AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

Sadly Anders Wirgren, the editor of this book, suddenly past away before we could publish it. Anders was a great bridge player and writer, a former partner and a very old friend. His writing was much appreciated and Anders had both friends and supporters from all parts of the globe.

His death is a tragic loss to his family, his friends and the whole bridge community. Anders was a real gentleman, privately as well as at the bridge table. He was also a very kind person. I will miss him a lot.

A few other players that have inspired me are not with us anymore:

My first partner in the Swedish open team (in Estoril 1970) Alvar Stenberg, was a great bridge theorist from whom I learned a lot.

In Miami 1972, I partnered Rolf-Eric Andersson (REA), who was as crazy as I for the scientific part of bridge. We did not do well in Miami, but we managed to win a few Swedish Championships later on.

The system that I present in this book is based on what seems a lifetime of experience from the bridge tables. I have a special interest in the secrets of bidding, and when I was younger I looked for partners who were willing to experiment with all kinds of more or less weird systems that we invented!

From time to time my experiences from trying out new ideas could partly be incorporated in the natural systems I always returned to.

I have also had help to test my theories in practical play in partnerships with Simon Hult, Søren Christiansen, Mads Eyde and Simon Ekenberg.

Without Björn Fallenius, my favorite partner and co-author of the system, there would have been no system – and no book! I hope you will find some parts of our methods that you want to test with your own partner.

I also want to say thanks to my wife, Lena, for inspiring me to keep up the work with the manuscript. She is my biggest fan but also a harsh reviewer.

Another person is worth a special thanks:

Olof Bergström is a new good friend of mine. We have known each other for a long time but I had really no idea of ”who he was”. Now I know that he is perfect friend to have when you are writing a bridge book.

Olof has stopped me from making hundreds of errors both in the text and in the system description. And as I write this, he still is briefing me with ”new” errors. Anders and Olof have been invaluable for me. Perhaps for you too, if you have the book in your hand!

Mats Nilsland