Second String by Foxymoron

 The beginner is taught to cover an honour with an honour, and often does so religiously. I have lost count of the number of times Zia has guessed the layout on the principle that if they don't cover an honour it is because they don't have it!. And it often costs little to try and induce a cover.  The power of the closed hand means that they cannot see what the right defence is.

North did a bit too much on this board and South's hand was a bit of a disappointment to him. East led the normal king of hearts, asking for count which West gave. Now declarer drew trumps and played for clubs 3-3. A very reasonable but unsuccessful line. Given that there could be a trump loser, this is a poor slam, but a bit of cunning might have made it. At trick two declarer should lead the ten of clubs from dummy. West will surely cover this (after all North might have Axx) and North wins and draws trumps and crosses to the king of clubs. Declarer can still play for clubs 3-3, but now has a second string to his bow. He should lead the nine of clubs from dummy and see what reaction he gets from West. It costs nothing, and if West plays low you might decide to play for clubs 3-3 still. Or you might reason that West would not have covered at trick two with ♣Hxx. If West covers another honour with an honour you are home. With an unexpected overtrick as well and probably all the matchpoints in the country on this SIMs board. To save the overtrick, West has to duck the ten of clubs at trick two!

The expression "second string to your bow" is very old and comes from archery. It appeared in John Heywood, Proverbes (1546):

Yee have many strings to your bowe, for yee know,

Though I, having the bent of your uncles bow,

Can no way bring your bolt in the butte to stand ;

Yet have yee other markes to rove at hand.

Sadly, in today's climate of allegations of cheating in online bridge, any pair scoring +1460 will be viewed with suspicion. There has been a plethora of suspensions including county directors and internationals, Chess is worse with tens of thousands of online accounts closed for cheating.

20210413_commentary.pdf (ebu.co.uk)

gives all the hands with interesting commentary by Paul Bowyer. Congratulations to Dominic Flint, the London President, and his wife Pamela Reiss, for their splendid 72% defending the human race against the robots who were second.