[kgr]

I wonder if it would be interesting for me to take a subscription to Bridge World.
- Is this magazine targeted to beginners...experts?
- What kind of articles does it typically contain (bidding, play, trounement reviews....)?
- What is the price and nbr of magazines per year? Shipment costs to be added to Belgium (...or Flanders in case Belgium would split)?
It would be interesting if somebody could list/review the articles of the last one (not that I ask much )

[catch22]

Check it out at http://www.bridgeworld.com/. They have sample articles which will give you a feel for the magazine.

Great magazine IMO. 72$ well spent

[chicken]

even 86$ in europe are wellspent

[cherdano]

It's very much worth it.

• A big part of every issue is the MSC (bidding panel), which is useful to improve your judgment, and (more importantly) help your understanding of many auctions; the interesting part are not the scores, but the many quotes of world class players explaining their reasoning behind their choice.
  
• There are several play and defense problems every time, some targeted to advanced, and some to experts.
  
• Tournament reports. These are worth reading even if you have seen the matches on BBO, as the analysis is typically excellent. Really worth reading only if you take your time and really try to think about the decisions of the players in single dummy mode (otherwise it's still fun but you won't get much out of it for your bridge).
  
• Typically a few instructional articles on play or defense, targeted to advanced players.
  
• Typically one or two articles on interesting hands where even an expert might see a new theme.
  
• Some more humorous articles, fictional or non-fictional; e.g. you may have heard of Chtonic, the bridge playing robot. These are still based on solid bridge analysis.
  
• One or two articles on "new" bidding gadgets. These I find the least useful, I find it much more helpful to read BBF or some of the bridge blogs for this kind of stuff (sometimes the BW articles are just a little behind the times).

[mike777]

kgr, on Dec 23 2007, 05:46 AM, said:

I wonder if it would be interesting for me to take a subscription to Bridge World.
- Is this magazine targeted to beginners...experts?
- What kind of articles does it typically contain (bidding, play, trounement reviews....)?
- What is the price and nbr of magazines per year? Shipment costs to be added to Belgium (...or Flanders in case Belgium would split)?
It would be interesting if somebody could list/review the articles of the last one (not that I ask much   )

Wonderful Get It!. I even gave it as a gift subscription to a partner.

BTW with the Euro so strong this is almost free for you.

BTW the Jan. 2008 issue is the first time I can ever remember no editorial? Is something up?

[pclayton]

I endorse this magazine 100%.

Is it geared toward the top player? Absolutely and some of the problems are very esoteric in nature. However, there is a relatively new section called "Bridgeworks" which is geared toward Intermediate / Advanced players as well, but I still find the information in the section helpful.

Early on in my training, I devoured old copies of this magazine. I constantly keep about 10 random copies by my bedstand and am rereading them. I probably have about 10 years total and I slowly build my collection.

Which reminds me I need to contact Carl Ritner and buy some more old sets

[paulg]

Definitely worth the money, although being in Europe means that you have yet to receive the January 2008 issue.

Paul

[pclayton]

cardsharp, on Dec 23 2007, 11:03 AM, said:

Definitely worth the money, although being in Europe means that you have yet to receive the January 2008 issue.

Paul

Or the West Coast

I usually get mine on the 22nd or so.

I have found the delivery dates to be legendarily erratic over the years.

[hrothgar]

cherdano, on Dec 23 2007, 02:37 PM, said:

[*]One or two articles on "new" bidding gadgets. These I find the least useful, I find it much more helpful to read BBF or some of the bridge blogs for this kind of stuff (sometimes the BW articles are just a little behind the times).
[/LIST]

A few years back Rubens noted that that he was explicitly targeting the magazine for a North American audience.

The good news is that you get very good coverage of methods that are used in North America.
The bad news is that you don't see very much of what's being used in the rest of the world.

[pclayton]

hrothgar, on Dec 23 2007, 11:18 AM, said:

cherdano, on Dec 23 2007, 02:37 PM, said:

[*]One or two articles on "new" bidding gadgets. These I find the least useful, I find it much more helpful to read BBF or some of the bridge blogs for this kind of stuff (sometimes the BW articles are just a little behind the times).
[/LIST]

A few years back Rubens noted that that he was explicitly targeting the magazine for a North American audience.

The good news is that you get very good coverage of methods that are used in North America. The bad news is that you don't see very much of what's being used in the rest of the world.

I think Rubens was referring to coverage of European Tournaments, not methods.

There's been plenty of articles on methods that are being used in other parts of the world.

[han]

I agree with Phil. Especially Challenge the Champs can give you a nice idea of what methods pairs from various countries play. MSC is of course terrific and those two features alone make the magazine more than worth it.

I enjoyed reading TBW from the first year I played bridge.