Hugh Walter Kelsey (1926 – 18 March 1995) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

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 and writer, best known for advanced books on the play of the cards.

Life

Kelsey was born and died in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

. He was a combatant in

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 opposing ...

, and subsequently lived for a long time in Malaya. Before he turned to writing about bridge, he was the author of two detective novels. Kelsey was a resident of Edinburgh when he died there on 18 March 1995, presumably from "repeated cardiac problems", in the words of

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 ...

, citing his son George. He was survived by his wife Flora, two sons, and two daughters.

Bridge career

He won the Gold Cup, the most prestigious British competition, twice, in 1969 and 1980. He represented Scotland twelve times in the

Camrose Trophy The Camrose Trophy or "The Camrose" is an annual bridge competition among open teams representing the home nations of Great Britain and Ireland: England ( EBU), Northern Ireland (NIBU), Republic of Ireland (CBAI), Scotland (SBU) and Wales (WBU). ...

, played between the constituent countries of the

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. He was the non-playing captain of the

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women's team in the 7th

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 ("O ...

held at

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

in 1984. However, he was most famous and will be remembered as a writer. He wrote some fifty books on the game, mostly aimed at intermediate to advanced players. It is a measure of their quality that many of them were still in print more than a decade after his death. Two of his books, ''Killing Defence at Bridge'' and ''Advanced Play at Bridge'', were listed by the ''

Official Encyclopedia of Bridge ''The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge'' (OEB) presents comprehensive information on the card game contract bridge with limited information on related games and on playing cards. It is "official" in reference to the American Contract Bridge League ...

'' as "mandatory requirements for a modern technical bridge library". ''Adventures in Card Play'' by Kelsey and Géza Ottlik (Gollancz, 1979) is regarded by many as the most advanced book on the play of the cards. It introduced and developed many new concepts such as backwash squeeze and entry-shifting squeeze. Bridge experts surveyed by 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 ...

(ACBL) in 2007 ranked it third on a list of their favourite books, nearly thirty years after its first publication. Kelsey was bridge columnist for the Edinburgh newspaper ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...

'', wrote many articles for bridge magazines, and was general editor for the Gollancz Master Bridge series. He was the International Bridge Press Association Personality of the Year in 1993. The Scottish Bridge Union holds an annual Hugh Kelsey Tournament. This is open to all those in Scotland who are currently receiving lessons.SBU
Retrieved 2014-05-19.

Publications

;Bridge * ''Killing Defence at Bridge'' (

Faber & Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel ...

, 1966); first US ed., Hart, 1967 * ''Advanced Play at Bridge'' (Faber, 1968) * ''More Killing Defence at Bridge'' (Faber, 1972) * ''How to Improve Your Bridge'' (1973) * ''Slam Bidding'' (1973) * ''Match-Point Bridge'' (1976) * ''Logical Bridge Play'' (Faber, 1976) * ''Learn Bridge for Fun'' (1976) * ''Adventures In Card Play'', Kelsey and Géza Ottlik (

Victor Gollancz Ltd Victor Gollancz Ltd () was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century and continues to publish science fiction and fantasy titles as an imprint of Orion Publishing Group. Gollancz was founded in 1927 by Victor Gollancz, an ...

, 1979) – "in association with Peter Crawley", 285 pages * ''Winning Card Play'' (1979) * ''The Tough Game'' (1979) * ''Bridge Odds for Practical Players'' (1980), with Michael Glauert * ''Bridge: The Mind of the Expert'' (Faber, 1981) * ''Sharpen Your Bridge Technique: How to think like an expert'' (Faber, 1981) * ''Improve Your Opening Leads'' (1982), with John Matheson * ''Deceptive Plays in Bridge'' (1982) * ''The Needle Match'' (Faber, 1982) * ''Simple Squeezes: Kelsey on squeeze play'' (Gollancz/Crawley, 1985) * ''Bridge Wizardry'' (1986) * ''Bridge for the Connoisseur'' (Gollancz/Crawley, 1991) * ''New Instant Guide To Bridge'' (1993) * ''Acol Bridge for Bright Beginners'' (1995) * ''Kelsey on Squeeze Play'' (2002) – compilation of ''Simple Squeezes'' (1985), ''Strip Squeezes'', ''Double Squeezes'', and ''Triple Squeezes'' ;Novels * ''A Bullet for Charles'' (1955), as by Hugh Walter, his given names * ''Please Don't Squeeze the Trees'' (1964)

Notes

References

* ''The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge, 5th edition.'' 1994. * Peter Hasenson, ''British Bridge Almanack'', 77 Publishing, 2004, , pp198-199.

External links

*
Profile by Harold Schogger

Profile on Eurobridge site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kelsey, Hugh 1926 births 1995 deaths British and Irish contract bridge players Scottish contract bridge players Contract bridge writers Date of birth missing Sportspeople from Edinburgh