Bridge books reviewed - 11

Mike Lawrence's "How to Read Your Opponent's Cards" won the bridge book of the year in1973 and is still flying off the shelves 35 years later! Mike is concerned less with how to play your hand than with how to think about playing. The idea is to minimise risk by deducing where your opponent's high cards are. Lawrence shows how to spot and interpret clues from the opening bid onwards with chapters titled 'Sizing Up the Case', 'Finding the Witness', 'Analysing the Clues', Conducting the Investigation', Checking the Evidence', Nailing Down the Case' and 'Making Your Sixth Sense Work'. The latter deals with watching your opponent's body language for the 'tells' that reveal their thoughts involuntarily. Each but the last features a quiz section to help you practice your technique.

"The No Trump Zone" by Danny Kleinman is another advanced and somewhat abstract book. When should you open 1NT on a semibalanced hand, with a 5-card major, with weak doubleton(s)? Are some point ranges better than others? (Danny actually recommends 16-18, but I cannot see the logic in this). Which conventions beyond Stayman and Jacoby Transfers should you use? He gives three separate answers to this one, depending on whether you and your partner want a simple but functional system or the 'most detailed system money can buy.' For this latter choice, you obviously refer to "The Definitive Guide to No Trump Bidding, Stayman and Transfers" by your own humble Terry Quested.

"Play These Hands With Me" is one of Terence Reese's most popular and sought after books, back in print after a number of years. It's a superb collection of deals presented in the over-the shoulder style which Reese is famous for. Read and learn as Reese guides you through the bidding and play and then gives his afterthoughts on each hand. Frequently copied but never equalled. this book is essential reading.

The late Terence Reese, perhaps the greatest bridge writer of all time, introduced the over-the-shoulder style of bridge writing in his classic "Play these hands with me".
"Misplay Theses Hands With Me", by Mark Horton, is a wry homage to the master. Mark leads us through a plausibly logical line on each instructive deal, but one that ends in failure. In each post-mortem , the 'expert' realizes how he could have improved on his play, and have made the contract. The deals are all from top-class events, which proves to be a remarkably fertile source of material. A book filled with subtle humor and great bridge.

"Do You Really Want to Win at Bridge" by Terence Reese. About the only criticism of this delightful book is the slightly misleading title - it sounds like a test for moderate-improving rubber bridge players. In fact it is a collection of 66 deals, all of absorbing interest. Actually the hands are taken directly form Jean Besse's "Bridge 66 Curiosités". Fortunately Terence's English enables some of the finer points of the hands to be revealed for the first time to non-fluent french bridge players. It's an excellent book, although it will appeal primarily to the better players. To say that it has lost nothing in the translation is an understatement - the additions and modifications made by Terence Reese are a delight.

In 1965 the bridge world was rocked by an accusation of cheating at the world championships in Buenos Aires. The pair involved were Britain's Terence Reese and Boris Shapiro, two of the world's best players. Now, almost 50 years later, the true inside story can be told - the investigation, the accusation, and the very different results of the World Bridge Federation and the British Bridge League inquiries.
Alan Truscott, bridge editor of the New York Times since 1964, probably knows more than anyone else about the complex world of international bridge. His book about the event, "The Great Bridge Scandal: The Most Famous Cheating Case in the History of the Game", has been revised and updated. This new edition tells the full inside story of the Buenos Aires affair, in which Truscott himself played a central role.

Terence Reese was arguably in the 60's the world's greatest player as well as it's best writer on the game. In "Story of an Accusation" he delivers a riveting account of the events surrounding the most famous scandal in bridge history. This book, long out of print and now updated, was written in his own defence against the Buenos Aires cheating allegations.