Terence Reese (1913–1996)

Reese and Jourdain do as good a job as is possible at making squeeze plays understandable, but "easy" — I don’t know. The authors cover the basic concepts such as menaces, squeeze cards, entries, and timing. They proceed from automatic, simple squeezes to quite complex situations in which the squeeze can produce two extra tricks instead of just one. The also cover defense against squeezes, even to the extent of under-ruffing (using a small trump as an idle card) in order to protect show more holdings in other suits.

The final hand of the book, which had been featured in Bridge World, illustrates a defensive technique that the actual players failed to find. The editors of Bridge World opined that to have found the killing lead would “have been one of the great defensive plays of all time,” requiring a shift to clubs into a double tenace on the board. The authors, however, claim that “Anyone who has read this book would return the club ‘in sleep.’”

In all, the book is a lucid explication of some difficult concepts.

(JAB) show less

This book probably deserves more stars. But for me it was a traumatic experience. It was 1978, I was playing in a chess olympiad, so I don't know, probably not completely dumb and yet...there I was stuck on about p. 3 of this thing. If it had a different title, I'm sure I wouldn't have burst into tears and thrown it out the hotel window.

This book probably deserves more stars. But for me it was a traumatic experience. It was 1978, I was playing in a chess olympiad, so I don't know, probably not completely dumb and yet...there I was stuck on about p. 3 of this thing. If it had a different title, I'm sure I wouldn't have burst into tears and thrown it out the hotel window.

This book probably deserves more stars. But for me it was a traumatic experience. It was 1978, I was playing in a chess olympiad, so I don't know, probably not completely dumb and yet...there I was stuck on about p. 3 of this thing. If it had a different title, I'm sure I wouldn't have burst into tears and thrown it out the hotel window.