The squeeze play can be fascinating and is the most rewarding of all bridge plays. Today's hand is one such lesson in squeeze play. The opening lead is 9D. This contract of 6NT is a good one with the spade finesse like to be on, from the bidding.
But, as south, how do you manage 12 tricks? You can have 3 spade tricks, 4 diamond tricks, 3 heart tricks and one club Ace adding to 11. You are a trick short still. Of course, one could hope for a singleton KC but that is not so as the cards lie.
In such a situation the question you should address is that how must the card lie to give you a chance for success. The overcall of 1S from west is a great help. With the 29 combined points between NS, the remaining points are easily placed with west who must surely hold a 5 carder spade with KS along with both the remaining key cards - the Ace of hearts and the king of clubs. If the king of clubs is not a singleton, west's holding is most like to be a 5-3-3-2 one with the red cards either 3-3 or 3-2. This is the only clue available with you on which you need to build your pyramid of hope and success.
The black suites have the potential of yielding the extra trick, but these suits of the opponents are well protected and, therefore, need to be put under some sort of pressure, if the declarer is to succeed in his Little Slam.
But a closer analysis reveals that you have no chance unless and until AH is knocked out first. So, in line with this plan, after taking the KD in dummy, you lead a heart towards JH in hand which is taken by west with the AH. West of course continue diamonds which you win with the Ace. Of course when you try the spade finesse of the Q and J, west is shrewd enough to duck twice and save his king, looking to the AS 3 carder in dummy. When east shows out on the second round, the 5-1 division in spades is confirmed.
Do you now see how south's chances for 12 tricks can develop? There is only one hope - the criss-cross squeeze enveloping west. Declarer has 7 red winners to go along with his 3 spade winners which can leave west in the last analysis with only 3 cards. Of course, he needs to cling to the king of spades and also to tenaciously guard the KC doubleton. But once a trick of AH is given to west already, the last 2 trick ending will not leave west in a happy position. An automatic criss-cross squeeze start developing within the black suits of west. Let's see how?
For a squeeze to work successfully, its basic requirement is to rectify the count by giving up the trick to the opponents early. Here, after winning the diamond, south has done exactly that at trick 2 knocking out the heart Ace from west.
Now it is time to run the winners in the red suits, the 3 heart tricks and remaining 3 diamond tricks, after playing 2 rounds of spades. Before the last diamond is played, this would be the 4 card ending with west clinging on to his black kings, while dummy would be with the lone AS, lone QD and the doubleton QX of clubs as against declarer's 109 of spades and A10 of clubs. East's cards are irrelevant.
On the final Squeeze card - the QD from dummy, declarer has to make a discard before west which surely can't be one of the spades for then it will be easy for west to throw a spade too, secure in the knowledge that his KC, over the declarer's Ace, is bound to score. So perforce, declarer needs to discard the 10C.
The focus now shifts to west. For he is in a quandary. Obviously, he can't throw a spade. For then the AS will bring the KS down and south will enter his hand with Ace of clubs to cash his spade winner. Therefore, east perforce is squeezed into baring his KC. That gives the declarer the remaining tricks - 2 clubs and AS to make his Little Slam. Such is the magic of squeeze.
===============================
A53 K8642 7 QJ109
KQ109 A83 6542 J7
KQJ7 985 1043 A62
Q5 K8 J9732 A 1064
===============================
The Bidding:
===============================
South West North East
===============================
1C 1S 2D P
2NT P 4NT P
5H P 6NT ALL
PASS
===============================