Product Description

World sales exceed 100,000 Recognised as one of the classics of bridge literature Written one of the foremost analysts of bridge

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #303671 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

About the Author
Killing Defence at Bridge is one of the great classics of bridge. It carries the mark of a genius and was the first in a series of major books written by Hugh Kelsey, who became internationally recognised as a leading authority on the analysis of bridge. He coupled this incisive thinking with a brilliant skill with words and made the most complex techniques in bridge sound simple and easy to grasp. Killing Defence features a foreword by Ron Klinger, one of bridge's leading teachers.

Customer Reviews

Hard going!
Kelsey focusses mainly upon counting the hand out & drawing the correct inferences from that.

Many of the auctions in this book appear very dated, as do some of the signalling methods. However, the material which is covered is of the highest quality.

The weaknesses of this book are very clear. It contains a huge chapter on squeeze defence, all of it focussing on relatively obscure double squeeze positions. The author prefers to give a lot of complex examples rather than a few simpler ones. Advanced is one thing, obscure is quite another, and I feel that a number of the hands in this book wander into 'obscure'.

If you have already read & enjoyed Eddie Kantar's books 'Modern Bridge Defence' and 'Advanced Bridge Defence', then this book will add to your knowledge and skill. If not, READ THEM INSTEAD. 'Killing Defence At Bridge' is certainly not an effort to give you a thorough grounding in the basics...

For serious players only!

Good material but dry as a crisp
This book is a classic example of how good thinking does not necessarily make good teaching material. Obviously Hugh Kelsey knew his stuff and the logic is crystal.

But ye Gods what an unbelievably boring format, which basically consists of ... hands. An incessant and steady bombardment of them. No periodic themed discussions to break up the repetition, no sparky wit to keep you from dozing, no light relief in the form of asides about the bidding or the wider game. The lack of such things does not make the book more focused: it simply renders the book more difficult to learn from.

Ok I realise that this book was written back in the 60s when writers/publishers perhaps weren't so aware of how to get the most out of a reader. But what one shouldn't allow is that a book should be boring because it deals in detail.

Although the technique is spot-on, I'm afraid that reading this nowadays is a laborious and rather joyless exercise.

Excellent!
Hugh Kelsey was one of the best of all teachers of what is important in the play of the cards at bridge, and especially in defence. This book is a series of problems which, if approached in the right way, are usually solvable. If you fail to solve a problem, Kelsey will draw your attention to the defective reasoning you employed, or the inferences you missed. You learn by thought and practice - surely the best way. I love this book, and come back to it about once per year, hoping to do better than I did the last time around! For anyone who likes hard study under a hard taskmaster, this book will not fail to improve your game and you will most certainly enjoy the learing experience.