gratifying to people who enjoy stretching their minds.

Statisticians estimate that a player won’t be dealt the same hand in 685 billion games. And although it can’t be denied that bridge is a game – one played by an estimated 100 million people in 130 countries – it’s also known as a “mind sport,” along with Go, chess and draughts, as demonstrated by this month’s Mind Sports Games in Beijing, the first such event of its kind.

“It’s deliciously simple in the rules,” Bill Gates says of the game, “but deliciously complex in doing it well.”