Spoiler – solutions I missed

Rubber bridge, ca. 1972

	North ♠A8xx ♥109x ♦10x ♣Q8xx
West ♠Q10xxxx ♥x ♦AKxxxx ♣–	4♥ by South lead: ♦Ace	East ♠– ♥Jxx ♦QJxxx ♣KJ109x
	South ♠KJ9 ♥AKQxxx ♦– ♣A7xx

... lead out some trumps and grind them into dust. ... weak opponents ... beat me on this one. Down 1.

... “Oh well then!” Martin said ...

As I learned much later, there are two solutions I overlooked.

1. The original solution is a gambit: Allow the defense to ruff one of our spade tricks, but we get two in exchange.

   After two rounds of trumps, lead spades through West. If East ruffs, a diamond exit is innocuous for now but the table is set.

2. May 2018 epilogue: Decades after I posted the story of the double-dummy problem and Martin Hoffman, John Cox sent me an alternative solution. His solution is fundamentally different, and shows that my initial impulse (grind them into dust) was not altogether wrong.

   John‘s solution is simple in that merely running the trumps does indeed squeeze the defense. But as I recall exact play is necessary to take advantage – how many trumps, which black suit – hence it is subtle and elusive.

   I won’t try to resurrect the details; I think this hint is sufficient for anyone interested to either find the solution or decide that I’m confused and it doesn’t exist.