Eric Victor Rodwell (born May 1, 1957) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

professional

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. He has won the

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 ...

representing the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

five times and is one of ten players who have won the

triple crown of bridge The triple crown of bridge is a career achievement in duplicate bridge, namely winning the three marquee Open world championships conducted by the World Bridge Federation. The Bermuda Bowl is now contested by national teams in odd-number years. Th ...

: the

, the

World Open Pairs The World Open Pairs Championship is a contract bridge competition initiated in 1962 and held as part of the World Bridge Series Championships every four years. Open to all pairs without any quota restrictions on nationality, the championship is wi ...

and the

World Team Olympiad The World Team Olympiad was a contract bridge meet organized by the World Bridge Federation every four years from 1960 to 2004. Its main events were world championships for national teams, always including one open and one restricted to women ("Op ...

Personal life

Rodwell was born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

and his family moved to

West Lafayette, Indiana West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister city, ...

in 1965 where his father was a professor of biochemistry at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

. He started playing bridge at the age of eleven by reading books and playing with his parents. Rodwell graduated from

West Lafayette High School West Lafayette Junior-Senior High School (also informally known as West Side High School or simply West Side) is the only high school within the West Lafayette, Indiana, West Lafayette city limits, and is administered by the West Lafayette Communit ...

in 1974 and attended Purdue, graduating with a master's degree in finance in 1981. Rodwell is currently a full-time bridge professional and lives in

Clearwater Beach Clearwater Beach includes a resort area and a residential area on a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico in Pinellas County on the west-central coast of Florida. Located just west over the Intracoastal Waterway by way of the Clearwater Memorial Ca ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

with his wife Donna; each has two children from previous marriages, his being twins Jeffrey and Sara (b. 1984).

Bridge career

For decades Rodwell has been in a regular partnership with

Jeff Meckstroth Jeffrey John (Jeff) Meckstroth (born May 15, 1956) is an American professional contract bridge player. He is a multiple world champion, winning the Bermuda Bowl on USA teams five times. He is one of only ten players who have won the so-called trip ...

, and "Meckwell", for their surnames, is one of the most successful pairs of all time. They are well known for playing an aggressive and very detailed system called RM Precision (for Rodwell-Meckstroth), of which Rodwell is the principal theorist and author. Although he first learned basic

Precision Precision, precise or precisely may refer to: Science, and technology, and mathematics Mathematics and computing (general) * Accuracy and precision, measurement deviation from true value and its scatter * Significant figures, the number of digit ...

at the age of 14, he didn't get serious about developing his own version until 1982 after he and Meckstroth were already winning. Most of RM Precision was developed subsequently in the early '80s with adaptations following more slowly thereafter.''The Bridge World'', Volume 83, Number 4, January 2012, pages 26-31. Interview conducted in the fall of 2009 As a bidding theorist, Rodwell has created several conventions and methods including the support double, conventional transfers in many situations, the pass-double inversion and the serious three notrump. Although the Unusual Major Jumps Over One Diamond Opening convention (UMJOODO) is often credited to him, he denies inventing it. Although he has not actively pursued masterpoints as a goal, he is one of the all-time top masterpoint holders in the

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 ...

, and won the ''Barry Crane Trophy'' for winning the most masterpoints in a year in 2004. Possibly his most remarkable achievement was at the ACBL's 2008 fall championships, where with four major events available to be contested, he won three (Open Board-A-Match Teams, Blue Ribbon Pairs, Reisinger Teams) and finished second in the fourth (Life Master Open Pairs). The three wins were with Jeff Meckstroth, and the second place with John Diamond. As of 2022, Rodwell is inactive in face to face bridge. North American Bridge Championships require all participants to be vaccinated against COVID19, and Rodwell has refused to be vaccinated.

Bridge accomplishments

Awards

* ACBL Player of the Year 2008 * Barry Crane Top 500 2004 *

Mott-Smith Trophy The Mott-Smith Trophy, named for writer and cryptographer Geoffrey Mott-Smith, is awarded to the player with the best overall individual performance in the Spring Nationals, the spring event of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North Amer ...

1980 *

Fishbein Trophy The Fishbein Trophy is awarded to the player who wins the greatest number of masterpoints at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). History The Fishbein Trophy was donated by the ACBL in memo ...

1991, 1999, 2004, 2007 * Herman Trophy 1982, 1985, 1998 *

Goren Trophy The Goren Trophy (formerly the Herman Trophy) is awarded to the player who wins the greatest number of masterpoints at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). History The Herman Trophy was do ...

2008

Wins

(5) 1981, 1995, 2000, 2003, 2009 * World Open Team Olympiad (1) 1988 *

(1) 1986 *

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 ...

(57) ** Vanderbilt (7) 1980, 1982, 1985, 2000, 2003, 2014, 2017 **

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 ...

(12) 1984, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2006, 2007 **

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 ( ...

(9) 1979, 1985, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009 **

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 ...

(12) 1990, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 ** Open Board-a-Match Teams (1) 2008 ** Men's Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1984 **

Jacoby Open Swiss Teams The Jacoby Open Swiss Teams national bridge championship is held at the spring American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Jacoby Open Swiss Teams is a four session Swiss Teams event with two qualifying ...

(5) 1994, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2009 ** North American Men's Swiss Teams (1) 1989 **

Blue Ribbon Pairs The Edgar Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs (or simply the Blue Ribbon Pairs) is a national bridge championship held at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The event is restricted to those that have wo ...

(3) 1982, 1985, 2008 ** Life Master Pairs (3) 1980, 1986, 1991 ** Life Master Men's Pairs (1) 1979 ** Open Pairs (1) 1979 ** Open Pairs II (1) 1999 * United States Bridge Championships (13) ** Open Team Trials (13) 1980, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2017 * European Open Bridge Championships (1) ** Open Pairs (1) 2003 * Other notable wins: ** Cavendish Invitational Teams (3) 2000, 2003, 2008 ** Staten Bank World Top Invitational Pairs (1) 1988 ** Macallan Invitational Pairs (2) 1995, 1996 ** Cavendish Invitational Pairs (2) 2000, 2008

Runners-up

(2) 1997, 2005 * World Open Team Olympiad (1) 1992 *

(23) ** Vanderbilt (5) 1991, 1996, 2002, 2018, 2019 **

(5) 1979, 1985, 1990, 2011, 2012 **

(1) 1980 **

(3) 1994, 2003, 2005 ** Open Board-a-Match Teams (2) 1998, 1999 **

(1) 2005 ** Master Mixed Teams (1) 1983 **

(1) 1998 ** Life Master Pairs (1) 1983 ** Life Master Open Pairs (2) 1992, 2008 ** Life Master Men's Pairs (1) 1985 **

Roth Open Swiss Teams The Roth Open Swiss Teams is a national bridge championship Swiss Teams event held at the summer American Contract Bridge League The American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) is a governing body for contract bridge in the United States, Canada, M ...

(2) 2015, 2018 * United States Bridge Championships (6) ** Open Team Trials (6) 1982, 1984, 1985, 1993, 1997, 2009 * Other notable 2nd places: ** Cavendish Invitational Teams (1) 2009 ** Cap Volmac World Top Invitational Pairs (1) 1994 ** Sunday Times–Macallan Invitational Pairs (1) 1993 ** Cavendish Invitational Pairs (3) 1984, 2006, 2009

Publications

* :* Revised edition, 1989, . :*

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

edition, ''Le plaisir du bridge'',

Saint-Laurent, Québec Saint-Laurent () is a borough of the city of Montreal, Canada, located in the northern part of the island. Although it is no longer an independent city, it is still commonly known as Ville Saint-Laurent (''City of Saint-Laurent'') or by its initi ...

: Éditions du Trécarré, 1988, , transl. Bernard Bourget (374 pp.) * ''Plaisir du bridge: cahier d'exercices'', Trécarré, 1989, (135 pp.) – translation of ''The Joy of Bridge companion'' (exercises)"Plaisir du bridge: cahier d'exercices"

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

. Retrieved 2014-05-15. * * *

References

External links

* *
Eric Rodwell
at Bridge Winners

(2001) * by

Mark Horton Mark Horton may refer to: * Mark Horton (archaeologist) (born 1956), British maritime and historical archaeologist, television presenter and writer * Mark Horton (bridge) (born 1950), British author, journalist and expert on bridge * Mary Ann Horto ...

(July 2011)
Biographical information
at the United States Bridge Federation * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodwell, Eric 1957 births American contract bridge players Bermuda Bowl players Contract bridge writers Krannert School of Management alumni People from West Lafayette, Indiana People from San Francisco Living people