Pierre Albarran (18 May 1893 – 24 February 1960) was a French

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

and

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 ...

player and theorist, and a

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. It has been reported that he was born in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

, and also in

Chaville Chaville () is a commune in the Hauts-de-Seine department and Île-de-France region of north-central France. It lies some 12 km from the centre of Paris in the south-western suburbs of the French capital. Geography Chaville is bordered by ...

, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He died in Paris.

Bridge

At the bridge table Albarran played on the France open team that won the European IBL Championship in 1935 and on the slightly different team that traveled to New York City late that year for a match that may be considered the first world team championship. He subsequently represented France in more than 30 international bridge competitions and won 19 national titles. His contributions to

bidding system A bidding system in contract bridge is the set of Glossary of contract bridge terms#agreement, agreements and understandings assigned to Glossary of contract bridge terms#call, calls and sequences of calls used by a Glossary of contract bridge te ...

s include the

canapé A canapé () is a type of hors d'oeuvre, a small, prepared, and often decorative food, consisting of a small piece of bread (sometimes toasted) wrapped or topped with some savoury food, held in the fingers and often eaten in one bite. Name T ...

approach and the convention later called Roman two-suiters. Upon his death Albert H. Morehead observed that Albarran was almost unknown in America "but it is possible that M. Albarran's bidding theories influenced European bridge tactics more than the theories of any other authority in any other country." After France won the inaugural

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 ...

three months later, Morehead wrote that an American visitor to a French bridge club would find one big difference in the bridge language, the canapé bidding advocated by Albarran and "adopted by millions of players throughout Europe".

Tennis

On the tennis court, he played for France in two Davis Cup tournaments and won the bronze medal in doubles with Max Décugis at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp.

Publications

* ''Bridge, Nouvelle methode de nomination''. Les jeux bicolores. Le Canapé, 1946 * ''Cent donnes extraordinaires: Bridge'', 1953, co-author José Le Dentu * ''Comment Gagner Au Bridge'', 1959, co-author Pierre Jaïs * ''L'Encyclopédie du bridge moderne'', vol 1. 1957 and vol. 2 1968 * ''Le Bridge pour Tous'', 1949, co-author Robert de Nexon, Publisher: A. Fayard, Paris, LC: 49052576 * ''Le Nouveau Bridge Pour Tous'', 1958, co-authors Robert de Nexon and José Le Dentu * ''Notre Methode de Bridge'', 1936, co-author Robert de Nexon * ''Nouveau Memento de Bridge en 100 Lecons: Encheres Naturelles'', 1976, co-author José Le Dentu, Publisher: A. Fayard, Paris, , LC: 77576798

References

External links

*
Profile at Sports Reference.com
* (including 8 "from old catalog") {{DEFAULTSORT:Albarran, Pierre 1893 births 1960 deaths Contract bridge writers French contract bridge players French male tennis players Olympic tennis players of France Olympic bronze medalists for France Tennis players at the 1920 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in tennis Medalists at the 1920 Summer Olympics Place of birth missing

Bridge

Tennis

Publications

References

Further reading

External links