Chung Ching (C. C., Charles C.) Wei (July 12, 1914 – February 20, 1987) was a Chinese-born American businessman who created the Precision Club bidding system in

contract bridge Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions o ...

Biography

Wei was born in

Sheng County Shengzhou (), formerly Shengxian or Sheng County, is a county-level city in central Zhejiang, south of the Hangzhou Bay, and is the south-eastern part of the prefecture-level city of Shaoxing. It is about 1.5 hours drive from the provincial ca ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

Province, China. He received his

B.E. A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an academic undergraduate degree awarded to a student after three to five years of studying engineering at an accredited college or university. In the UK, a Bache ...

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1936. In 1942, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he went to the United States. After the war he became a successful entrepreneur in the shipping industry. Wei was a member of the ACBL Greater New York Bridge Association. As a player, he was renowned for partnership agreements to compete vigorously through the 2-level, especially at matchpoints. He sometimes played at the

Mayfair Club The Mayfair Club was a cardroom in New York City. Originally starting as a bridge and backgammon club, it eventually became "the most touted card club in New York" until its abrupt closing by authorities in 2000. Eolis, Wendeen"Documentary Film Shi ...

. Wei died of complications from

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

at age 72, in

New York Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center (previously known as New York Hospital or Old New York Hospital or City Hospital) is a research hospital in New York City. It is part of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and the teaching hospital for Cornell University. ...

, then a resident of New York and Houston. He was survived by his wife Kathie Wei, a son, a daughter, and three stepchildren.

Achievements in bridge

In 1963, "with assistance from

Alan Truscott Alan Fraser Truscott (16 April 1925 – 4 September 2005) was a British-American bridge player, writer, and editor. He wrote the daily bridge column for ''The New York Times'' for 41 years, from 1964 to 2005, and served as Executive Editor for th ...

" Wei developed the China bidding system, later called the Precision Club. He was not an expert player, and the system did not attract much attention from the bridge community. That changed when the

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

national team, trained and led by Wei, finished as runner-up in the 1969 Bermuda Bowl world team championship, relegating a strong North America team to third place. With two returning players and four new ones, Taiwan was losing finalists again in 1970, and these strong showings brought Wei and the Precision Club great recognition. In order to promote the system, Wei sponsored "a number of top-level teams" to use it. The most successful, which came to be called simply ''the'' Precision Team, formed in 1970 and won the ACBL

Spingold The Spingold national bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Spingold is a knock-out team event that attracts the top contract bridge players in the world. T ...

knockout tournament that year, beating the defending champions who were also 1970 Bermuda Bowl champions. Before it disbanded mid-1973, the team won another Spingold and a

Vanderbilt Cup The Vanderbilt Cup was the first major trophy in American auto racing. History An international event, it was founded by William Kissam Vanderbilt II in 1904 and first held on October 8 on a course set out in Nassau County, New York, Nassa ...

, and two of its pairs finished first and second in the 1973 ''Sunday Times'' Invitational Pairs, London. Italy's Blue Team, which had retired after beating Taiwan in 1969, adopted versions of the Precision system for its successful return to competitive international play in the 1972 World Team Olympiad. Its strongest pair,

Giorgio Belladonna Giorgio Belladonna (7 June 1923 – 12 May 1995) was an Italian bridge player, one of the greatest of all time. He won 16 world championship titles with the Blue Team, playing with Walter Avarelli from 1956 to 1969 and later with Benito Garozzo. ...

and

Benito Garozzo Benito Garozzo (born 5 September 1927) is an Italian American bridge player. He won 13 world championship titles with the Italian Blue Team, starting in 1961 when he was added as a last minute substitute for the Bermuda Bowl, playing in regular ...

, used their Super Precision version through the 1970s and led Italy to three more Bermuda Bowl championships 1973 to 1975. The great success of the Precision systems began a wave of strong club systems all over the world. According to Truscott, Precision systems constituted "by far the most popular non-standard method throughout the world" at the time of the inventor's death.

Books

* ''Precision Bidding in Bridge: the Story of the Cinderella Team'' (

Port Chester, NY Port Chester is a administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the largest part of the town of Rye (town), New York, Rye in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County by populat ...

: Barclay Bridge, 1969) ; reprinted as ''The Precision Bidding System in Bridge'' ( Dover Pub, 1973), * ''Simplified Precision Bridge'' (Barclay, 1972) * ''Match Point Precision'', Wei and

Ron Andersen Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald. Ron or RON may also refer to: Arts and media * Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character * Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character *Ron Douglas, the protagonist in ''Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe A ...

(Monna Lisa Precision Corp., 1975); revised and expanded, 1978, : This may be Bidding Precisely, Vol. 1. One presentation of the series by a Thailand bridge club credits Andersen as co-author of four books but provides a cover image that shows ''Bidding Precisely, Volume 1'' and names Wei alone; no long title or co-author credit on the cover."Bridge books reviewed – 30"
Pattaya Bridge Club. Pattaya, Thailand. Retrieved 2014-05-20. * ''Making the Most of Limited Openings'', Bidding Precisely Vol. 2, Wei and Andersen (Monna Lissa, 1976) * ''Profits from Preempts'', Bidding Precisely Vol. 3, Wei and Andersen (Monna Lissa, 1977); reprint Louisville, KY: Devyn Press, * ''Perfect Your Notrump Bidding'', Bidding Precisely Vol. 4, Wei and Andersen (Monna Lisa, 1978) * ''Precision Bidding for Everyone'', Charles Goren and Wei (Doubleday, 1978)

Notes

References

External links

* WARNING: The WBF record mixes at least two people. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wei, C. C. 1914 births 1987 deaths Contract bridge writers American contract bridge players Chinese emigrants to the United States Sportspeople from Shaoxing Writers from New York City Chinese contract bridge players Writers from Shaoxing People from Shengzhou