General presentation

bridge-training.com is a free educational platform available in 10 languages. In just a few clicks, it allows any bridge deal to be made playable by a single player against three Artificial Intelligences. It is also a collaborative platform for sharing educational deals among teachers, and for managing their classes [coming soon].

Designed as an independent, open tool, complementary to tournament bridge platforms, it is primarily intended for teachers, clubs and associations, for bridge discovery and training purposes.

This video tutorial explains how to make your Bridge, Minibridge, and Petit Bridge deals playable in just a few clicks. Petit Bridge is a simplified version of the game created by the French Bridge Federation for children aged 6 to 9. It is now widely used worldwide, especially in schools. The World Bridge Federation has supported the availability of its digital version.

The text below explains the platform step by step.

How it works

bridge-training.com allows you to:

1. import an educational deal from a file (PBN, DUP) or enter it manually,
2. precisely define pedagogical settings,
3. create a link to this deal, playable in one click.

This link may be freely used, for commercial or non-commercial purposes, within the limits of applicable law.

The platform is entirely free, both for creators and players. It is funded through non-intrusive advertising and donations. No advertising is displayed during Petit Bridge games.

1. The editor

Importing or creating a deal
Several methods are available:

• importing a PBN or DUP file,
• entering the deal directly in the interface.

All information is automatically imported and can be edited: hands, contract, bidding, comments.

Setting up the bidding
In the “Bidding” tab, you can:

• define the expected bidding sequence,
• optionally add pedagogical comments, which will be displayed once the bid has been made.

Setting up the card play
In the “Card Play” tab, you can:

• impose a forced start of the play (opening lead only, or several tricks),
• comment on the cards played in the forced sequence.

Choosing the player’s seat
The declarer is always South.
Depending on your pedagogical objective, you may place the player:

• in South for a declarer play problem (playing opposite dummy),
• in East or West for a defence problem.

The seat selector is located at the centre of the deal diagram.
If the declarer in the imported deal is not South, the deal is automatically rotated and the comments are adjusted accordingly. In most cases, no action is required.
You may nevertheless modify the dealer if necessary.

Choosing a game mode
In the “Settings” tab, you can select from a wide range of game modes, depending on the player’s level and your objective:

• allow bidding, or display only the bidding sequence,
• display nothing (a very useful mode to introduce card play at No Trump in just a few minutes),
• display only the trump suit,
• display the trump suit and the objective,
• display the contract,
• Minibridge, with or without length and distribution points,
• Petit Bridge, a simplified form of bridge developed by the French Bridge Federation, intended for children aged 6 to 9.

Defining a pedagogical objective
In the “Settings” tab, you can set an objective for the player by specifying the number of tricks to be taken by North/South.
This allows you to create deals where the objective is:

• to defeat the contract by a given number of tricks,
• or to make the contract with a given number of overtricks.

If not imported from your file, you may also define here the vulnerability, the scoring method and your final comment, in compliance with copyright rules.

Generating and sharing the deal
Once the deal has been set up:

• click “Generate”,
• a unique, non-editable link with no expiration date is created,
• an associated QR code is also generated.

These elements can be freely used online, on paper (handouts, brochures, magazines), in class, during lessons or between sessions.
There is no longer any barrier between the paper medium and the digital medium.

Saving deals
Each deal can be:

• downloaded in PBN format,
• stored to build a pedagogical library,
• reused or adapted later.

Note: A Petit Bridge deal, with 10 cards per hand, is also saved in PBN format. The three lowest cards of each suit are added to complete the hands and are ignored if the deal is reloaded into bridge-training.com.

2. The playing interface

The generated link gives free access to the deal, with no application download and no registration required. It runs in the player’s usual browser, on smartphone, tablet or computer.
The player sits in the position you have chosen (South, West or East) and plays the deal.
If you have chosen to make the player bid, they must reproduce the bidding sequence you planned with their hand. If they make a mistake, they are given a second chance; if they make another mistake, their bid is replaced by the correct one. The system reproduces the bids of the other players.
In Minibridge mode, the player must determine the contract you entered (or, failing that, the one calculated by the system).

Using the buttons on the left side of the screen, the player can at any time during the card play:

• review the bidding sequence or the last trick,
• view the optimal cards for all four hands,
• claim,
• restart the card play from the beginning,
• advance directly to the end of the deal.

At the end of the deal, the player receives between 0 and 3 stars, depending on their result and the objective you set.
They may then access the full deal diagram and your comments, or replay the deal.

3. Artificial intelligences

The system does not bid: it simply reproduces the bidding sequence you have defined.
During the card play, the AIs run locally on the player’s device. Once the page is loaded, no slowdown occurs during play.
These AIs operate in two reasoning stages:

• they compute, for all four hands, the list of the best possible cards,
• they then select, as far as possible, the card most likely to be played by a human player.

When playing together in defence, the AIs do not signal; in particular, they do not give parity signals, in order to avoid giving excessive information to the declarer.
However, when defending with the player, they do signal parity (high-low to show an even number of cards). It is therefore recommended to specify the opening lead, in order to respect the conventions used in your country.
The AIs are deterministic: when the start of the deal is identical, they will play the same card. Note, however, that when the principle of the “least choice” applies, the AI will play a random card.

4. Known uses

bridge-training.com is notably used:

• by bridge teachers to allow their students to practise between lessons,
• by bridge teachers or clubs online, in newsletters or on website pages,
• by federations to provide pedagogical deals to their teachers,
• by associations — such as the WBF — to let non-players discover bridge in just a few minutes,
• by authors in magazines (QR codes and links),
• by content creators in comments to their videos,
• by mathematics teachers as a pedagogical activity during school or extracurricular time,
• by the French Ministry of Education, for training teachers in the use of Petit Bridge and bridge in mathematics classes.