Topics in Declarer Play
by Eddie Kantar, Interactive CD-ROM

Master Point Press (www.masterpointpress.com/)
US$49.95, ISBN 1 894154 60 6

The blurb on the back of this CD tells you that this is 'the fun way to improve your declarer play', and I have to say I think they are right. I would normally be the last person to come to grips with something so potentially complicated as an interactive CD-ROM, but let me assure you that if I can do it then so can you. And it actually is fun because it is so - er - user-friendly. So friendly in fact that if you don't like the way the hands are displayed on the screen, you can use a 'customize' button to get something that suits your needs better. I have to say, though, that I found the default option fine in every way.

The CD is divided into six chapters which tell you everything you would like to know about entry management, suit establishment, how not to block a suit and when you should or shouldn't take a finesse. Later on you learn how to count the opponents' hands and perform an endplay, so I suppose the material is aimed at post-improvers, or people with a sound basic knowledge of the essentials. At the end of each chapter there is a revision sheet of key ideas, followed by loads of questions and play hands. This is where the fun really starts, for you are presented with a problem and have a multiple choice selection for your answer. Get it right and you hear whoops of delight or a snippet from the Hallelujah Chorus, but get it wrong and you hear groans of despair or a passage from the Death March. (This does tend to get tedious after a while but not to worry - you can turn the sound effects off.) Each hand is played out trick by trick, just by hitting the right button on the tool bar, and if you can't quite grasp what is going on, then you just go back a couple of tricks. It really is simple to use, and the written commentary by Kantar is good fun and not too American. The following hand is one of the more difficult:

A J 4 2   Q 8   J 3   A Q 7 4 2   K Q 10 9 7 3   J 10   A 10   6 5 3

You are in 4 after West opened 1, and the defence start by cashing A-K and switching to the K. It looks at first sight as if you will have to lose a club trick even if the king is well-placed, but there is some hope. Win the diamond, draw trumps and play a club to the queen. Cash the ace, in the hope of felling the king from West, and exit with a diamond. If he started with one or two clubs including the king, he will now be endplayed to give you a ruff-and-discard.

This CD is based on Kantar's book of the same title and it is very well produced, even for the most computer illiterate. The system requirements are that you should have an IBM compatible machine, 10MB of free hard disk space, Windows and 8MB RAM.

Dave Huggett

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