A lot has changed over the last years in the coverage of major international bridge events. Long gone are the days when we had to wait patiently for the players to return from their overseas trip and have them lend us the few precious tournament bulletins they took back with them. Nowadays the internet revolution means that not only we can often get the online version of those bulletins faster than the players at the venue itself but, thanks to Fred Gitelman and his team, we can now sit back in our comfortable computer chairs and watch a relay in real-time of the vu-graph of most important international tournaments on bridgebase.com.

   Where does that leave us, bridge journalists? Will the public still need tournament reports when they can get the real thing live? Well, for a start we can take advantage of the wealth of data to compile accurate and in-depth analysis of bidding and play (rather than having to rely solely on the players’ mnemonic abilities). Secondly, we can actually take an active part, like I do, in commenting those broadcast for the benefit of the viewing public.

   An example of this new style of fresh and easily readable coverage is, I hope, what we try to achieve at the Israeli bridge magazine. It is up to you, the public out there, to decide if our efforts stand up to that challenge.