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Copyright © 1996-
2010 Bridge World
Magazine, Inc. |
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Reviews reprinted from The Bridge World magazine.
Bridge for Dummies
by Eddie Kantar
Available from The Bridge World Bookshelf Item# 1333
Among the talented and authoritative bridge writers, Eddie
Kantar is the most informal. His friendly personality and deep appreciation
of the beauties and fascinations of the game shine through in his
work, beacons along the path to entertainment. If a relaxed approach
suits the student or beginner for whom you need an introductory book,
try Eddie's "Bridge for Dummies" (381 pages). It's (very) low key. It's complete. It includes lots of interest-provoking things not usually found in primers. It motivates
bidding by discussing play first--over 100 pages before there is
any significant instruction about bidding. (Yes!) And those
silly highcard points don't appear until page 120. (Yes. Yes.
120 times Yes.)
Bridge for Children
by Ron Klinger
Available from The Bridge World Bookshelf Item# 1260
Ron Klinger's "Bridge for Children" (96 pages) combines some of the author's earlier teaching ideas with dramatic new ones, giving us the first youngsters' guide to depart from traditional introductory methods. There is some actual lesson material included, but the book is mainly an exposition of new and better ways to introduce bridge to children. Throughout, there are useful guides for teaching children in general, and explaining card games in particular.
The first part develops an earlier Klinger idea of teaching the mechanics of bridge in stages, through a series of simpler card games. Here, the different learning vehicles are classified by the ages for which they are suitable. The second part gets to the rules of bridge itself, including a useful suggestion for teaching scoring in three categories: contract points, declarer bonus points, and defenders' bonus points. Well, it's not quite bridge, but rather what the author calls "no-frills bridge," in which each game is scored separately--a bonus of 350 for the first and second game won in a rubber, or 500 for the third. (Klinger has suggested to the WBF Laws Commission that the bonus for one game in an unfinished rubber be 350, rather than 300, to be consistent with the new, simplified approach.)
Matching the no-frills rules is the no-frills bidding system--open one of a suit with 13-18, one notrump or two of a suit with 19-21, and so on.--designed to allow all students to learn bidding with a common base, from which they can later branch off into Acol, four- or five-card majors, or whatever. Klinger has suggested that bridge teachers band together, and all give uniform instruction in elementary bidding before branching out into a preferred system. Several "real" bidding systems are introduced in the final portion of the book. Before you get there, though, there is instruction on declarer play and on defense. (Yes, you guessed it: no-frills leads and signals.)
This small book includes many powerful ideas. It needs to be filled out (with more tutorials, examples and exercises) to be a full teaching guide. But these ideas, if accepted by teachers, could produce significant change in how bridge is taught. It is an attempt to show that bridge is not too difficult a game to learn without great effort.
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