G.I.B. (Ginsberg's Intelligent Bridge Player),  Bridge Software  for
Windows, Just Write Inc., £65.95 from Bridge Plus (normal price £69.99)

GIB, or Ginsberg's Intelligent Bridge Player, to give it its full title,
has excellent credentials. It won the 1998 World Computer Championships
and performed with distinction in the 1998 World Par Contest.

It is easy to install and starts running automatically. It requires a
CPU running at 133 MHz or faster, with at least 32 MB of memory, and
running Windows 95, 98 or NT, or Linux. Although GIB might run on slower
machines or machines with less memory, the performance will fall off
drastically. GIB runs in a window of just under 800 x 600 pixels, so if
your display supports only 640 x 480, you won’t be able to run it.
The on-screen display is clear, the cards are large enough to read and
play easily, you can change on-screen colours to suit your taste, and
you can even change the fronts or backs of the cards. The instruction
manual is clear and concise, but all of the options are easily available
from on-screen menus.

The bidding systems available include Standard American, 2-over-1 Game
Force, Acol (i.e. four-card majors with a variable 1NT), and
Kaplan-Sheinwold. You select a basic system, then you can change parts
of it to your liking. This can be saved for future use. You can also
select the type of scoring from Rubber, Chicago, Duplicate and IMPs.

Not only can the program produce random deals, you can also specify
custom-deal types for each player, enter your own deals, or play the
pre-loaded deals from several international tournaments, when you can
compare your result with those of the other tables, and look at the
bidding and play from any table.

GIB is allocated 60 seconds of thinking time, a feature that can be
changed. You can see which bids and plays it is thinking about, and
you can ask for hints during the play. It can take the occasional
`interesting view' during an auction, and some of its leads may not be
what you would expect. For example, GIB chose to lead the lower card
of a doubleton several times against a suit contract, even though it
thought about several alternative leads before doing so. I liked the
single mouse-click for bidding and play. I also liked having a claim
facility, although GIB sometimes declines the occasional obvious
claim.

This is easily the best bridge program that I have tried, a super piece
of software. I highly recommend it. GIB is aimed at the intermediate to
advanced player and is well worth the price.	 	  

Presentation: *****					Key =	* poor
Ease of Use: *****					    ***** excellent
Value for Money: *****
Overall: *****

(Christine Cooper)