Can a magazine be better than free?

If you wish to “buy” a friend a magazine subscription, sign her or him up for Bridge

Magazine, which comes via email once a month. The cost? Free! Also, since it is emailed, the number of pages per month is generous. For example, last month’s issue contained 96. Even though it comes from England, the magazine primarily uses twoover-one (five-card majors and a strong no-trump), not Acol (four-card majors and a weak no-trump). There are lots of tournament reports and instructional columns, and a few quizzes. My favourite articles are those by David Bird about the monks of St. Titus. In this deal, the monastery’s best player, Brother Lucius, handles the dummy with his usual accuracy. What did he do in four hearts doubled after West led a diamond, then East took the trick with his king and shifted to the spade queen? Brother Paulo (North) made an overbid by jumping to four hearts, but he did have a good side suit and a singleton. Also, it simplified getting to the desired contract. Declarer is threatened with losing one trick in each suit, and given the spade switch, there isn’t time to attack trumps. Instead, Lucius played a club to the king at trick three. East took the trick and led another spade. South won, played a club to dummy’s queen and led the club jack. When East ruffed, declarer overruffed, trumped a diamond and played the club 10. When East had to ruff with the heart ace, South discarded his spade loser and was home. Details at newbridgemag.com.