Bridge | 12 December 2019

These days, young people expect to learn new skills online, for free. So how do we introduce a new generation to the joys of bridge? The most exciting initiative for a long time is the New Tricks Bridge Club, whose aim is to propel the game back into the modern age through the internet. The team behind New Tricks has produced a series of excellent YouTube videos, from tutorials for beginners to ‘tournament masterclasses’ featuring world-class stars like Zia Mahmood and Dennis Bilde.
 
I recently watched the first of these (www.newtricksbridge.club), and was immediately hooked. The players talk us through their thinking — always fascinating — but what was so refreshing was that, far from acting like infallible masters, they readily admitted to their mistakes. On one deal, for instance, Dennis Bilde misbid because he’d missorted his hand (‘it happens’). On another, David Gold found a less-than-perfect defence, for which he laughingly blamed ‘early morning nerves’, and Marion Michielsen made an unlucky guess, for which she was ‘mad’ at herself (see diagram).