Edwin Bruce Kantar (November 9, 1932 – April 8, 2022) was an American

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

player, winner of two open world championships for national teams (

Bermuda Bowl The Bermuda Bowl is a biennial contract bridge world championship for national . It is contested every odd-numbered year under the auspices of the World Bridge Federation (WBF), alongside the Venice Cup (women), the d'Orsi Senior Bowl and the Wuh ...

s), and prolific writer of bridge books and columns. Kantar was from

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

Biography

Kantar was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. 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 The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, which he attended. Beside the 1977 and 1979 Bermuda Bowls, Kantar won 15

North American Bridge Championships North American Bridge Championships (NABC) are three annual bridge tournaments sponsored by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). The "Spring", "Summer", and "Fall" NABCs are usually scheduled in March, July, and November for about eleven da ...

(NABCs) and was

World Bridge Federation The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is the international governing body of contract bridge. The WBF is responsible for world championship competitions, most of which are conducted at a few multi-event meets on a four-year cycle. The most prestigiou ...

(WBF) and

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 th ...

(ACBL) Grand Life Master. Kantar started writing about bridge with an article on notrump bidding in the December 1954 issue of ''

The Bridge World ''The Bridge World'' (TBW), the oldest continuously published magazine about contract bridge, was founded in 1929 by Ely Culbertson. It has since been regarded as the game's principal journal, publicizing technical advances in bidding and the pla ...

''. 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 and players taken in 1994, ''Complete Defensive Play'' was among the top 20 of all-time favorite bridge books. Six of his books have won the American Bridge Teachers' Association (ABTA) award for Best Book of the Year. Kantar wrote at home in California and lectured on bridge cruises. He also taught in the Los Angeles area as well as lectured several times a year in various resort areas in the U.S. and Canada. When not writing about bridge, Eddie could be found at Venice Beach playing

paddle tennis Paddle tennis, rebranded as Pop tennis in 2015, is a game adapted from tennis and played for over a century. Compared to tennis, the court is smaller and has no doubles lanes, and the net is lower. Paddle tennis is played with a solid paddle as op ...

, a sport in which he also garnered several trophies. Eddie was the only person ever to have played in a World Bridge Championship and a World Table Tennis Championship. Kantar died on April 8, 2022, at the age of 89.

Bridge accomplishments

Honors

ACBL Hall of Fame This list is a compilation of contract bridge players, writers, administrators and personalities who have been recognized for their skills, achievements or contributions to the game as identified by various specific sources. People recognized by ...

, 1996"Induction by Year"
''Hall of Fame''. ACBL. Retrieved 2014-12-16.

Awards

* Precision Award (Best Article or Series on a System or Convention) 1981

Wins

(2) 1977, 1979 *

(17) **

Marcus Cup The Marcus Cup was a two-session open team event contested by Senior Masters at the American Contract Bridge League’s summer North American Bridge Championships North American Bridge Championships (NABC) are three annual bridge tournaments spon ...

(2) 1960, 1966 ** Vanderbilt (3) 1964, 1978, 1988 **

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 ...

(4) 1961, 1962, 1973, 1978 **

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

(now Reisinger) (2) 1962, 1965 **

Reisinger The Reisinger national bridge championship is held at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Reisinger is a board-a-match event. History The event is contested for the Reisinger Trophy ( ...

(2) 1976, 1980 **

Grand National Teams The Grand National Teams (GNT) North American bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Grand National Teams is a team knockout event. The event is broken into ...

(2) 1974, 1976 ** North American Men's Swiss Teams (1) 1987 ** Life Master Pairs (1) 1983 * United States Bridge Championships (3) ** Open Team Trials (3) 1974, 1977, 1979 * Other notable wins: ** Pan American Invitational Open Teams (1) 1977 **

1981 Maccabiah Games The 11th Maccabiah Games brought 3,450 athletes to Israel from 35 nations. The Opening Ceremony was held on July 7, 1981, before a crowd of 53,000 and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in Ramat Gan Stadium, with 3,500 Jewish athletes parading ...

(1) 1981

Runners-up

(1) 1975 *

(15) ** Vanderbilt (7) 1961, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1983, 1989 **

(1) 1991 **

(3) 1968, 1983, 1992 ** Men's Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1970 **

Fall National Open Pairs The National Open Pairs was the first national bridge championship for open pairs and was held at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC) as a four-session matchpoint (MP) pairs event. History In ...

(1) 1962 ** Men's Pairs (2) 1962, 1967 * United States Bridge Championships (1) ** Open Team Trials (1) 1973

References

External links

* * – with linked video interviews *
Discover Bridge App and Practice booklets
at www.will-bridge.us

at Bridge Guys * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kantar, Edwin 1932 births 2022 deaths American contract bridge players Contract bridge writers Bermuda Bowl players University of Minnesota alumni Writers from Minneapolis Writers from Santa Monica, California Jewish American writers