Why Bridge ?

Updated October 2026

Why play bridge? Because no other card game brings together logic, memory, psychology and the pleasure of playing as a pair quite like it. In bridge, you never win alone: you build a shared language with your partner through the bidding, then play the hand like a small investigation in which every trick brings a new clue.

Bridge has a reputation for being difficult, and it is true that the early days require some patience. But that is precisely what makes it so rich. Bernard Marcoux described it better than anyone in The Most Beautiful Game:

« Pragmatic like Theseus, we will take hold of Ariadne’s thread to emerge victorious from the labyrinth into which learning bridge has plunged us.At that moment, if you have endured everything, you discover the real pleasure, the real exaltation: you listen to the bidding, you watch the first two or three tricks, you count and you know, for sure, the location of all the cards.You visualize and play your cards in such an order that opponents are reduced to spectators.There is no game more difficult; there is no game more gratifying. It is the most beautiful game man ever invented. »
— Bernard Marcoux, The Most Beautiful Game

On this page I have gathered the texts that have moved me most: testimonies from champions and writers, studies on the benefits of bridge, press articles, and resources for young people who want to learn bridge. Enjoy your reading, and perhaps see you soon at a table!

Why I play Bridge by Michael Arnowitt ?

Toutes les raisons de se mettre au Bridge – Dossier Presse 2022 FFB
Why Play Bridge on BridgeHands
Why Play Bridge on Bridge World
What is Bridge , I love Bridge on WBF
Why do you play bridge by Martin Mac Donald published in the Kibitzer on line 2003
The Game that Trumps all others by Alexander Mc Call Smith
Génération Bridge, à vous de jouer dossier réalisé par la FFB

A man about universe by Bernard Marcoux

The Most Beautiful Game by Bernard Marcoux
Le plus beau jeu par Bernard Marcoux
Le ciel du Bridge par Bernard Marcoux
Philosophy in the boudoir
Focus sur le Bridge par Philippe Cronier
8 Reasons to play Bridge by Pamela Granovetter
Bridge is one of the most fruitfuldisciplines in acquiring unselfish habits and desirable personality traits by Henry C. Link, Psychologist
Individual Wellbeing and Bridge – An Empirical Analysis
Must read Bridge studies

Bridge is the most diverting and intelligent card game that the wit of man has so far designed by W. Somerset Maugham

How I like to Play bridge by Somerset Maugham
Bridge in the internet, I love you too, Claire by Linda Lee
Analyse du bridge français, intobridge

Le Bridge, c’est sportif Article des Echos février 2017
Le Bridge, Au bonheur des donnes, article de Claude Barjon Les Echos 1998
Vices et vertus du Bridge, Article de l’Express décembre 2000
Bridge and its Benefits to Society
Bridge an avalanche of pleasure
Handi Bridge Article de l’Echo Républicain septembre 2017
Aveugle, il mémorise toutes les cartes au Bridge
Clichés sur le Bridge par Abou Antoun
Keep Bridge alive campaign by Samantha Punch University of Stirling

jsteinbeck John Steinbeck

“Little irrirations of a mind over-crowded with anarchy. For bridge has a purpose, that of taking as many tricks as possible. The end is clear and very simple. But nothing in the lives of bridge-players is clean-cut, and no ends are defined. And so they retire into some orderly process, even in a game, from messy complication of their lives”
Extract from The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck