Pietro Forquet (2 July 1925 – 27 January 2023) was an Italian

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, one of the most famous in bridge history. He won 15 World championship titles with the Blue Team, playing with

Eugenio Chiaradia Eugenio Chiaradia (1911–1977), nicknamed "Professor", was an Italian bridge player. A professor of philosophy, he was one of the early bridge theorists and the principal author of the Neapolitan Club system, the predecessor of the Blue Club. Chi ...

, Guglielmo Siniscalco and, for the most part,

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 ...

. Apart from his excellent play, he was renowned for his nerves of steel. Forquet and Garozzo wrote a book (1967, in Italian) on the

Blue Club Blue Club is a bridge bidding system, developed mainly by Benito Garozzo. It was used by the famous Blue Team and became very popular in the 1960s. It has gained a strong following ever since. The main features are: * Strong club system: 1 open ...

bidding system, the 1950s Neapolitan system as modified by their partnership, which was published in English as ''The Italian Blue Team bridge book'' (1969). In 1971 he wrote ''Gioca con il Blue Team'', published in English as ''Bridge with the Blue Team'', which is widely considered to be the world's best collection of fascinating bridge deals.

Personal life and death

Forquet was born in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

on 2 July 1925. He died on 27 January 2023 in Naples, at the age of 97.

Books

* ''The Italian Blue Team bridge book'', Benito Garozzo and Forquet with Enzo Mingoni, 274 pp. (

Grosset & Dunlap Grosset & Dunlap is a New York City-based publishing house founded in 1898. The company was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982 and today is part of Penguin Random House through its subsidiary Penguin Group. Today, through the Penguin Gro ...

, 1969) ; (

Cassell & Co Cassell & Co is a British book publishing house, founded in 1848 by John Cassell (1817–1865), which became in the 1890s an international publishing group company. In 1995, Cassell & Co acquired Pinter Publishers. In December 1998, Cassell & ...

, 1970) – transl. of ''Il Fiori Blue Team'' (Milan: Prati, 1967) * ''Bridge with the Blue Team'', translated by Helen Thompson, ed.

Ron Klinger Ron Klinger (born 8 November 1941) is an Australian contract bridge player and a leading English-language bridge writer, the author of more than 70 books on the game. He is an Australian Grand Master and a World Bridge Federation International ...

, 384 pp. (Sydney: A.B. Publications, 1983) ; ( Gollancz, 1987, ) – transl. of ''Gioca con il Blue Team. 150 smazzate giocate dal vero'' (Milan: Ugo Mursia editore, 1971) A Chinese-language edition of ''Gioca con il Blue Team'' was published in 1990, ''Lan dui qiao pai''.

Bridge accomplishments

;World championships Forquet won 15 world championships, all as one of six players on the Italy open . *

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 ...

(12) 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1973, 1974 * World Open Team Olympiad (3) 1964, 1968, 1972 Runners-up * Bermuda Bowl 1951, 1976 * Olympiad 1976 ;European championships * European Open Teams (5) 1951, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 Runners-up: none

References

External links

* *
"Pietro Forquet"
at BridgeBum (bridgebum.com)
"Benito Garozzo"
at BridgeBum * (including 1 "from old catalog") {{DEFAULTSORT:Forquet, Pietro 1925 births 2023 deaths Bermuda Bowl players Contract bridge writers Italian contract bridge players Sportspeople from Naples