Did you know that a ‘heartbreaker’ is a real term in bridge? It’s described in The Bridge Player’s Encyclopedia as ‘a hand which fails to live up to one’s original expectations’.But that’s way too flat a definition. A heartbreaker causes emotional distress; it hurts. That might sound a bit dramatic to non-players, but bridge is
The bridge world is experiencing an explosion of junior talent and enthusiasm. One of the very best is Sweden’s Sanna Clementsson, who may be only 21 but has already won two world titles in the Venice Cup (the Women’s World Championships), was the youngest female to become a World Grand Master, and was part of
A beautiful Greek island; a warm sea; delicious al fresco dinners; and bridge from morning till night with Andrew Robson. Pure fantasy? Actually, it pretty much sums up my past week. I was lucky enough to be invited by Charlie and Carol Skinner to Paxos for seven days of rubber bridge, in honour of our
Wroclaw, in Poland, played host to the Open World Championships in August this year. The Open Teams, the first event to be played and arguably the most prestigious (and the most fun), is known as the Rosenblum Cup. Eighty teams entered and played for a week before two emerged as the finalists. They were an
It’s tough trying to recall every card that the opponents have played when you’re in the middle of a tricky contract. It reminds me of that old game show hosted by Bruce Forsyth – The Generation Game – where the winning contestant sat at a conveyor belt and watched prizes go past. They then had
When was the last time you made a doubled slam – a slam that could and should have been defeated – and lost IMPs on it? Today’s hand comes from the qualifying rounds of the Mixed Teams at the World Bridge Series in Wroclaw. The North hand was shared all over social media, but it’s
The beautiful city of Wroclaw in Poland is currently teeming with bridge players, all of them there for the 16th World Bridge Series. Anyone can play, but the standard is fiercely high: most of the world’s top players are taking part. This week it’s the Mixed and Seniors; last week was the Open and Women’s.
Do we need complicated bidding systems to reach the best contracts? The Portland Club (men only) operates a no conventions at all policy, which most of its members don’t stick to if they are playing outside tournaments. Some however treat ‘natural’ bidding with a fervour bordering on the messianic. One such was the ghastly Demetri
My husband is a writer (John Preston), whose recent books were better received than he had ever dared hope. When our 15-year-old son came home from school recently, he told John excitedly that his English teacher turns out to be a fan: ‘He says he loves your books, and how well written they are, and
To paraphrase E.L. Wisty, the late, great Peter Cook’s alter ego, ‘Some people are born lazy, some become lazy and some have laziness thrust upon them.’ If you are any of these, there are going to be some contracts that you could make but don’t. I speak from years of experience! The more we play,
In the modern game, being green versus red (non-vul v. vul) is a licence to bid on tram tickets: passing is for wimps. The aim is to be as obstructive as possible – anything to stop the opponents having a clear run at game. Hence the huge array of pre–emptive and two-suited overcalls that have
The bridge world is coming back to life with a bang. The World Championships were held (live) in March, the Europeans in June, the Rosenblum Cup (transnational teams) is coming up in Poland mid-August, and tucked in between, the ACBL’s Summer National Spingold Teams, won by Pierre Zimmermann’s brand-new, unstained, all-singing, all-dancing, glittering team, who
I was very sorry to learn of the death of the legendary American player and author Eddie Kantar – he was still writing articles with such youthful vigour that I had no idea he was 89. Kantar was considered to be the greatest player-teacher-writer of all time. The clarity of his writing, combined with his
The return to pre-Covid normality has been slow and a bit dispiriting. Attendance at the popular English tournaments has been worryingly low with some events being cancelled (or moved online) because so few pairs had entered. Going anywhere abroad has been tinged with terror because what if you tested positive and had to isolate for…
In one respect, it would be so much easier to play a game like poker or chess than bridge; if you play badly you only embarrass yourself – you don’t have partners or teammates to worry about. Mistakes at the bridge table are doubly painful when we imagine our partners rolling their eyes, or our
Rubber bridge is a game that happens to suit me very well: you can come and go as you please and you don’t need a partner. You just wait for those magic words ‘Table up’ and you reply ‘One in’! Ofc I quite understand it’s not everyone’s cup of tea: there are so many different
At a bridge tournament about 15 years ago, I started chatting to a friendly, eccentric woman in her mid-sixties, wearing a sequined baseball cap. I had no idea who she was, but when she told me her name, I knew at once: the well-regarded bridge columnist of the Independent. What I hadn’t realised was that
When lockdown struck, high-standard online bridge tournaments sprang up and with them a multitude of cheats, world champions among them, crawled out of the woodwork. The World Bridge Tour came about when Norwegian stars Boye Brogeland and Thomas Charlsen, who had done so much to uncover the 2015 cheating scandal, analysed hands played by suspect
I recently spent a long weekend in Lillehammer in Norway. Apparently it’s very charming, but frankly I have no idea: I only glimpsed it from the taxi to my hotel. It’s always like that when I play in tournaments abroad. Forget sightseeing – I rarely step outside. The Marit Sveaas Swiss Pairs is more intensive
In honour of Her Majesty the Queen’s awe-inspiring Platinum Jubilee, I have not one but two hands, illustrating the power of pre-empts – even when they are psyches! Did I mention we got knocked out of the Schapiro Spring Foursomes by one IMP? Playing the last eight boards of 32 we went in 36 IMPs
