At IMP scoring your absolute first duty is to try to make your contract and to give yourself
every opportunity to do so. This is something Declarer forgot on this hand Eszter and I defended yesterday:
You are the Declarer in 1NT. Game All
Dummy 
J752
76
632
AK92
Declarer 106
AKJ82
AQJ
643
The bidding was simple: 1
- 1
- 1NT.
LHO leads the 3
. RHO wins this trick with the Queen and switches to the Diamond 10. You try the Jack and it holds. How do you plan to make your contract?
.
.
.
First thing you need to ask yourself is "Why the Diamond switch?". It's unlikely that the Queen was a singleton, since Opps have told you they play 4th highest leads. Top probability, therefore, is that RHO has something like
KQx and doesn't want to continue Spades and therefore set up a Spade trick for you. Similarly, if the
King is onside, which the play to trick 2 suggests, you now have your 7 tricks (2
, 3
and 2
) and can start looking for overtricks or other ways to make 7 tricks just in case LHO is craftily holding up the K
.
First job should be to
duck a Club into RHO's hand. If the Clubs are 3-3, that's your 7th or 8th trick right there. Moreover it's a perfectly safe thing to do. The only suit that seems remotely vulnerable is Spades, and if RHO didn't continue Spades at trick 1, they're unlikely to do so at trick 4. RHO wins with the
8 and switches again to the 9
. Do you finesse the Jack? Well personally, no, I wouldn't, not on
this trick, anyway. Win this trick, cross to a Club and try the Diamond finesse a second time. The Queen holds. Now a 3rd Club to Dummy's Ace reveals the 3-3 split and you're home and dry for 8 tricks.
At our Table Declarer got himself into a right pickle: The play to the first two tricks was as described above, but now he played a Club to Dummy's
King and took the Diamond finesse again (which won). 7 tricks accomplished? Yes, but not quite! Having established his 7 tricks, Declarer now proceeded to establish 7 losers for themselves. He played AKJ of Hearts, LHO won the Jack with the Queen and RHO showed out. LHO now led a Club and Declarer
ducked. RHO won this trick with the Queen and switched to the King of Diamonds, knocking out the Ace (LHO showing out). Declarer still has their 7th trick in the Ace of Clubs, but instead chose to play a 4th Heart to LHO's 10 and the defence wrapped up a further three tricks in a Spade to RHO's King, a long Diamond cashed, and a Spade back to LHO's Ace to take the contract one off.
At IMP scoring, this is complete lunacy. Declarer lost a whopping 5ΒΌ IMPs on this simple part-score hand by forgetting that their first and only duty as Declarer is to make their contract. If you feel like going for broke then taking a Heart finesse is better odds than banging down AKJ, but ensure (and take) your contracted tricks
first
