Bridge for Complete Beginners
by Paul Mendelson

Elliot Right Way Books, £4.99, ISBN No. 0 7160 2145 5

I must confess to having mixed feelings every time a new book comes on the market with the aim of teaching bridge to those with absolutely no knowledge at all, but in this case my fears were largely unfounded. Maybe the main reason for this is that Paul Mendelson is a professional teacher of the game, and can understand better than most just what things cause the most frustration and difficulty to the aspiring learner. This book is divided into four sections and the first acts as an introduction, dealing with the basic mechanics of how the game is played and scored. It introduces the reader to the concept of mini-bridge - though it never calls it that - whereby in the first stages the players are encouraged just to confess how many points they have to the assembled gathering, and having done that try to determine whether or not they want a trump suit and how many tricks they might make. It is all made very clear.

The second section deals with bidding, starting with the requirements for opening 1NT and the responses to that bid, and talks at length about the differences between balanced hands and distributional hands. Mendelson makes the key point that balanced hands should be bid as balanced hands as soon as possible, so that if you have a balanced hand with two four-card suits and more than 14 points you open with a bid of one in a suit and make your first rebid in no-trumps. My only slight quibble is that he advocates bidding 'up the line', but my feeling is that with four hearts and four clubs (say), it makes more sense to open 1. If you open 1 and partner bids 1, and you then bid 1NT, the heart suit gets lost if partner has a weakish 2-4-5-2 hand. Majors are surely more important than minors. Mendelson is also a bit vague about 4-4-4-1 hands (understandably), and suggests that you pick a suit and when partner bids your singleton rebid in no-trumps. Fine if you have the required point count, but what if you have not? The truth is, of course, that it is incredibly difficult to say so much in a matter of 4 or 5 pages, and Mendelson does it extremely well. He even introduces the concept of Stayman and Blackwood, giving the reader just enough information to get them excited, but not enough to bamboozle them.

The third section deals with the play of the cards and the different strategies involved in playing no-trump contracts as opposed to suit contracts. The author stresses the point time and time again that you must not just take your top tricks and hope the rest works out well. (Believe me, that does need saying a lot.) The only real techniques that he develops at length are the hold-up play and the finesse, the latter being a play that so many beginners seem terrified to try. He deals in this section with defensive measures too, what to lead and how to signal, and what I particularly liked was that he made it understandable without being too complex.

The last section is the one everyone has to put in, it seems, about being nice to partner and about it being just a game. As if!

This book is intended for the absolute beginner and it covers its subject matter very well. Mendelson writes in an interesting and friendly way, without being in the least bit condescending, and he does try to make the reader understand that what at first sight might seem difficult to learn can be overcome by study and understanding the underlying logic. Furthermore I just could not believe the price of only £4.99. Great value for money.