The Bridge World Sampler
REVIEWS
Even though The Bridge World, through its Bookshelf, sells books, it reviews honestly, telling you what the staff thinks is good (and for whom) and what it thinks isn't so good (and why). Individual descriptions often include both positive and negative points, and important issues that transcend a particular work are sometimes discussed within a review. Mostly, books are reviewed. Occasionally, there will be mention of a videotape or computer program, but most bridge software is so poor that little need or ought to be said about it.
July, 1995, Reviews
"There Must be a Way" (Master Point Press;
88 pages; $9.95 paperbound) by Andrew Diosy is different from almost
all other bridge books in several significant ways. There are 52 deals,
each presented as a double-dummy problem. However, although a few
really are double-dummy problems--you can't get the solution by
finding the best percentage play--most can be solved single-dummy.
Unfortunately, even though the answers are presented in stages, the
reader isn't told whether he is supposed to succeed as declarer or
defender, nor is he told when he is supposed to find a technically
correct, as opposed to a double-dummy, line of play or defense.
There must have been a way to present this material without
frustrating the reader. The format is especially regrettable because
the deals are very good. Most are at the advanced level. Almost every
deal has at least one interesting point of single-dummy play or defense,
or, if truly double-dummy in nature, has something beautiful to admire.
One reason the deals are so good is that they have been carefully
culled from many sources. We recognized most of the themes and several
of the deals. Of course, we have read rather more bridge literature
than the national average. You will have to judge how much is likely
to be new to you.
Available from The Bookshelf [MBW]
* * *
Bill Root's excellent treatise on defensive card play, "How
to Defend a Bridge Hand" (originally reviewed in the May, 1994,
issue) is now available in a paperback edition for $16., a good buy
for such a large book.
Available from The Bookshelf [HDBH]
* * *
We suggest you steer clear of Sally Brock's "Step
by Step Overcalls" (Batsford; 143 pages; $16.95 paperbound).
If what the author says is true, the gap between British and American
methods regarding overcalls and advancing them is so great that it
would require an international conference committee to span it. Can
it really be that British players would take noninvitational part-score
actions on hands we would treat as slam tries? It happens more than
once here. Frightening! There are also problems with ideas that should
cross the Atlantic no worse for wear, such as a misleading description
of the Law of Total Tricks.
* * *
British books about bidding frequently require so many mental
adjustments regarding methods for the American reader that it is not
worth the work required to dig out the other ideas. However, that
caveat does not apply to Alan Mould's "Step-by-Step Slam Bidding"
(Batsford; 144 pages; $15.95 paperbound), a down-to-earth intermediate-level
tutorial chock-a-block with good advice and sensible ways of looking
at major ideas in bidding. The author's approach is practical--you
win by knowing what you are doing and how to do it--and his style
of presentation informal. The emphasis is on philosophy and general
technique, so specific methods play only a minor role--that's why
you need not use British methods to gain maximum benefit. When the
author does discuss special conventions, he concentrates on a few
fundamental ones that he believes are sound and frequently applicable.
Mould's proposed suggestion to simplify one's approach to
certain fundamental questions related to artificial slam inquiries
reminds us of a question we have been meaning to ask for a very long
time: Would readers be interested in a discussion of when actions
should be conventional (four notrump, for example), and which suit
is agreed in key-card Blackwood? Or are these matters too dependent
on each partnership's system for a general discussion to be helpful?
Available from The Bookshelf [SSSB]
* * *
At long last, we have a paperback edition of the late Hugh
Kelsey's "Simple Squeezes" (Houghton-Mifflin; 120 pages;
$9.95 paperbound). This is the first of the author's sequence of books
covering all aspects of common squeeze play.
Here are a few excerpts from our October, 1985, review: "Tutorial
. . . to introduce players who are advanced, but not yet expert, to
the squeeze . . . better than most. . . . Terminology is kept to a
minimum . . . ends with an excellent long quiz."
Available from The Bookshelf [SS]
* * *
We were a bit put off by the title of Terence Reese and David
Bird's "All You Need to Know About Play" (Houghton Mifflin;
128 pages; $9.95 paperbound). Surely no one can fit all that into
one book, or even a few books, we thought. Opening to the introduction,
we toyed with the possibility that this was a reference book, giving
listings of thousands of other . . . nah! So what does it mean? The
authors claim this volume includes everything you need to know about
play to be able to cope with declarer's and defender's problems on
most deals. Oh!
Ignoring the hoopla, this is an intermediate-level text that
deals mostly with fundamental ideas of card play. The writing is compact,
forcing the reader to do a lot of the thinking--we think that's
good. Unquestionably on the positive side, the authors instruct on
deception ("being difficult" the British often call it) in
parallel with pure technique. However, although this is a sound book,
it is well below these authors' best efforts. There are mistakes in
the descriptions of special partnership agreements, and the level
of sophistication of the techniques described is uneven.
Available from The Bookshelf [AYN]
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