Bridge books reviewed - 34

"An Expert's Guide to Improving Your Bidding Skills" by Eddie Kantar is an excellent combination of tutorial and quiz/review that covers all major parts of modern bidding: Basic sequences, all forms of double, competitive bidding and a final section on hodge-podge miscellaneous stuff. The quizzes are plentiful and the answers always include the reasons why and the logic behind the correct answer. Prior to the quizzes you will find explanatory text that doesn't just gloss over the subject, but gives you all the information you need to know to master the quiz material.

"Bridge: Classic and Modern Conventions" by Magnus Lindkvist is the first book in a series of four. It covers conventions as well as hand evaluation and history of the game. This hardcover book of 343 pages has contributions from fourteen people such as Eddie Kantar and Ron Klinger to name but two. This book covers systems, responses to natural suit openings and continuations thereafter. The authors include comments on which conventions can be played together and the pros and cons of the conventions. The contents list and alphabetical index are very helpful.

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"Bid Boldly, Play Safe" is the first book by Rixi Marcus. It explains how this attitude of mind can enable the average player to achieve a high standard of performance, without memorizing conventions or applying complicated rules of thumb, because it improves his technique, his judgment and his grasp of the game's essential principles. Her forthright pronouncements on the making and countering of pre-emptive bids, on systems, signals, ethics and many other controversial issues are backed by a wealth of telling illustrations from her unrivaled experience of high-level tournament and rubber bridge all over the world. The whole book reflects a vivid personality, a keen sense of fun and a zeal to see the game she loves enjoyed as a mental sport by the leisured masses.

Laugh as you learn is the author Victor Mollo's motto. And it is only fitting that Streamlined Bridge should be illustrated by Anton (of Punch fame) and at the same time, recommended as the text book on bidding by the London School of Bridge. For this book is as light as it is learned, and as amusing as it is authoritative. In this book he imparts the technique of WINNING, the art of being 'lucky'. Lucid and lively, sudden with quips, enriched with anecdotes, "Streamlined Bridge" takes the reader all the way from the rudiments of hand valuation to the most complex situations in competitive bidding, concentrating on the structure of bidding rather than a system.

"Bridge Additions 96" by Matthew & Pamela Granovetter is subtitled "New Age Inventions Tempered with Old-Fashioned Advice". The Granovetters introduce the reader to the revolutionary ideas that have now become standard. The authors stress clarity and simplicity in combating the complex machinery of the new age and gives practical advice on how to utilize the new concepts in your own partnerships.

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