Sidney Samuel Lenz (1873 – 1960) was an American

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 o ...

player and writer. He is a member of 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 ...

Hall of Fame, being inducted in the second (1965) class.

Career

Lenz was born July 12, 1873 in a suburb of Chicago. His parents were John J. and Joanna L. Lenz. The family moved to New York in 1888 (Lenz would have been 14 or 15) but Lenz returned to Chicago before he was 21, and he was soon successful in business, becoming owner of a lumber mill and a paper box factory. Rich by age 30, he retired from business to devote himself to his many avocations, a principal (but by no means only) one being bridge. In 1910 Lenz won the American Whist League's principal national team championship. (In his lifetime he won more than 600

whist Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play. History Whist is a descendant of the 16th-century game of ''trump'' ...

and bridge competitions; whist is a precursor and close relative of bridge.) He learned

auction bridge The card game auction bridge was the third step in the evolution of the general game of bridge. It was developed from bridge whist in 1904, possibly by 1900. Auction bridge was the precursor to contract bridge. Its predecessors were whist and brid ...

in 1911 from British Army officers while traveling in India, studying magic and Hindu culture. He achieved his greatest fame from the so-called "

Bridge Battle of the Century The "Bridge Battle of the Century" was the name given to a celebrated 1931–1932 contract bridge challenge match between Ely Culbertson and Sidney Lenz and their partners. The match pitted Culberson's bidding system, which had been laid out in h ...

", the Culbertson-Lenz match of 1931–32. This match, in the heyday of contract bridge's golden age of popularity, pitted

Ely Culbertson Elie Almon Culbertson (July 22, 1891 – December 27, 1955), known as Ely Culbertson, was an American contract bridge entrepreneur and personality dominant during the 1930s. He played a major role in the popularization of the new game and was wide ...

(the greatest bridge figure of the age and perhaps of all time) against the Official System championed by Lenz, which Lenz had helped develop. The Official System stood in opposition to Culberson's system, which – laid out in his ''Contract Bridge Blue Book'' – was sweeping the bridge world, and the challenge match attracted a mass audience. Lenz chose emerging great

Oswald Jacoby Oswald "Ozzie", "Jake" Jacoby (December 8, 1902 – June 27, 1984) was an American contract bridge player and author, considered one of the greatest bridge players of all time and a key innovator in the game, having helped popularize widely used bi ...

as his teammate. Ely Culbertson mostly played with his wife

Josephine Culbertson Josephine M. "Jo" Culbertson (''née'' Murphy; 2 February 1898 – March 23, 1956) was an American bridge player, teacher, theorist and writer. Josephine Murphy was born in Bayside, New York (now in Queens), to parents John Edward Murphy and Sara ...

. Lenz and Jacoby led for 43 rubbers (the match was 150

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...

s), but Jacoby, unhappy with Lenz's play, quit after the 103rd rubber, and Culberson ended up the winner by 8,980. The match was front-page news across the world and widely reported on the radio, sealing Lenz's fame despite his losing. Lenz retired from tournament play shortly after, although he remained active in the bridge world in various capacities.

Writings and contributions

Lenz's 1926 book ''Lenz on Bridge'' is considered a classic bridge manual and a work of literary merit. Lenz tried to introduce a new call, the "challenge", to replace the

takeout double In the card game contract bridge, a takeout double is a low-level conventional call of "Double" over an opponent's bid as a request for partner to bid his best of the unbid suits. The most common takeout double is after an opponent's opening bid ...

but this did not gain favor. His "1-2-3"

bidding system A bidding system in contract bridge is the set of agreements and understandings assigned to calls and sequences of calls used by a partnership, and includes a full description of the meaning of each treatment and convention. The purpose of bid ...

ultimately gave way to other systems. He is the namesake of the "Lenz echo", but disclaimed credit for this, saying he had just brought it over from whist. He is credited with coining the term " squeeze play" in the bridge context.

Other pursuits

Lenz was a skilled amateur magician, the first ever to be elected an honorary member of the

Society of American Magicians The Society of American Magicians (S.A.M.) is the oldest fraternal magic organization in the world. Its purpose is "to advance, elevate, and preserve magic as a performing art, to promote harmonious fellowship throughout the world of magic, and t ...

. He was also highly skilled at chess, tennis, golf, bowling, and card games. He was an associate editor and part owner of the satirical magazine ''

Judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

'', and wrote short stories for mass circulation magazines (many with a bridge setting).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenz, Sidney 1873 births 1960 deaths American contract bridge players