The Olympics may be over — but is another gold medal in the pipeline for Team GB? At the time of writing, the England Women are battling it out with Russia in the final of the 14th World Bridge Games, taking place in Lille. If they win, it will be their second triumph in as
Some players might feel a little inhibited to find themselves defending a contract against the great Michael Rosenberg, known throughout the bridge world as ‘the expert’s expert’ for his encyclopedic knowledge of cardplay techniques. Not a player of Jim Munday’s calibre, though. Quite the reverse, in fact. Munday is a top US player, and as
The longer I play this game, the more convinced I am that the single most important quality required to be a great player is mental discipline — the ability to push your concentration to the limit. My own concentration, I should add, is decidedly erratic: when trying to work out probabilities and contingency plans, I
Much as I love chit-chatting, there’s no space this week. The hand I want to describe, played by Frank Multon (Monaco) in the recent Europeans, requires not one but two diagrams. Multon worked out the answer in his head during a pressurised match. The rest of us get to view all four hands at leisure,
The European bridge championships are over, and although all the England players did well, the real stars were the women’s team, who won gold. Congratulations to Sally Brock, Nevena Senior, Nicola Smith, Heather Dhondy, Susan Stockdale and Fiona Brown. In the Open series, there was never really any question who would win, although a few
The 2012 European championships are upon us. No, not football, I’m talking about the ones we actually stand a chance of winning: bridge. England has fielded three excellent teams in the Open, Womens and Seniors events, held in Dublin. I’ll be following the Seniors with particular interest because my friend Simon Cocheme is making his
