Krzysztof Martens writes some of the most difficult bridge books I own (I only have a few of the dozen or two he’s published, because they are small press, hard to get, and make me feel stupid). He’s posting a series on “innovative dummy play” at his website. Honestly, I’m just barely good enough to get something out of it (and his accent makes some of it difficult to follow), but if wanted to see a webinar where one of the early problems is an entry-shifting squeeze (description in wikipedia), he has you covered. But if you just want some random bridge stories, check out Rhoda’s Rules for Bri ..read more

Fairness is over-rated (in games). Looking at my recent convention gaming, I played some games that can be considered “fair,” but by time (and choice) I mostly played wildly unfair games. I suppose I should define “fair.” Off hand, I can think of multiple types of fairness, and there are sliding scales in each: Symmetry (Fairness of Abilities) — Are the actions a player can take the same for all players? For worker placement, some abilities may be blocked, but that’s a function of turn order (which can be manipulated) and some spaces may have pre-requisites. A totally fair game would be simult ..read more

I played almost no new games. The Guild of Merchant Explorers is a small and somewhat lovely “each player places their pieces after the same draw” (ala Take It Easy), but each player gets unique powers. I’d play it again, but it’s not a buy or even a suggest. Path of Civilization — I played this twice because my first impression was “maybe” but my second impression was “No.” However, I’d say this was the buzziest game of the weekend (at least for the first few days I usually saw several games going at once). Free Ride USA is technically new; but really just improves Free Ride. I will be buyi ..read more

First of all, I would like to announce my formation of “The Committee to regularize the spelling of ‘Medieval’” I expect it to be divided into five warring committees within this Pope’s lifetime. But secondly, discussing the game of “Era: Medieval Age” I like Roll through the Ages, this is RttA with a board. Instead of buying technologies you buy buildings (of various shapes and sizes) that you have put into your land, and some buildings give you dice or resources or special powers (like “Set a die”). Roll your dice up to three times, then get food and other resources, feed your people, resolv ..read more

Back when I was playing Chess in High School, there was (some) snobbery about Blitz Chess, where each side gets only five minutes for a full game. In Searching for Bobby Fisher the classical coach (Ben Kingsley) is very dismissive of the game and blitz hustler (Laurence Fishburne), IIRC. But the thing is, you get a bunch of pattern matching training very quickly. No doubt part of the reason that there is a batch of incredibly young grandmasters is that you have an online community and the ability to analyze with computers that are stronger than any human, but part of it is also that they can p ..read more

I see the video “Top Ten Games that Start with the Letter I” video link and all I can think of is Josh Lyman talking to a Trek-fan coworker ..read more

Playing in a special unit game, I pick up a monster. S: KQ8xxx H:Ax D:AQ9 C:A4 I don’t think this is quite worth stretching to opening two clubs, but it wouldn’t be the worst stretch I’ve ever made. In any case, I open 1 Spade. LHO passes and partner bids 1 NoTrump, semi-forcing (the “forcing” 1NT is part of 2-over-1 game force, but I prefer letting opener pass with a balanced minimum). I obviously have a huge hand, and I could bid 4 Spades, but partner may not have any, and don’t want to foreclose slam in NT (or any suit). Three spades is an underbid, so I decide to fake a jump shift and bid ..read more

I haven’t played MK in over a year but I’ll certainly buy the new Mage Knight Expansion when it comes out. As I’ve mentioned, varietal expansions (where you just add new characters/cards/etc and not so much rules) are often fine, and in any case even if this adds a ton of chrome I’ve played 400+ games of Mage Knight and I’m willing to risk more on it ..read more

I Jorbs and I’ve dabbled with Spirit Island (played a few games on Steam) so this video was of interest to me, and perhaps to you ..read more

I was considering writing this as a series of essays — and it could easily be expanded to it, but I decided to simply write it as concisely as possible. This is intended for novice and intermediate players, but even experts may find something of use. This is different from the question “How can I win against stronger players in the meantime” which maybe deserves its own post, but later. You get better by reviewing your game When playing you already plenty to think about; it’s tough to see all your mistakes at the time. Ideally review with a stronger player(s) who can explain your mistakes. D ..read more