Review of Bridge Baron 13

This is an excellent Compact Disc and I was particularly impressed by the size and variety.

Working our way through the various facilities:

PLAY gives the user a chance to do just that at any of seven levels and there is the facility to play a friendly game on the INTERNET. The presentation of hands and conduct of play, scoring, etc are all excellent.

COMPETE gives the user a chance to play hands from a wide variety tournaments and compare scores with other tables. There is also the facility to play a bridge match with the score kept and displayed accurately by the program. Similar comments apply. I found the commentaries afterwards most instructive.

LEARN is an excellent facility to practice named conventions, very important for the aspiring tournament player and partnership. The use of conventions without sufficient practice is a big source of loss at all levels of bridge. You can bid hands from the Challenges facility to fine-tune your partnership bidding.

The TOOLS Library enables the user to save and recall interesting and instructive hands. I have always recommended this approach to learning and my books are based on constant repetition of difficult problems so that the player makes his mistakes away from the table when they do not cost! There is also a deal generator, which can produce deals to the user's specification. I believe the American international teams use this constantly to practice particular points in bidding to establish probability of success.

The OPTIONS menu gives you scope to try different methods of scoring.

The CD gives the opportunity of players of all standards to enjoy the game whether on their own or with others as the computer can accommodate one, two or three players. It will give endless joy and instruction to all and I thoroughly recommend it.