Kaplan Sheinwold System

The Kaplan-Sheinwold system makes bridge really fun! There are two books, both published in 2006, that bring it up to date: Andy Stark's The Weak Notrump: How to Play It, How to Play Against It and my own How I Became a Life Master Playing the Weak No Trump.

Kaplan and Sheinwold defined their K-S bidding system so well in the late fifties that newer editions of their original book remain the definitive reference. The weak one notrump opening is as good an idea now as it was in 1959. Standard American bidders can switch to K-S and probably improve their bidding significantly just by adopting the weak one notrump opening (and the many implications thereof). The only weakness this volume suffers is the absent index.

As a serious bridge player during the seventies, I wore the cover off of more than one copy of this book. Except for a mystical group of international players, the Italian "Blue Team" (la squadra azura), bidding methods were universally "Goren" or "Culbertson". Kaplan and Sheinwold were two of a few luminary stars who challanged orthodoxy with radical bidding concepts in the Amarican Bridge arena and helped to re-establish Ameraca's status in international championship play. Based on the weak (12-14)notrump, five card majors and weak two bids, This agressive system presented tools for players to really think about what they were bidding and why. Along with the Roth-Stone system, Shenken, and the Precision Club, K-S provided a pathway for serious bridge players to move into the world of modern, thoughtful bridge play.