Notes from "Winning Swiss Team Tactics In Bridge" by Harold Feldheim

Compiled by Jaf Chiang -- April 14, 2026

[Here is an article on New York Times in 1976 about the book: Winning Swiss Team Tactics In Bridge]

p. 13 When you and your partner are left alone to determine your ultimate part-score contract without enemy interference, the most important factor in IMP play is safety.

p. 14 The philosophy of the successful matchpoint player is to play hands in notrump whenever possible. The ultra-conservative matchpoint player who plays in two diamonds for +110 will lose consistently to the more daring no- trump bidder who makes + 120. In IMPs the philosophy is exactly the opposite. All efforts should be expended to find a safe suit fit, with notrump as a last resort. We stated that the player who bids a notrump partial rather than an established suit fit partial is betting approximately four IMPs to one IMP that he is right. Actually the odds are often worse; in the preceding example North-South were not vulnerable and the notrump partial went down only one trick. This rule also applies to any attempt to play in a higher-scoring partial, such as trying to play in a major suit rather than a minor suit.

p. 17 this hand is likely to be a misfit, and one of the basic rules of bidding a misfit is to get out as quickly as possible once the misfit has been disclosed.

p. 26 Assume that the bidding has gone pass, pass, to you. You have 11 HCP and have to determine whether or not to open the bidding. The two criteria to follow are: (a) Do you have control over at least one of the majors (ideally, the spade suit) and (b) Do you have two defensive tricks? Control of a major suit is a strategic necessity since you are likely to run into competition.

p. 29 This is a chance you have to take when you open light in third- or fourth-seat. A rebid by opener confirms a full opening bid, or compensating distributional values.

p. 32 The underlying principle of determining when to use Drury is simple: Is the knowledge that partner has a full opening bid sufficient for you to invite game?

p. 38 The general rule of swift support is as follows: If your hand is so weak that you would reject a game try by partner, support partner's suit as quickly as possible.

p. 40 Unless the hands are unusually freakish, the three-level is usually the breaking point of part-score contracts. As a general rule, therefore, when both sides are in the auction, push the opponents as high as you can in an attempt to convert their potential plus score into a minus score.

p. 42 Remember, your basic object in competitive auctions is to achieve a plus score and the "matchpoint victory" is usually not worth more than one or two IMPS.

p. 43 The major point is that your double announces good defensive values and partner must evaluate his hand in the light of this information. Not to double would give the opponents free license to compete against you on marginal hands.

p. 45 In other words, if you think you can punish your opponents, double somewhat more freely if you are not doubling them into game. If you are doubling them into game, you should be confident of at least a two-trick set.

p. 47 The general rule for doubling part scores in IMPs is that you must hold a disagreeable surprise for declarer, which should result in a two-trick set. Examine the following five hands and analyze the auction on each of them.

p. 53 Employing this understanding, the redouble would show either (a) a highly offensive hand, based on an excellent trump fit, with which you intend to vigorously support partner on the next round, or (b) a highly defense-oriented hand, with the ability to double at least two out of the three unbid suits. To handle the in-between hand, your partnership need only agree that a new-suit response is forcing over the takeout double.

p. 56 The one notrump bid [after partner’s Takeout Double] should be employed only when you feel that your partnership assets include at least half the available high-card points. Paradoxically, in low-level competitive auctions, the first person to bid notrump is most likely to achieve a plus score.

p. 58 Safety in bidding is not only defined as making the bid that will work most of the time, but also in making the bid that will not leave you in an untenable position should the auction not proceed as you would like. A little bit of pessimism goes a long way in IMPs. … Keeping in mind the safety and pessimism that should go hand in hand in competitive auctions, the two basic rules that should be followed in overcalling in IMPs are (a) your suit should be of such texture that a penalty double is unlikely and (b) you should stay out of auctions where the opponents have demonstrated that they have more strength than you do (unless you intend to sacrifice).

p. 71 Assume that you have opened the bidding and partner has made a limit raise. What criteria do you use to decide whether to pass or go on to game? Since the limit raiser is very close to a game-forcing bid (most likely not more than a queen short), you should bid game on any excuse - a healthy minimum-range opening bid with a judiciously placed singleton could easily be enough.

p. 81 The basic principle for slam bidding at IMPs is that it is a good bet if the chance of success is more than 50% - you gain more often than you lose. On the other hand, a less than 50% slam is a bad bet, since you lose more often than you gain. Slam bidding can be divided into two main categories: The power slam, based on a wealth of aces and kings with either a good trump fit or the ability to play in notrump; and the distributional slam, where you must determine whether your cards are "working," and that sufficient tricks are available based on the fit between the two hands.

p. 82 The natural corollary is particularly crucial in IMPs, that is: Whenever you are in a game-forcing auction, the possibility of slam should always be considered.

p. 89 Splinter bids improve partnership communication and are therefore useful weapons to add to your arsenal. If this is your first experience, don't get upset if you have an accident and pass your partner in a splinter bid. It happens to almost everyone at least once.

p. 91 The examples in this section have for the most part ignored the problem of trump-suit losers. This was with malice aforethought. Often your decision to bid a small slam or a grand slam will depend on trump texture, and many accidents have occurred at the expert level because of an inadequate trump fit.

p. 93 There are two basic types of preemptive auction: The solo preempt and the preempt based on a fit with partner. The solo preempt is the well-known opening three-level (or four- level) bid with a long suit - usually seven or more cards in length - and very little in defense. In the game of bridge in general, and in IMPs in particular, there are certain stringent requirements which should always be applied to an opening preempt.

1. Your long suit should not contain more than two losers opposite- a singleton in partner's hand, assuming normal breaks.
2. Your hand should not contain a four-card side suit.
3. Your hand should contain no voids.
4. The preemptive hand should not contain more than one ace or king outside the trump suit.

p. 96 Partnership consistency must exist in preemptive bidding and this should be geared toward safety when playing IMPs. A good rule of thumb is that you should not expose yourself to be set more than two tricks when vulnerable even if your partner produces a useless hand. Not vulnerable, you can be a bit more liberal, and fall short of your contract by three or four tricks.

p. 97 - 98 An opening three-bid makes the following statement: "I have a hand that is sparse in defensive values and I am attempting to block the opponents' communication with my own long suit. In addition, I have no tolerance for any suit of yours unless it is a very good suit." Certainly the last part of this statement did not apply to this hand. An opening three-bid is most emphatically one- suited.

p. 100 - 103 There are four general types of hands with which you should act after a preemptive opening by partner:

1. A hand with a good suit of your own, including outside aces and kings. Remember, a new suit bid by responder after a preemptive bid is forcing, just like a response to an opening on the one- level.
2. A bad hand with a massive fit in partner's suit. As with any other auction, partner is asking you to exercise your judgment based on what has taken place. By preempting he has attempted to cut the opponents' line of bidding communication. It becomes your obligation to continue the same theme and make it still harder for the opponents to exchange information. This is true whether or not the opponents enter the auction before or after you have had a chance to bid. If your hand is very bad (less than six high-card points outside partner's suit), the opponents can probably make a slam. By continuing the preempt you make it more difficult for them to reach their optimum contract. If your hand is marginally bad (six to nine points outside of the trump suit) they can certainly make game, but you are likely to have enough defense to beat a slam. The key to continuing the preempt is that the opponents will not be able to tell with great accuracy whether they can make game. By creating this area of ambiguity for the enemy, you are hoping for a potential swing in your favor.
3. A good hand with a massive trump fit. Even if you have an excellent hand with control cards, the strong trump fit with partner makes this kind of hand dangerous. In the section on slam bidding we learned how to exercise judgment based on effective high-card points. Whenever there is one wildly distributional hand, it is likely that other hands at the table will also be distributional. If you have a big trump fit with partner, the two enemy hands will consist mostly of the three remaining suits.
4. A hand with fillers in your partner's trump suit, and stoppers in the other suits, where it looks as if your partner's seven-card suit will produce enough tricks for you to make three no-trump.
   * Very often a decision of whether to sacrifice or double can be partially determined by an amorphous thing called "the state of the match" - whether you are ahead or behind. This will be discussed in a later chapter.

p. 107 The player next to bid (in this case North) doubles with a hand he believes contains two tricks, and passes if he has zero or one trick. If he doubles, partner respects his judgment and passes. If he passes, partner can pass if he believes he can defeat the slam, or double with one defensive trick (asking partner to sacrifice if he has no tricks or to pass with one defensive trick). Of course, South will take the "save" himself if he has no defensive tricks. The object of this type of convention is to prevent a blind guess.

p. 108 Let's examine third-hand preemptive bidding in the light of our four rules.

1. Your long suit should not contain more than two losers opposite a singleton in partner's hand, assuming normal breaks. You should not deviate very far from this rule. Remember large penalties can result whether you open first hand, second hand, or third hand.
2. Your hand should not contain a four-card side suit. You may break this rule with a great deal of freedom. The only constraint is that your four-card suit should not contain more high-card strength than your preemptive suit. Thus, with a hand such as: AK94 2 QJ10987 32 we would rather open the hind one diamond than mislead partner as to the location of our defensive strength by preempting in diamonds.
3. Your hand should contain no voids. This rule can be ignored when preempting in third seat. As with the last rule, none of your short suits should contain more high-card strength than your long suit. (If your distribution is 0-7-3-3 the majority of high cards should be in the seven-card suit.)
4. The preemptive hand should not contain more than one ace or king outside of the trump suit. When preempting in third position, this rule is changed to read "A preemptive hand generally should not contain an ace and a king in the same outside suit." 109 FOURTH HAND PREEMPTS Some of you may believe that the term "fourth-hand preempt" is a contradiction in terms. If the other three players have passed and you are in last position, all that you have to do to keep the opponents out of the auction is to pass. This is absolutely true, and points out the requirements for a fourth-position opening preemptive bid In third seat, many of the rules for a preemptive bid were relaxed In fourth seat, these rules are more stringent. Your part- ner should feel free to make a move toward game, if he has close to an opening bid, since he is aware that you could have passed. Fourth-hand preempts require you to have no more than one-anda-half losers in your suit, and you should have honor cards outside the trump suit. You may even have a minimum opening one-bid, and still elect to preempt because you are afraid of a competitive auction.

p. 114 A final word of warning for the preempter. When you have opened a preemptive bid you have told your story: Do not repeat yourself. Once a player preempts, he should not bid again, unless forced by partner. The preempter's partner can exercise his judgment and make decisions based on what he hears. IMP bidding can now be summarized in a few sentences. The first and most important of these is safety. If a hand belongs in a partial, play it in the safest partial and at the lowest level possible. Don't worry about the trick score. Whether you play in a major, a minor, or notrump may be of crucial importance in matchpoints, but means very little in IMP play. Similarly, if the hand belongs in game, play it in the safest game. Keeping safety in mind, try to make life as easy for your partnership and as hard for the opponents as you can. Your reward will be appreciation from your partner and a healthy respect from your opponents.

p. 126 The key to this hand is to force a decision on the opponents as quickly as you can.

p. 127 The point of this hand is similar to that of hand 11. Force a decision on your opponents as quickly as you can, allowing them to exchange only a minimum of information. Your partner's three-club bid has given you a complete picture, while they are still somewhat in the dark.

p. 131 One of the basic precepts of bridge in general, and IMP bridge in particular, is that whenever two hands are committed to game, thought should always be given to the possibility of slam. Since you need specf1c honor cards in partner's hand to make a slam, Blackwood would be an error since it would not tell you if partner had the proper hand.

p. 167 We cannot overstress the two general principles guiding IMP play. First, whenever a contract looks cast iron, it is time to become pessimistic and give up possible overtricks to insure the contract. The second principle states that if your contract is marginal you should take any chance necessary to fulfill the contract.

p. 180 The general policy to be followed by successful IMP defenders is: If partner must have a specific key card to defeat the contract, you should play partner for that key card. We will refer to this as the ITT approach to IMP defense.
IF partner does not have a card;
THEN the contract cannot be beaten;
THEREFORE you must assume he has the key card.

This is perhaps the most important difference between match- point and IMP defensive play. Keep it in mind at all times. The basic difference between defensive play and declarer play is that declarer can see partner's hand, while you are denied this privilege. Declarer may pose problems to you before you are fully able to determine your partnership's assets. It is, therefore, absolutely necessary to construct a rough picture of declarer's and partner's hands immediately. Counting is a prerequisite to effective defense; once you learn to count, you become an effective and dangerous defender.

p. 193 SWISS TEAM STRATEGY

In the first five parts of this book, we have dealt with IMP-related problems in the auction, declarer play and defense. These three technical elements merely constitute the skeleton of team play. Now we will discuss the heart of IMP play: The actual playing of a match. There are three situations in which you may find yourself when playing a Swiss match. First, you and partner may have played very skillfully and expect to be substantially ahead at your table. Second, things may not have gone too well, and as a result you feel you are behind in the match. Third, you may consider the match is pretty much even. It stands to reason that if you feel that you are ahead you should not take chances which might jeopardize your lead. Alternately, if you are behind you must take chances that you would not take in an equal match, competing for a dangerous part score or pushing to a shaky game. Notice the use of the word "feel." While you are playing, you do not know what is happening at the other table. However, you should continually make intelligent estimates of the trend of the match. This is a very important facet of team strategy; unless you can approximate where you stand at any given point, you will not know the approach to take on subsequent boards.

p. 198 However, as a general rule in IMP play, whenever you are on the positive side of a flat board, assume a plus position. It is possible to construct auctions where the opponents do not reach game at the other table; while we admit this is unlikely, you must consider this in your estimation of the match. For example, if South only invites game at his second turn, the fact that there are only 23 HCP between the two hands may act in your favor. Therefore, write "+0" on your convention card. This means that while you think there is no swing, any potential swing would have to be in your favor.