When is a duck not a duck? Answer: when it’s a hold-up. I do love bridge terminology. Though the two manoeuvres are mechanically identical (you deliberately refrain from winning a trick by playing low), strictly speaking a duck is in your own suit, while a hold-up is in a suit played by your opponents. Either
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
I’ve just come back from Herning in Denmark, where the European championships are taking place. I was playing with my friend Catherine Draper (herself a former gold medallist) in a side event, the European women’s pairs – brilliantly organised, and open to anyone. We qualified for the A-final, but finished a disappointing tenth. I can’t
The breaktime chat among Chess and Backgammon players often centres around the new super computers that could ‘solve’ these games as they play 100 per cent accurately. We humans are light years behind in technical and calculation skills. This will never be a concern for Bridge players; Bridge is a game of inevitable mistakes, and
‘It’s a sad day when I don’t get to re-double anyone,’ the England international Mike Bell said to me the other day, after I’d complimented him on how often – and effectively – he pulls out the red card. Most players are far more trepidatious when it comes to making penalty doubles and redoubles. Mike
How many times have I said ‘You are soo lucky’ to whichever expert opponent had brought in a tricky contract. ‘Every card would be wrong for me.’ Well ofc it would because sometimes you have to work out in which order to take your chances, which involves planning the play from dummy going down until
Thomas Charlsen and Boye Brogeland continue to delight the teams they invite to their World Bridge Tour (WBT). First-class playing conditions, impeccably run and with huge cash prizes; this time it was held in Bodo, northern Norway, and I had a new (to me) pair playing for my team, Dutch champions Simon de Wijs and
We all pause to think when playing, but – let’s be honest – it’s usually as basic as re-capping the bidding or counting points and distribution. When great players stop to think, you just know they’re on a higher plane, probably contemplating things that wouldn’t occur to the rest of us. But what? Luckily, when
The Spring Foursomes is the EBU’s flagship tournament and is always held the first weekend in May. Sadly it has had long Covid the past couple of years, but 2024 saw it back to its former glory. Brand-new venue, the DoubleTree Hilton in Bristol, good playing facilities and enough food to go round! Way to
I was chatting to my friends Alice Coptcoat and Natalie Hoff at the Acol last week, when Alice mentioned that she’d enjoyed Andrew Robson’s recent BridgeCast about a hand he played against Natalie at the Lederer Trophy. ‘Oh, that hand!’ Natalie exclaimed. ‘It was beautiful. I’ll never forget the way he dropped my singleton king,
Whenever we play a team’s tournament, fielded by sponsors, the sponsor (given choice) makes a beeline for me and I understand why. They probably think they will be shark fodder against a very aggressive pair of Internationals and will be swallowed whole. One Sponsor told her teammate to try and arrange for me to play
There are nearly two dozen Rules in bridge to help you in the bidding and play. The Rule of 20, for instance: open the bidding (in any seat) when your points plus the number of cards in your two longest suits come to at least 20. Or the Rule of 15: open in 4th seat
‘If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, chances are it’s a duck.’ For Bridge players, the problem is that it doesn’t always look like a duck and it rarely quacks. My regular partner, Artur Mali, says ducking is for experts, and goes puce in the face if
I’ve been waiting for what feels like decades to make a contract by means of an intra-finesse. And not just because I love the name. When I first read about the manoeuvre, my mind was blown away in the same way it was when I first encountered squeeze-plays: ‘impossible’ games could be made! The trouble
Easter always zips by if you’re a bridge player and enter the EBU’s Easter Festival. There are four events to choose from and I chose them all. My favourite is the Swiss Teams and we normally do rather well. Not this year unfortunately. In the final match we played Simon Gillis’s team and I rather
If you watch world-class players online, you’ll notice how often they use the red penalty–card. Most of us are far too hesitant: we feel we pretty much have to guarantee a contract won’t make before we double. But as Zia Mahmood once said: ‘If every contract you double goes down, you’re not doubling enough.’ Very
There is an audible buzz in the international bridge world and it centres around a few Scandinavian juniors. The youngest is Norway’s Nicolai Heiberg-Evenstad (obvs known as the Kid), who is 16 now but started playing with his father, Stian Evenstad, aged about seven and was quickly noticed as an outstanding talent. When two or
Last weekend’s women’s trials for the European championships – a playoff between two teams of four – was surprisingly enjoyable. Not only was I lucky enough to be partnering Paula Leslie, but also all eight of us got on exceptionally well. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that level of friendliness in such a crucial
A few new sponsors have sprung up lately, which is very exciting for the English bridge scene and means we can send teams to international events that the EBU (and practically every other bridge federation) can’t afford to sponsor. One of the best and most successful is Maggie Knottenbelt who, with her very good team,
It might be time to start showing more respect to your dummy. Yes, you’re the boss, the brains, the living force behind the contract; dummy is just an inanimate row of cards at your disposal. But sometimes you need to bring it alive in your imagination, swap seats, see things from its upside-down point of
