52 more crosswords featuring the world's most popular card game. Jeff Chen's first book of bridge-themed crosswords was widely acclaimed, and his many fans will welcome a second collection. They know what to expect! Now bridge players who enjoy crosswords can combine their favourite pastimes! For this book, New York Times and Los Angeles Times crossword constructor Jeff Chen has designed 52 brand-new crosswords with bridge-themed clues and solutions, providing hours of challenge and fun. "Jeff Chen's crosswords are always ingenious. He's one of my favourite puzzlemakers." Will Shortz, Crossword Editor, The New York Times.

Following on from their earlier book, Planning in Defense (January 2019; ISBN 978 177140 053 4), Seagram & Bird move on to more sophisticated aspects of defensive cardplay for advancing players. Using the same step-by-step approach, the authors guide the reader through the issues involved in communications, deception, trump promotions, discarding and avoiding the embarrassment of being endplayed.

The world's oldest, and leading, bridge magazine, The Bridge World, said of this book: 'Guide to Better Card Play is an elementary-through-intermediate textbook on declarer play and defence. Appropriately, the two phases of the book receive equal attention. The book can be used either as a self-teacher or as the basis of a series of lessons. In addition to the tutorial material, which is comprehensive, careful and instructive, the work is choc-a-bloc with summaries, reviews, quizzes and example deals. There is even an appendix that allows your foursome to set up the practice deals yourself. We like almost everything about this book, we especially liked the attention to partnership methods, the topic selection, and the carefully constructed lesson deals. There are other good texts at this level, but Klinger's book has twice as much material as similar works. This is a very good buy.'

Paul Thurston's bridge textbook 25 Steps to Learning 2/1 (December 2004; ISBN 9781894154468) was an instant bestseller, winning the 2003 American Bridge Teachers' Association Book of the Year award. In a tantalizing postscript to that book, he promised a sequel, one that would cover 'the rest of the story' for those who wanted to add modern sophistication to their 2/1 bidding. Here at last he delivers, and the long wait has been worth it. The book describes an understandable and playable version of today's most popular system, something that has been missing from bridge literature until now. 2/1 game forcing ('two-over-one game forcing') is a bidding system in modern contract bridge structured around various formulaic responses to a one-level opening bid. Many improving bridge players enjoy the benefits of the 2/1 system.

A pocket guide to bridge, written by two internationally regarded writers and players For every bridge player who wants to be sure of the best bid, lead, or play, this book is designed as a quick reference. It includes what players need to know for opening bids, responses, and rebids. There is also guidance on hand evaluation, competitive bidding strategy, opening leads, declarer play, and defense so that the reader will have all the basic essentials of good play within easy reach.

When the first inhabitants of Great Bridge established a settlement on the West Bromwich side of the River Tame, near to an ancient crossing into Tipton in about 1550, they could not have foreseen its future prominence as an important centre of commerce in the West Midlands. Who can forget the enormous variety of locally owned shops, each having their own individual character? Memories abound of the Open Market, Peter Bonaccorsi's icecream, 'The Queens' fish and chip shop, dancing at 'The Stampede' and of course the Palace Cinema where you were invited to 'Bring your Alice to our Palace'. Local author and historian Terry Price presents his third pictorial record of Great Bridge and the surrounding areas of Golds Hill, Greets Green, Horseley Heath, Swan Village and Toll End, depicting people, places and social events during the last century. More than 300 photographs, mostly from unpublished private collections, together with the author's informative captions paint a fascinating picture of local life in those far-off halcyon days.

In this book, Miles addresses the complex arena of competitive bidding methods for the more advanced player. He discusses current thinking, and recommends methods which will continue to be playable as bridge enters its second century. This book will appeal to fairly serious players only. There are two earlier books on this topic by the same author, 5 and 10 years old respectively, and therefore superseded by this new work.

Close Encounters is a two-book series that describes some of the most memorable bridge matches of the last fifty years. It features titanic struggles for World and National titles, involving the greatest players from Europe and North America. There are amazing comebacks, down-to-the-wire finishes, overtime victories, and an insight into how the game has changed over the last half century. Book 2 starts with Italy losing a world title in bizarre fashion on the final board, and ends with the USA’s nail-biting 2-IMP victory over France in Lyon in 2017.

Like the author's first book (A First Book of Bridge Problems, named Book of the Year for 2011 by the American Bridge Teachers Association), this sequel comprises 50 problems in declarer play and defence for the beginning or near-beginning player, presented in approximate order of difficulty. The problems are slightly more advanced than those in the first book. Experienced players recognize certain standard situations without having to work them out. This does not apply to novices who spend a lot of mental effort on them. The aim of the book is to get novices to develop their recognition of these situations. The idea is to present bridge hands as the reader would encounter them playing at the table. Unlike in a textbook, where topics are introduced systematically, there is no clue as to what type of play is required.

The author begins this thorough discussion of a neglected but vital topic by examining the real purpose of defensive signalling, and the basic kinds of signals that are available. He goes on to recommend a comprehensive set of signalling agreements, and analyzes more complex situations in the light of these agreements. Most of the chapters are followed by a quiz, and the answer to each signalling problem includes a full 52-card diagram to demonstrate the effectiveness of the recommended signal. The book finishes with a chapter that looks at the signalling methods of eight world-class pairs, with examples of their methods in action. A book any player who is looking to improve will want to read.