One FAQ by people who are thinking of learning bridge is: ‘Do you have to be good at maths to become a good bridge player?’ The answer is you don’t need to be Rain Man but familiarity with numeracy will be an asset. Logic plays a big part in making a good player and, if
A couple of weekends ago, the Scottish Bridge Union ran the inaugural British Isles Trophy, a mixed team’s event for the Home Counties. It was played on RealBridge, the website that allows players to both see and hear each other. Bridge, being the last bastion of ‘hilarious’ misogyny, always has an alpha chuckle when somebody
I am sure that readers of this column need no introduction to Victor Mollo’s most famous creation, The Hideous Hog. Bridge in the Menagerie was first published in 1965 and today, Mollo’s stereotypes are as sharp and apposite as they were 60 years ago. And don’t think (as I did) that hogging is an exclusively
Everyone has good days and bad days; no one more than me. I like to think my A game is pretty good but my B game is such a car crash that sometimes I feel like giving up. Great players also have A and B days, the difference being smaller the better the player. Towards
The European Transnational Championships were held last week in Prague, and were won by the gargantuanly strong Zimmerman team, but it was not plain sailing. They appeared to have lost their quarter-final to the Italian team Bianchi, but that doesn’t happen in Zimmerland. Twice during the 56-board, day-long match they asked for rulings against something
The World Bridge Tour had its first event of the year in combination with the wonderful Bridge Festival in Reykjavik. Only team Black, of the four British teams, made the play-offs, eventually finishing fourth, while the event was won by the American McAllister team with – who else – the Rimstedt twins on it. I
The English Ladies Team is one of the best in the world, winning numerous world and European titles. For the past 20 years, there has been a core group of extremely good, experienced players who continued to do brilliantly on the world stage. But for the somewhat lesser tournaments, most of the leading professionals are
I am not trying to corner the market in very boring bridge columns but I am going to give you another hand which is all about suit combinations. My regular reader may recall that I wrote about this very subject a fortnight ago, never expecting another informative hand to come up on a similar theme.
I hope you had a better (bridge) Christmas than I did. I didn’t play or watch a single hand. But I did do some long-avoided work on suit combinations – the equivalent in boredom of going to the gym. The ping of my phone alerted me to a new email but any distraction would have
I have just discovered a new (to me) podcast called Sorry, Partner hosted by Catherine Harris and Jocelyn Startz, two American enthusiasts, who interview top bridge players for their blog. I found it when I googled Portuguese international star Antonio Palma. Among many other things, I found out that he plays in at least one
There can’t be a bridge tournament much more enjoyable than the one we have just played in Madeira. It starts with three days of Pairs (292 pairs registered) followed by three days of Teams (129). My teammates Thor Erik Hoftaniska and Christian Bakke came second in the Pairs but more was to come. We played
The only end play I have ever understood is the throw in. I know when to use it. I know how to use it. And I can see it quite early in the play. But that’s it. I still don’t know how to spot (never mind execute) a squeeze, despite being told 100 times to
Super star Juniors are springing up everywhere, living, breathing and playing bridge. Nicolai (The Kid) Heiberg-Evenstad (16) from Norway and Christian Lahrmann (21) from Denmark are both already professional bridge players and are crazy talented both in the bidding and the play. One of the finest card players of the ‘new’ generation is England’s Ben
The Metropolitan Cup, played on RealBridge in mid-September, was won by the Sussex A team. The following hand, played by Stephen Kennedy, contained a number of interesting points. Creating an entry to partner’s hand sometimes takes creativity and imagination. It’s usually easy on a piece of paper and when it’s pointed out to us, but
One of the greatest areas of misunderstanding is doubling. Is it penalty? Is it take out? Is it negative? Recently I heard about a pair who were playing exclusion blackwood (or at least one of them was) and ended up playing 5♣ (undoubled) in a 0-0 fit. True story. You need trumps to double a
When is the Premier League not the Premier League? Well, when you have played so badly that you get booted out of the first division into the second and have to come in the top two to qualify for promotion back. Fortunately the first weekend (of three) went well for us but it’s no walk
What is the most advantageous attribute for a great Bridge player? Is it maths, or memory? I like the answer Sweden’s Peter Fredin gives: ‘Imagination.’ We’re not talking about the kind that lets you imagine you’re the best player in the world, but rather the ability to see how things look to the opponents. Peter
The recent European Championship in Denmark has given all keen bridge reporters plenty of material, I liked the following hand from the bulletin, featuring Allan Livgard on the winning Norwegian team. It’s particularly interesting to notice the slow approach in the auction by N/S; jumping around and making nondescript cue-bids in the opponent’s suits does
What can you say about the Rimstedt brothers that hasn’t already been said? They returned from the American Nationals in Toronto just in time to join their father’s team, and went on to win the Chairman’s Cup in Sweden for the third year running. This hand was reported to me by a friend who was
Norway triumphed at the 56th European Team Championships held in Herning, Denmark at the end of June, hoovering up the gold medals in both the Open and the Women’s categories. But if you weren’t going to come in the medals, you still had everything to play for: the top eight teams out of 30 qualified
