A good defense in the closed room was beaten by an even better one in the open. It all happened when Spain met The Netherlands in Round Three of the open.

Board 2. Dealer East. N/S Vul.
	ª 7 © Q ¨ A K J 9 7 6 5 § J 7 6 3
ª A K 2 © A 10 9 8 5 4 ¨ 4 2 § Q 4		ª J 9 6 5 3 © 3 ¨ Q 10 § A 10 9 5 2
	ª Q 10 8 4 © K J 7 6 2 ¨ 8 3 § K 8

Closed room
West	North	East	South
Torres	De Wijs	Frances	Muller
		Pass	Pass
1©	2¨	dbl	Pass
2©	3¨	Pass	3NT
Pass	Pass	Pass

José Ignacio Torres led a top spade, saw the dummy and went into the tank. When he finally to got out of it, he did the right thing: tabling the §Q. Declarer won the king, played a diamond to the ace and the ©Q. West won the ace and continued in clubs. A smooth down one. Good defense though a diamond switch at trick two and a possible diamond continuation would do also, since declarer is bound for a suicide squeeze. Still, in the open room defense did even better, much better:

West	North	East	South
Jansma	Ventin	Verhees	Lantaron
		2ª *	Pass
Pass	3¨	Pass	Pass
3ª	Pass	Pass	dbl
Pass	3NT	Pass	Pass
Pass

* "Muiderberg": five spades and a minor, 0-7 HCP

With his seven bagger Juan Carl Ventin didn' t want to stand his partner's double, but tried 3NT. The spade lead by East went for the ten and the king. Like in the closed room Jan Jansma switched to §Q. Declarer won the king and, in view of the bidding, not unreasonable played a diamond to the jack. When the smoked cleared 3NT was "five in the mountains" as they say in Holland.