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Wernher Open Pairs
The Wernher Open Pairs national bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). Typically starting on the Tuesday of the NABC, the Wernher Open Pairs is a four session matchpoint pairs event, with two qualifying sessions and two final sessions. The event is open to any player, but due to its current conflicting schedule with the more prestigious Spingold Knockout Teams, it is generally considered to be the weakest open national event on the calendar. History The Wernher Open pairs is a four-session event with two qualifying sessions and two final sessions. It was contested at the Summer NABC until 1962. It moved to the Spring NABC in 1963 where it remained for 40 years. In 2004, it returned to the Summer NABC lineup. From 1969 through 1971, it was contested as a three-session championship. In 1992 the event became Open Pairs II. The winners have their names inscribed on the Wernher trophy, named after Si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Contract Bridge League
The American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) is a governing body for contract bridge in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda. It is the largest such organization in North America having the stated mission ''"to promote, grow and sustain the game of bridge and serve the bridge-related interests of our Members."'' Its major activities are: * sanctioning games at local bridge clubs and regional events * certifying bridge teachers and club directors * conducting the North American Bridge Championships (NABC) * providing education materials and services * administering the ACBL masterpoints system for tracking player performance * providing oversight for ethical behavior and play *Besides representing the interests of its members with the World Bridge Federation, , it had more than 165,000 members. History The ACBL was created in 1937 by the merger of the American Bridge League and the United States Bridge Association in 1937. At that time, its bridge tournaments were open only ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Rapée
George Nicholas Rapée (May 22, 1915 – April 1, 1999) was an American bridge player. From 1942 to 1980 he was the most successful player in the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) in its three most important tournaments, the Vanderbilt, Spingold, and Reisinger. He played on the American teams that won the first three Bermuda Bowls, 1950 to 1953. Life Rapée was born and raised in New York City. His parents were from Hungary; his father Erno Rapée was a concert pianist and orchestra conductor. He earned bachelor's and law degrees at New York University and served in the US Army for three years during World War II. He was an attorney and real estate investor or, in the words of his obituary by Alan Truscott, "a real estate lawyer ... assembling properties for development". He died at his home in Floral City, Florida, age 83, survived by his wife Joellen Hall Rapée, a daughter, and two grandsons. Bridge career Rapée is known as the man who invented the Stayman conv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddie Kantar
Edwin Bruce Kantar (November 9, 1932 – April 8, 2022) was an American bridge player, winner of two open world championships for national teams (Bermuda Bowls), and prolific writer of bridge books and columns. Kantar was from Santa Monica, California. Biography Kantar was born to a Jewish family in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He learned the game at 11 and started teaching it at the age of 17, first to his friends and later at the University of Minnesota, which he attended. Beside the 1977 and 1979 Bermuda Bowls, Kantar won 15 North American Bridge Championships (NABCs) and was World Bridge Federation (WBF) and American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Grand Life Master. Kantar started writing about bridge with an article on notrump bidding in the December 1954 issue of ''The Bridge World''. He wrote more than 35 bridge books and was a regular contributor to the ACBL ''Bridge Bulletin'' (with two monthly columns), ''The Bridge World'', and ''Bridge Today''. In a survey of bridge writers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Kay (bridge)
Norman Kay (August 11, 1927 – January 17, 2002) was an American bridge player. He partnered Sidney Silodor until Silodor's death in 1963. With Edgar Kaplan, Kay formed one of the most successful and longest-lasting partnerships in organized bridge. It spanned more than 40 years, and ended with Kaplan's death in 1997. He was from Narberth, Pennsylvania. In 1955, Kay won the McKenney Trophy (now the Barry Crane Top 500) for earning the greatest number of masterpoints in American Contract Bridge League-sanctioned play during the year. Kay won 13 major North American Bridge Championships (NABC) in the period of 1957–1977, when he was named ACBL's top performance player. He was runner-up in the Bermuda Bowl twice (1961 and 1967), and was second (1968) and third (1960) in the World Team Olympiad. He was a World Bridge Federation World Life Master and an ACBL Grand Life Master. Kay was arguably the greatest bridge player who never became a world champion. He was known for both the rema ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Hodge
Paul Herbert Hodge (March 24, 1910 – December 26, 1976)"Hodge, Paul" . ''Hall of Fame''. ACBL. Retrieved 2014-11-28. was an American player. Hodge was originally from and grew up in . He attended the , earning a bachelor's degree and then a law de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gerber (bridge)
John Gerber (May 18, 1906 – January 28, 1981) was an American bridge player. Gerber was born in Yelisavetgrad, Russian Empire (now Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine). He settled in Houston, Texas, where he died in a hospital at age 74. Gerber was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 1998. Bridge accomplishments Honors * ACBL Hall of Fame, 1998"Induction by Year" ''Hall of Fame''. ACBL. Retrieved 2014-11-13. With linked citations. Wins * (7) ** |
James Jacoby
James Oswald Jacoby (April 4, 1933 – February 8, 1991) was an American bridge player and writer. He played as Jim Jacoby but he wrote books as James and for many years co-wrote a syndicated bridge column with his father as "Jacoby on Bridge" by Oswald and James Jacoby. (He wrote a re-branded newspaper bridge column after his father's death.) He won 16 "national" (ACBL) championships, first at age 22 in 1955, and he was the most successful ACBL tournament player (s leader) during 1988. Jacoby may have inherited talent and interest in games not only from his legendary father Oswald Jacoby. He and his mother Mary Zita Jacoby co-wrote ''The New York Times Book of Backgammon'' (1973). Jacoby graduated from the University of Notre Dame. He was a long-time resident of Texas and an original, 1968 member of the professional bridge team formed by Texas businessman Ira Corn, variously known as the Aces, Dallas Aces, and Texas Aces. Jacoby was a resident of Richardson, Texas, when he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Mitchell (bridge)
Victor Mitchell (October 21, 1923 – January 5, 1995) was an American bridge player. He was married to Jacqui Mitchell. He was inducted into the American Contract Bridge League's Hall of Fame in 1996. Bridge accomplishments Honors * ACBL Hall of Fame 1996 * ACBL Honorary Member 1988 Wins * North American Bridge Championships (6) ** Mitchell Board-a-Match Teams (2) 1962, 1963 ** Nail Life Master Open Pairs (1) 1962 ** Spingold (2) 1956, 1959 ** von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs (1) 1965 Runners-up * World Olympiad Teams Championship (1) 1964 * North American Bridge Championships (10) ** Mitchell Board-a-Match Teams (2) 1965, 1988 ** Chicago Mixed Board-a-Match (1) 1989 ** Nail Life Master Open Pairs (1) 1965 ** Reisinger (1) 1955 ** Spingold (1) 1969 ** Vanderbilt (1) 1969 ** Wernher Open Pairs (1) 1955 ** von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs The Von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs national bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Nor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Root (bridge)
William S. Root (December 12, 1923 – March 18, 2002) was an American professional bridge player, teacher, and writer. He was from Boca Raton, Florida. Root was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 1997. The American Contract Bridge League observed in his citation, "Root was perhaps the best known bridge teacher in the world – and has probably taught the game to more people than anyone in history." Life Root was born in New York City and raised in Miami, Florida. He died at age 79 in Boca Raton, Florida. Jettison play One of the most famous hands in his books is a seven notrump contract requiring a very advanced jettison play. High cards often get in the declarer's way, that is they block the effective play of the hand. A solution to these blocking problems is to throw away high cards. This unblocking coup is known as the ''jettison play''. Win the opening lead of J with the ace, dropping the king of spades. Cash the queen of spades, and jettison the ace of hearts from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Harkavy
Harold Harkavy (November 29, 1915 – November 29, 1965) was an American bridge player, considered one of the world's best at play. He was originally from New York City, and served in Italy and Africa in World War II. He later from Miami Beach, Florida. He died on his 50th birthday of pancreatitis in a French Hospital in San Francisco, where he had gone for the Fall National Championships. He was survived by his wife, Marie Franko Harkavy, and their son, Robert. Harkavy was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 2004. Bridge accomplishments Honors * ACBL Hall of Fame, 2004"Induction by Year" . ''Hall of Fame''. ACBL. Retrieved 2014-11-22. Wins * |
William Rosen
William Albert Rosen (September 12, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois – April 7, 2019) was an American bridge player, best known for winning the 1954 Bermuda Bowl world championship. He started playing bridge while attending De Paul University. Rosen won his first national title in 1952, the National Men's Pairs in partnership with Arthur Grau. In August 1953, Rosen and Milton Ellenby made the pages of ''Life'' magazine as the youngest winners of the von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs. (annual from 1930). The same year he won the McKenney Trophy which the American Contract Bridge League gives to the player earning the most masterpoints in a calendar year. Rosen won the Spingold tournament twice in a row, in 1953 and 1954, the latter helping him qualify for that year's Bermuda Bowl world team championship. The Bermuda win made him, at 25 years old, the youngest world champion ever to do so; a record broken by Bobby Levin in 1981 at the age of 23. Rosen's win earned him the title of World B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobby Nail
George Robert Nail (April 21, 1925 – May 25, 1995) was an American bridge player and a club owner and teacher in Houston, Texas. Nail was born in Kansas City, Missouri, with the congenital bone disorder osteogenesis imperfecta. In the 1960s he moved to Houston, where he operated Nail's Bridge Center with his wife Betty until his death. He died of a heart attack on May 25, 1995, survived by his wife and a sister. Nail won four American Contract Bridge League national championships and placed second eleven times. He represented the United States twice in the Bermuda Bowl, finishing second in 1963. He was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 2001. The Nail Life Master Open Pairs event is named after him. Nail and Robert Stucker invented the Big Diamond bidding system and presented it in the 1965 book ''Revolution in Bridge''. A major departure from Standard American bidding concepts of the day, it featured a weak notrump, an unbalanced big 1 opening and a 1 opening that was forci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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