Thanks Ann for sending this hand to me.

The bidding seems fairly straightforward for once. East opens 1♥ and South should double showing 4 Spades and up to 15pts.

North has a choice between pass, converting the double into a penalty double but in reality is much too weak and should bid 1NT to show that his strength is in hearts and also to deny having 4 spades.

The hand should now be passed out.and North should make at least 8 tricks because East's opening bid has placed virtually all of the top cards

The bidding should present no real difficulty and the final contract should be 1NT by East. West's hand is quite nice but opposite 6-9pts with no 5 card suit to develop, West should pass.

At our table a somewhat cheeky South overcalled 2 spades and now an ambitious West bid 2NT just in case East had 9 or 10 points and could go to game.

On a spade lead dummy wins and you must decide whether to attack diamonds or hearts.

You have 3 spade tricks, 2 hearts (once the Ace is knocked out) and only 1 certain diamond trick making 6.

2 more must come from the red suits and by attacking hearts first you have a chance of making 3 heart tricks if they break 3/3. The other problem is that South has spade tricks to cash and after the overcall probably has sufficient entries to cash them. The succes of the hand depends upon trying to make 8 tricks before the opposition make 5.

So a small heart towards the King and keep playing hearts until the Ace drops. That's 3 heart tricks so 2 more needed.

No doubt a second spade will be led and once again you must lead a small diamond away from dummy towards the Queen. If the Ace pops up you are home but that is bad defence. If the Queen holds you must lead a small diamond back towards dummy and make a choice depending on what South plays. As it happens both the jack and the Ace are in the wrong hand.

However there is still hope becaue the defence might cash the Ace and jack befor eleading a club to South who still has to play another spade to knock out your last stopper

Overall a dificult hand which makes 8 or even 9 tricks on incorrect defence and goes at least 1 off on correct careful defence.

An interesting hand which was bid quite well at the table.

4 pairs ended in 3NT by South and 2 pairs were in 5D by South.

Unfortunatley 5D will always score less than 3NT and in this case only score +600 whereas 3NT scored 10, 11 or even 12 tricks for +630; +660 or +690.

I think everybody will open 1D on the South hand and I suspect that the problem arose if West decided to make an overcall of 1 Spade ( I would!).Now North has a big problem because any diamond bid is too weak to describe his hand, and might miss a slam, but he cannot bid 2 hearts because that gaurantees 5 hearts in most partnerships.

I recommend a 'temporising' bid of 2 Clubs which keeps the bidding open and allows South to complete his description of his hand  with 2NT showing 16pts and a spade stop. An alternative bid by North would be 2 Spades asking partner 'do you have a spade stop?'

I have chosen this hand as Hand of the Week because it must have been very tempting to bid 6D and there is a very fortunate way to make 12 tricks if your bidding took you to the slam.

Can you work it out? Click answer to see the result.

On the face of it, this should be the simplest hand to bid.

At the table the contracts were:

2 pairs in 1NT by West making 7 tricks for +90

1 pair in 1NT by West making 6 tricks for -100

1 pair in 1NT by East making 6 tricks for -100.....how did you bid this? Do you play a strong NT?

1 pair in 2D by South making 5 tricks for -150, no sympathy from me if you must open on 11 points! Minus 150 is a complete bottom score.

So, the correct contract is 1NT by West and presumably North led a small heart. South should play the Jack and West should duck.

West has 1 Spade, 2 Hearts, 1 Diamond and 2 Club tricks for 6 tricks and can develop a 7th in at least 2 ways. Either play a small club to towards the Jack and if the Queen is on your left the Jack will make on the second round. OR repeated plays of spades from Dummy will eventually produce 2 spade tricks, and of course if the opposition open up diamonds or spades for you, then you will automatically make 7.

Notice that if East is playing the contract he might get a diamond lead and be able to make 8 tricks!

Another example of a hand that looks strong but should be bid cautiously. It's only strong in one suit.

The scores at the table were:

2 pairs in 1NT by East = +2 = +150

1 pair in 2H by East  = -2 =-200 how did East become declarer in Hearts? (perhaps West opened a Benji 2D?)

1 pair in 2NT by East = -1 = -100

1 pair in 1NT by East  = -1 = -100 

2 pairs in 1NT by North = -3 = -300

what a varied collection.What should happen?

Try it yourself and then click on answer to see my suggested sequence.

What an interesting hand.

North should open 1C his hand is too strong for a pre-empt or (if you play a gambling 3NT) a speculative 3NT, not a good bid with 4 hearts

East passes, South shows his spades and West doubles to show an opening hand and support for the 2 unbid suits. North bids 2Clubs (not 3 because that shows 16+ pts) and West passes to show his weakness.

South passes and West re-opens with another double to say 'I really like my hand please bid partner' but I only have 4 hearts (with 5 he can bid 2 hearts)

Now North should pass and East at last bids diamonds, showing a weak hand with 5 diamonds.....with 4 he should bid 2 hearts and play in a 4/3 fit.

Now at last poor frustrated North should bid 3Clubs showing his extra length and an inability to defend 2 diamonds.

Zero marks out of 10 for those who  opened 3C or 3NT. Zero marks for those who ended up in 3NT and how did 2 pairs bid 5C ? North has 7 tricks but where are the other 4 going to come from?

At the table 1 pair played in 3NT off 1 trick. 2 pairs played in 5C off 1 or 2 tricks. 1 pair played in 4C down 1 and 2 pairs correctly played in 3C making 9 tricks.

Unfortunatley both East/ Wests doubled the 3C contract for -670 and a complete bottom!

So what's the message? North has a weak hand and should bid it accordingly............with caution not bravado!

The play is simple. East should lead his heart 3 (his partner's suit) and the defence take 1 spade, 2 hearts and 1 diamond leaving North to gloat in a hand well bid with 9 tricks rolling in .

Here's an interesting hand played at Barnstaple on Thursday 1st May

West is dealer and playing Benji opens 2H to show 6 hearts and 6-10pts. This hand is almost too good and some experts will open 1H instead despite only having 10pts.

Once West opens 2H can East ignore his wonderful spades and concentrate on the 8 card fit in hearts? Not many wlil resist the temptation but you should!

All roads lead to 6 Hearts which is not easy because the spades break 5-1 and the contract actually requires a heart finesse and the Ace of diamonds being with North. Who said bridge was easy?

I have shown a possible bidding sequence but can you make to contract on a lead of the 2 of clubs?

Why not try it out, I will post the answer in a few days.

The bidding sequence I have suggested is reasonably complex but here is my explanation:

2 Hearts= 6-10pts and a 6 card heart suit

2NT= agrees hearts and uses OGUST to enquire about the opener's hand

2S= top of the range with a good quality suit.............3 honours

4C= a cue bid. hearts have been agreed so this bid shows first round control in Clubs. As West has the Ace he now knows partner is void in clubs

4H= my hand is not worth 10pts any more because my club Ace is worthless.

6H= my hand is huge let's try the slam, we might be lucky

Note that neither player used Blackwood because it is not appropriate with a void.

Here's a bit of fun, published by David Burn in the latest EBU magazine

What's the best contract for E/W?

Cover up the other 2 hands and try to work out that 3 Spades cannot be beaten, therefore the top score available to E/W is +140

Now try to workout the best score for N/S.

Cover up the E/W hands and discover that remarkably it's also 3 Spades which can't be beaten. So top score for N/S is +140

A total of 18 tricks in Spades?

Wow what a hand!!

This hand seems straightforward and yet the scores were:

1H +1

3NT +3

2NT -1

3NT +3

2NT +2

3NT -2

3NT +1 which was passed

The bidding is easy, North should open 2NT and South should raise to 3NT with a solid 5 card suit and 5 points. One North opened 1H which was passed out and clearly 2 South's passed 2NT, which is not the way to win duplicate matches.

If East leads the Spade 3, the contract is one off because E/W will take 4 spade tricks plus the Club Ace providing East unblocks in time.

If East starts with the Heart 7 declarer will have to be bold and play the Jack from dummy. Now he can unblock the diamond Ace and King, then knock out the Club Ace before crossing to dummy with the Club Jack to make 3 more diamond tricks. Making 1 Spade, 2 Hearts, 5 Diamonds and 4 Clubs for +3

If East starts with the heart King it is not good for declarer who will still follow the same course, playing the A and K of diamonds, then playing on clubs to set up dummy's diamonds, keeping the Jack as an entry. E/W will take 3 heart tricks and the Ace of Clubs but cannot now set up their spade winners. So 3NT making 9 tricks.

Rarely do we see a hand where the choice of opening lead means that the contract just makes, or is +3, or is down 1

What an unusual hand. East will of course open 1 Club, West should respond 2 Hearts to show a solid 15 pointer with 6 really good hearts. (and South should refrain from gloating at this stage).

East has 16 points and so can easily bid 2Spades  and when West re-bids 3 Hearts to show a 7 card suit.................remember 2H has already shown 6 cards...............East has to either bid 3NT hoping to get into partner's hand in some other suit or close his eyes, cross his fingers and bid 4H which is not good as the cards lie. The odds favour 3NT because West jumped in hearts and must have an outside entry.

Assuming South leads the Diamond 4, Declarer should put in the 9 from Dummy which holds the trick and play a Club to the Ace and then King and another club clears the suit and East still has the Diamond Ace as an entry.

East makes 5 Club tricks, 2 Diamonds (the 9 and the Ace) then crosses to Dummy's Spade Ace to make 1 Spade and 3 Hearts a total of 11 tricks for +460.

2 partnerships were in 4 hearts which just made for +420 or went 1 down for -50

Worryingly 2 partnerships were in 4 Spades which was down 3 at one table for -300 or down 4 Doubled at another table for an absolute bottom of -1100. I am at a loss to explain how North managed to bid spades at all!

What an interesting hand. 3 pairs ended in 3NT  making +2; +3 or +4

4 pairs ended in 5D making +1 or +2 for a very poor score.

The bidding is difficult, I have shown the recommended bidding if you play Benji Acol with standard Blackwood. If you play Strong 2's then 2D- 3C-4C-4NT may well get you to the best contract of 7Clubs, but it is tricky to find out about the King of hearts. 7NT also makes which is worth bidding in pairs but a bit risky because the QD has to fall in 2 rounds, which happens on this layout

There is also a good argument for opening 1D because the hand is not really worth 8 playing tricks. In which case 1D-2C-3D-4D-4NT should also get you to slam quite easily, but remember that a continuation of 4D is stronger than a 'shut out' bid of 5D in this sequence because your 2C promised at least 10 points .

I'm surprised that nobody found the slam and if South opened with a 2 level bid then North should realise that 12 points is always enough to at least explore a slam. 

I can imagine many bidding sequences for this extrordinary hand. 6D is probable the best contract but 7D also makes

No doubt all West's should have opened 3C especially after partner passes.

I have shown my preferred bidding sequence but here is another possibility:

Pass    Pass   3C   5D 

6C      Pass

and I think this happened at table 1 where Heather and Zoe were 2 off in 6C doubled for a 'top'. Minus 300 is a great score when the opposition are sitting on a cold slam.

another possibility is

Pass  Pass 3C  double

5C Pass  Pass  6C (by North)

double (by East) 6S by South and then 7D by North

North has a huge hand and needs so little from South for 6D to make, so after 3C North should double for take-out. If E/W now bid 5C it can only be pre-emptive (after all East passed as dealer) but a second double is for penalties and so it is better to bid 6C cue-bid and surely partner will bid 6S. Now you can bid 7D with confidence which makes if you finesse the heart Queen.

What fun!

This hand makes 12 or 13 tricks if you take both black suit finesses.

The bidding is straightforward for once. 1S by East followed by 2S to limit the hand to 15 points with at least 5 spades. West should bid 2D (remember that 2H promises at least 5) and when the 8+ card fit in spades is known should try Blackwood because East must have most of his points in the black suits. When the response shows 2 Aces a small slam is worth a shot at pairs and as the cards lie both finesses work.

Perhaps 29 points is not quite enough but add in distributional points and the hands do seem to fit very well

The losing trick count seems to indicate a slam and I was surprised that nobody bid it

Playing Benji, West opened 2H and South doubled for take-out. East passed and North bid 2S with a weak hand, which was raised to game by South.

On the 'standard' lead of QH, West ruffs the 1st trick but all he has acheived is to ruff a heart which North was going to lose anyway. Having won the first trick West has a problem because what does he lead next? A trump is best. North should draw trumps and play Ace and another club. If West wins this with the King he is endplayed and will have to play Ace and another diamond giving North a trick. West does best to throw away the King of clubs under the Ace.

Interesting.

I'm a bit surprised to find that this hand caused so many problems. The bidding should have been straightforward, West opens 1NT, East bids 2C (Stayman) and West becomes declarer in 4H.

The doubleton Spade should be a clear signal to East that 3NT is the wrong contract.

Pair 8 were the only pair to find this contract but they went 3 off while all other pairs played in 3NT, with varying degrees of success.

Let's look at the play in 3NT. North should lead  his 4th highest spade and providing South unblocks correctly by playing the Ace, then the 9, then the 7, North/South quickly take the 1st 5 tricks for 1 off.

Pairs 10 and 7 made 3NT and Kevin and Sue made 12 tricks because South forgot to unblock!

In 4H N/S will take the 1st 2 tricks in Spades and declarer should ruff the 3rd round in Dummy, discarding a diamond from hand, then draw trumps and claim the rest, making 5 hearts, 3 diamonds and 3 clubs for 11 tricks.

It is very easy to overbid on this hand.

The first problem is South's, should he open or pass? My vote is pass because 11 points is quite nice but the hand does not meet the Rule of 20, the Jack of diamonds is wasted and the rebid of 2H is not very attractive.

West can now open 1D, North overcalls 2C and East with no satisfactory bid of his own does best to simply support partner by bidding 2D.

Now back to South who can see that the bidding has 'died' in 2D and if he his going to introduce his hearts must do so now. This should be passed out but looking at the traveller it is apparent that some North's fell in love with their Club suit and continued bidding.  Pair 1 were typically at fault..............please note who sat North and please send my apologies to Edwin.

Assuming South passed initially, it should be easy for North to respect his bid of 2H on the second round as simply being competitive and pass.

South should make 2H quite easily by setting up the Club suit before losing the AS which is the entry to the North hand.

Incidentally both 2D by E/W and 2H by N/S make 8 tricks

This hand was odd because nobody managed to bid Game when 12 tricks makes in either Clubs or Diamonds.

I have shown the suggested bidding when West, playing Benji, opens a weak 2 hearts.

North is too strong to bid a suit and must double for take-out to show his strength. South is too good for 3D and not quite good enough for 5D so must show his length and strength by bidding 4D. North's hand is now worth 18 points and with support for diamonds and a long Club suit for discards 6D is reached via Blackwood.

If West passes initially then the bidding is more difficult:

1C..........1D.......3C (6 losers).........5C will probably end the auction

This hand certainly caused some problems on Friday afternoon. 3 E/W pairs played in a club contract making 8,9 or 10 tricks.

1 ambitious N/S played in 4 Spades down 4 doubled for -800

2 E/W pairs played in 1NT doubled losing either 800 or 1100

I have shown the suggest bidding. Once North doubles (for penalties) West should re-double (The Staveley wriggle) asking East to bid clubs. If North doubles again South should bid 2 Spades and North must be careful because the initial double has already described his hand and any further bidding is asking for trouble. Although game seems likely on a simple point count, North must take into account that all of the opposition's strength is on his left

As the cards lie West should lead his singleton heart and cannot be prevented from scoring 2 ruffs to go with East's 4 tricks for 1 down.

Those left in 2 Clubs will have fun because this contract makes easily despite West's single point.

There is an alternative bidding sequence, these are the East/West bids only

1NT--2C (stayman)--2H--3C which now shows a weak take-out and should be passed

At the table ,at least 2 East's opened 1NT with 2 doubletons, North will double (for penalties), East should try to escape into 2 Clubs and North will double again and 2 Clubs doubled is likely to go at least 4 off for +1000 to N/S.

Two other N/S pairs ended in a diamond contract making 11 or even 12 tricks but 1D+5 and 2D+3 are not winning scores!

On the correct opening bid of 1 Club by East, South doubles to show an opening hand and support for the other suits and North simply bids 3NT. North can add up the points (11+ to East, 11+ to South, 16 in his own hand  leaving a maximum of 2 for West)

Only 1 pair found this bid and went 2 down to give E/W an undeserved top. Perhaps they missed the correct line of play.

On the opening lead of either the Club Q or the 7, North should duck once, win the second round with the Ace and lead a top diamond losing to the King. A third club clears North's last club but knowing that East has the Queen of spades he can take a spade finesse, the Queen falls on the next round and declarer makes 2 Clubs, 3 Spades and 4 diamonds for 9 tricks without even touching the hearts.

If North mistakenly tries to clear the heart ace, he will lose 3 clubs, 1 diamond and 1 heart, one too many!

North has 24 points and a balanced hand and should open 2C intending to re-bid 2NT. South only has 7 points but with 1 1/2 quick tricks should respond 2S.

Now that a 'fit' has been established North is in a bit of a quandry, because an immediate 4NT would show that they have all of the Aces and Kings and they might end up at the seven level! In fact North should just temporise with 3S to allow South to describe the hand more fully. When South bids 4S North should draw the inference that partner is quite weak. Blackwood checks on Aces to end up in a very easy slam. Note that at pairs 6NT scores better and would be the contract of choice in a competition but only 11 tricks are available.

Not quite enough to open 2H, East should bid 1H and no doubt South will overcall spades. West has plenty of strength to show his diamonds and East shows the huge strength of his hand and his second suit by bidding 3C (going through his barrier of 2H shows the equivalent of 16 points). West can now value his hand as 14pts, agree Clubs and ask for Aces before bidding the excellent Slam. Some purists might want to play in 6H which makes on the actual layout and scores more in duplicate.

One South was allowed to play in 3 Spades doubled, down just 1 for a bad score for E/W and one pair played in 4H making 12....perhaps East didn't show his second suit.

This is a very difficult hand to judge and I have simply repeated the bidding that actually happened at our table. Perhaps North should overcall 2 hearts?

Without the foul split in spades there is a good case for bidding either 6 Clubs or 6 Spades, counting distribution points E/W have 33pts so a slam should make in theory. On the actual hand North led the 4 diamonds (MUD). The best play is to win in dummy and rough a heart in hand. Return to dummy and rough the other heart. Play the Ace of spades but do not draw trumps, simply play off your winners in Clubs and Diamonds, South is welcome to ruff if he can but you retain enough trumps to deal with a heart return. A difficult hand and well played by just one pair. Of course if North leads the Ace of hearts, 10 tricks are easy.

This hand caused a lot of bidding problems this week. The various bids were:

2NT by N down 4

1H by N down 1

3S by E down 1

2NT  by S down 3

1NT by N down 4

2S by W plus 2

North has 16pts and should bid 1H intending to re-bid NT. East should double to show an opening hand and 4 spades. South will pass (I hope) even though he has 4 of partner's hearts. West should revalue his hand to 12pts and bid 3S and East now has 15pts (3 for the singleton ) and so has no problem in bidding 4S.

North should lead DK. Win with the Ace, play H5 to the Ace, and then HQ, if North covers ruff and later on discard a losing Club on the established HJ, if he doesn't cover discard a club now. ( a ruffing finesse). Careful play of the trumps should enable 11 tricks to be made, losing just the DQ and the SA.

You might think this is a boring hand but the scores varied from 3NT -2 to 1NT +2 to 1NT -2, so either 7 tricks or 8 tricks or 5 tricks were made!

I think we all agree that South will open 1NT and be left to play there unless N/S are playing a strong No Trump. West will lead either the QS or the QH there is no reason to favour either. Assume the QS. South should hold up once, presumably East will win and return spades (any other suit helps South) allowing South to win with the Ace making the 9 an effective 4th round stopper. Play on diamonds immediately by leading the 8 and let it run to West's Ace. He is now in a difficult position because no matter what he leads will set up another trick for South.  If E/W are forced to open up the club suit, South will make 1 (or 2) spades, 2 hearts, 2 diamonds and 1 club.

If West starts with the QH or a small heart, South will make 3 heart tricks for a probable top.....bad luck on West

It's easy to overbid this hand and end up in 7NT down one, after all you have all the Aces and all of the Kings so what can go wrong?

East opens 2C and West bids hearts to show 8+pts and at least 4 hearts. If East now bids his 4 card major (some will bid 2NT to show 23-24pts) and then West can show his 5th heart at the 3 level. If East now chooses to use Blackwood to ask about Kings he will get too high, better to simply bid the small slam.

At pairs 6NT makes for a top score because East receives the fortunate lead of a diamond and must play the Jack at trick one, otherwise 6NT is down one.

6 Hearts is the best contract, 2 pairs played in 3NT and one in 4H

North must value his hand as being worth 2 Spades and South responds 3 Clubs showing at least 8 points and his/her longest suit (2NT would be 0-7)

After North's rebid of 3 Hearts, South now correctly bids 3NT to show diamond values, but the hand is too good to rest in 3NT. North can now assume that his 6 Diamonds is no longer a loser and should bid 4 Hearts to show at least 5/5 in the majors and South gives preference to Spades with 2 of each.

There is no point in asking for aces so North simply bids 6 Spades

On a club lead, North must ruff in hand and play Ace and another heart which loses to East who does best to switch to a diamond. North must win in hand carefully preserving his diamond 6 as an entry to dummy, then ruff a heart with the Jack, play a small spade back to hand to draw trumps and a diamond to the King and Queen to discard the last 2 hearts. 6 Spades made.

Board 16 : Dealer West : EW vulnerable

The bidding on Friday afternoon must have been interesting.

The contracts and results were:

2S + 3

3D + 1

4S – 3

1S + 4

Nobody found the optimum contract of 3NT

The suggested bidding is shown, the double by South is very important, the hand is much too strong to simply bid 1 Spade.

The jump to 3S is forcing to game and promises 5 spades

West is entitled to open 1Club with 11 points and a 6 card suit.

Suggested lead 10 Clubs

Suggested play

Win trick 1 in hand and cross to the Jack of spades to lead the Jack of diamonds playing small from hand unless covered by the King. Play another diamond to the Queen and then the Ace fells the King.

Now play off all the spades  and play a small heart forcing West to win. He must give South a tenth trick with either the King of Clubs or the King of hearts .

Correct contract 3NT, correct result 3NT + 1

This hand is taken from the Devon Pairs competition. South has a bit of a dilemma, but has nice middle cards so can upgrade the hand to 11 points and has a rebid if necessary. Accordingly he can bid 2C (stayman). North with both majors bids 2H. This is music to South's ears who can now add 3 pts for the singleton, and bids 4H.

This is quite aggressive bidding, but it works and the contract comes home. Only 2 pairs found this contract.

This hand occurred in a recent sim pairs. The 2D was a weak take out, and East led the D5. West should consider the likely distribution and plan the defence before playing to the first trick. For his bid North is going to have about 19 HCPs, which leaves very little for East. However a low diamond implies an honour. North plays the A on West's J, so East must have the Q. North plays 4 rounds of clubs ending in dummy with the ten, east discarded the H 3,4, and S7. Playing HELD what do you make of that, and what do you discard?

West must keep the Ds so discarded S8. On HA, North discarded, and West now knows the shape and strength of everybody's hand, and the defence must now prevail. When dummy leads a S, West must go up with the K and play a D, resulting in 1H,1D and 3S tricks

This was one of the hands used at the "Introduction to Duplicate Bridge" day (24), and was aimed at the less experienced. The bidding was quite straight forward. East has the equivalent of 8 pts and should bid 2S. West with 17 pts (16 HCP plus one for the doubleton club, but nothing for the DJ), invites with 3S and East is a maximum and should bid 4S. How do you plan the play on CQ lead?

Before I start it has been pointed out to me that the bidding on hand 23 handout sheet has been transposed. My apologies for that - and well done to those who spotted it.

The bidding is straightforward but a tad aggressive. It is difficult for South to know whether North has 8 or 9 tricks. Having arrived in a contract that appears to be doomed one shouldnt despair. As with the majority of hands, extra tricks come from setting up a second suit. (This is a very important tactic and often wins over alternative tactics such as crossruffing). In this case there is only one entry to the clubs and that is the A. Accordingly you need to hold up the A until the third round and hope they split 2-3. In this case they do and the contract makes. Nobody found this line!

This slam occured in a club pairs competition and is difficult to bid, but the bidding identifies that South has a 5 card heart suit and a 5/6 loser hand. North should therefore look for a slam in hearts as it scores better than clubs. Of interest is the play. On a Spade lead, declarer should play the SA and DAK discarding a spade before tackling trumps. In pairs he should play trumps by playing low from dummy (key play) intending to insert the Q from hand. If this holds then he should cash the A hoping to drop the K. This is the best line of play to make an overtrick (and all the matchpoints)! If he had started with the J, then this would be covered and the ten will now make a trick.

This is the third hand added to the hand of the month series. Please let Titch know if you would like any more and if so the difficulty level.