Month: July 2012

World Par contests are international events using prepared deals. The idea of a series of par tournaments conducted throughout the world was conceived by Ely Culbertson, and in 1932 the first World Bridge Olympic, using the par hand format, was held. Culbertson founded the National Bridge Association, a non-profit corporation, in the same year, to
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The Sharif Bridge Circus was a touring professional team of world class players, organized and headed by movie star Omar Sharif, to play a series of exhibition matches against leading European and North American teams. The Circus made its debut late in 1967 when Sharif, Giorgio Belladonna, Claude Delmouly, Benito Garozzo, and Leon Yallouze, all
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The 1978 Toronto Summer North American Bridge Championships was host to new records and innovations. It boasted the largest attendance at 18,408 tables, featured the first coordinated children’s program, introduced instant hand records and saw a break-through victory in the Life Master Pairs (now von Zedtwitz LM Pairs). The previous record for table count was
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Many bridge players have heard Goldwater’s Rule – the suggestion by National TD Harry Goldwater that an opening lead out of turn should generally be accepted because any player who doesn’t know whose lead it is probably doesn’t know what to lead, but the story behind the rule isn’t as well-known. Here it is in
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This, one of the most famous of all double dummy problems, was composed by Sidney Lenz in 1928 in a contest promoted by Vaniva Shaving Cream. ♠ 5 ♥ 8 5 ♦ A K 7 ♣ A K 8 6 5 4 2 ♠ K 10 7 ♠ 8 6 4 3 2 ♥ 9
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Sidney Lenz, who wore the mantle of “the grand old man of bridge” from 1932 until he died at the age of 86 in 1960, was richly deserving of the title. His career spanned the eras of whist, auction and contract bridge, and he was an expert at many games and sports. Before he was
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The “Match of the Century” By Harold Franklin Reprinted from The Bulletin March 1972 After 69 deals the Blue Team led by 8 IMPs, but Board 70 gave the Aces an opportunity to take the lead under most unusual circumstances: Dlr: East ♠ J 7 5 4 Vul: Both ♥ K 6 ♦ 7 5
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The “Match of the Century” By Harold Franklin Reprinted from The Bulletin March 1972 In December 1971, a 140-board match billed as the “Match of the Century” was held at the Las Vegas Hilton. It brought together for the first time in direct confrontation the retired 12-time world champion Italian Blue Team and the current
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1970 was hardly a vintage year for the world championships. After threatening to do so in several previous years, the Blue Team retired as undefeated Bermuda Bowl champions. So the test between the champions of the Old World and the New was not to be. In theory this should have made for one of the
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In 1968, Dallas TX financier Ira Corn Jr., had a vision. It had been more than 14 years since the U.S. had won the Bermuda Bowl, and Corn wanted to return the world team championship to the United States. His plan was to organize and train a full-time professional bridge team to achieve this special
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After the 1969 International Team was selected, the Pair-Team trials were discontinued in order to allow selection of an entire team rather than individual pairs to comprise a team. The 1970 International Team was selected by a direct 180-board playoff between the winners of the 1969 Vanderbilt and Spingold. This reduced the prestige of the
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Day three saw the lead change hands again. Feldesman-Morse rally with a crushing 70-14 defeat over Eisenberg-Goldman, Rubin-Westheimer edge Rapée-Lazard 44-40 and Hamman-Kantar return to the top with a 52-32 win over Caravelli-Rosenberg. Shockingly Kaplan-Kay lose their fifth straight match. Leading scores are: Hamman-Kantar 342 ½; Rapée-Lazard 332; Eisenberg-Goldman 310 ½; Feldesman-Morse 261 ½. By
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