack of spades. Leaving only one trump with him and two trumps with the West. At this point he cashed three tricks of clubs and moved jack of hearts from the dummy and allowed it to ride, which the West ruffed with the eight of spades and moved last diamond, which the declarer was obliged to ruff. That happened to be a great disadvantage and the contract went down by one trick. The contract was cold and unbeatable with any other lead.
So it was a brilliant defence by French team, whereas on the other table a singleton heart was led by the West against a similar contract of four spades by South. The defense got a ruff in heart, but that was all the defender could gain.
Dealers Note:
No side vulnerable

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North      West       East          South
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S 643      S 9852     S 7        S AKQJ10
H QJ5      H 4        H A8632     H K1097
D 7632     D AK84     D J1095         D Q
C AKJ      C 7432     C 1096        C Q85
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The Bidding:

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West     North     East        South
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Multon   Szilagy   Quantin     Honti
Pass     Pass      1S
Pass     2NT       Pass           3H
Pass     3S        Pass           4S
Pass     Pass      Pass
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