by Danny Kleinman & Nick Straguzzi2005 IBPA Book of the the YearPaperback, 196 pp., ISBN 1-894154-92-4An anthology of humorous stories featuring Chthonic, the bridge-playing robot. The stories draw unmercifully funny portraits of human bridge players, as Chthonic's bridge brilliance and abrasive and ill-concealed contempt for his human creators leave them all in his wake. A particular target is the pompous Director of the Cybernetics Research Institute, whose opinion of his own bridge expertise differs greatly from that of his protégé. Some of these stories have appeared in The Bridge World magazine, where the characters are established as firm reader favorites.