John Constable, an English landscape artist who died in 1837, said, “I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may – light, shade and perspective will always make it beautiful.”

In today’s deal, perspective is relevant. How should South plan the play in four spades after West leads the heart king?

In the auction, North used a transfer bid, then offered his partner a choice of games by rebidding three no-trump. South, with his three-card spade support and lack of a club stopper, retreated to four spades.

In a suit contract, declarer typically counts losers by looking at his hand and taking dummy’s high cards into account. Here, though, with dummy having the long trumps, South must study the deal from his partner’s perspective. Looking at the North hand and noting South’s honors, declarer should see four potential losers: one heart and three clubs. Next, counting winners, South has nine: five spades, one heart and three diamonds.

Perhaps diamonds are 3-3, but that is against the odds. Instead, declarer should trump dummy’s third club in his hand, the ruff in the shorter trump hand both gaining an extra spade trick and eliminating a loser.

South takes the heart king with his ace and loses a club. The defenders win, cash the heart queen, and shift to a trump. Declarer concedes a second club, takes the next trump in the dummy, ruffs the last club, plays a diamond to the queen, draws the last trump, and claims.