What child? Why should you?

Your "child" may be your son or daughter, your nephew or niece, your grandchild or godchild, or even your next door neighbour's child. It doesn't matter who they are, or what age – children really enjoy learning MiniBridge once they start. They love being clever and working things out - and winning – and the game has many educational benefits too.

It will also be very worthwhile, for there will be one more young person in the world who has learned something about bridge and maybe decided to take up the game, or perhaps is more likely to take it up a little later in life. And you will have done your bit to save our game from extinction – which is what will happen if we don't bring more young people into bridge.

If you are not exactly sure how MiniBridge works, or how to go about teaching it, this series of articles aims to help. I will take you step by step through how to explain the mechanics of MiniBridge, the order in which to introduce its various features and the practical ways to play and enjoy the game. I'll pitch it for a typical young person aged around 11 – a nice age to learn.

What is MiniBridge?

MiniBridge is basically bridge without the bidding. To decide who is going to play the contract, you add up your points in the usual way and the partnership with the higher total wins the contract, the player with the higher total in this pair becoming declarer.

At this point dummy goes down and declarer decides on the contract – which suit or no-trumps, game or part-score. Game contracts are 9, 10 or 11 tricks in no trumps, a major or a minor respectively, and part-score is any 7 tricks. Scoring is just as in bridge, non-vulnerable. The only difference in the play is that the opening lead is made after dummy has been faced.

That's it! Pretty straightforward, if you are a bridge player. But there are quite a few points that need to be appreciated about how the game works. So have a look at the lessons and take it from there.

Download the MiniBridge computer program by clicking here.