All Versions:
Open the double dummy solver with a pre-dealt hand or input a hand via the on screen editing facility. Calculate makeable contracts and par contracts for the bridge hand.
Select a contract and play the hand interactively to investigate various lines of play. On the opening lead the maximum number of tricks that can be made by the defenders for each possible lead is shown, assuming optimum subsequent play by the declarer and defenders. After each card is played the same information is shown for the next position, the optimum cards being highlighted in green at each stage.Android App and Windows Desktop Versions:
Enhance the experience of browsing session results on bridge websites. Bridge Solver can browse and bookmark websites, and grab hands directly from hand diagrams on web pages hosted on ACBL (several diagram formats, including ACBLmerge, ACBL Live), BridgeWebs, Pianola, Bridge Base Online (movie links), EBU Sims, ECatsBridge Sims, Vugraph.com, www.bridge-club.org, and altosoft.com.au. Analyse the hands through double dummy analysis or interactive card play.
Tap on a link to a .PBN, .DLM, or bridge base online .LIN file in Bridge Solver's browser to download and import deals. Play the recorded contract(s) from a .LIN file with full double dummy analysis at each step, highlighting where the recorded line of play is non optimal. Follow the recorded line of play or investigate alternatives by choosing a different playable card at any point in the play.
Alternatively, analyse deals input manually or import deals from a .PBN, .DLM, or bridge base online .LIN file on local storage.
Export deals to a PBN file on local storage.
Bridge Solver for Windows can also extract hands from PDF hand record files, either by clicking on a download link in Bridge Solver's browser, or by opening a file on the local machine or local network - this feature is not currently available in the android version. Once the hands have been extracted all the above functionality is available. The hands can also be saved to a PBN file, if required.
Chrome Extension Version
The functionality is similar to the android version of Bridge Solver, i.e. hands can be acquired directly from various formats of results pages, or from .PBN, .DLM, or bridge base online .LIN files (stored locally, or accessed by clicking on a download link). A built in hand editor allows hands to be input directly. Hands can be analysed for makeable contracts or played interactively in double dummy mode. This version of Bridge Solver always needs an internet connection, even for working on locally stored PBN files, because it links to Bridge Solver Online to carry out double dummy calculations.
Online Version
Load a whole set of boards at a time from a .PBN, .DLM, or bridge base online .LIN file located on your club's webserver host (subject to the appropriate access control settings on the webserver).
For BridgeWebs hosted results pages the online version includes a detailed "Results Analysis" feature.This gives you a detailed breakdown, with graphical displays, of how you performed in a session, at a number of levels:
- overall, compared to all other pairs who played in that session, including a bar chart indication of the number of boards on which your partnership, and all other competing pairs, met or exceeded the double dummy targets for the contracts played and defended.
- personal scorecard for your partnership, or any other competing partnership, showing performance on each board played by role, including the "Extra Trick Factor" (ETF), which is the number of tricks made relative to the double dummy target for the contract played or defended on each board.
- a board level display, showing overall performance and ETF for each pair who played that board, also indicating whether the opening lead made at each table might have conceded additional tricks to declarer (according to the double dummy solver).
The "Results Analysis" feature is available in Bridge Solver Online in BridgeWebs 2.19j onwards, which was released in February 2016. It is only available from results pages hosted on BridgeWebs because it utilises BridgeWebs internal APIs to access session results. Much more detailed information on the Results Analysis feature is available on this help page.
Summary of features in each version:
| Feature | Android Version | Windows Version | Chrome Extension | Online Version |
"Play" a hand interactively in double dummy mode, with card by card guidance at each step showing maximum number of tricks makeable by declarer or defenders assuming optimum play from the current position onwards. |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Calculate Makeable Contracts and Optimum Contracts/Score | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Edit the current hand, or input a new hand interactively | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Get hand directly from a club results page | Yes (from supported page formats) | Yes (from supported page formats) | Yes (from supported page formats) | Only from sites which have implemented integrated access to Bridge Solver Online |
| Load hand(s) from PBN, DLM, or bbo LIN file, either from local storage or by direct download into the app | Yes | Yes | Yes | Implemented for .PBN, .DLM, or bbo .LIN files located on a web server.The directory containing the files must explicitly permit cross-origin resource sharing. |
| Load hand(s) from various common formats of PDF file | No | Yes | No | No |
| Save currently loaded hand(s) to a PBN file on local storage | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Results Analysis | No | No | No | Yes (for BridgeWebs hosted results pages, from BridgeWebs release 2.19j onwards) |
| Run on any PC, tablet, or smartphone | Android smartphones and tablets, or Chromebooks that support the Google Play Store | Windows PCs or tablets (desktop mode only) | Install in Chrome Browser on PC, Mac, or Chromebook (supports Chrome v38.0 or later) |
Any PC, Mac, android phone or tablet, iPhone, iPad, or other device with a modern browser and javascript support |
| Free of charge | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |