Bridge Jeopardy

Barry Rigal introduced me to a real time-waster in the Press Room a couple of world championships ago – a web site called Sploofus.  Now unfortunately defunct, it consisted of a fantastic collection of trivia and word games, which grew organically through constant member contributions.  At one point, I was inspired to develop a bridge quiz for Sploofus, which (blush) got an Editor’s Award.  Since the site is no longer there, I thought I’d recreate it, with some modifications, for this blog.  No prizes – you can Google the answers in 5 minutes – the trick is to see how many you can get right off the top of your head.  Since this blog has a bridge-savvy readership, I’ve made it a little harder: the original was multiple choice, but for this one, you’re mostly on your own.   I’ll post the answers in a few days.

Enjoy!

1.  The exact origins of bridge are murky, although it obviously derives from whist and its precursors.  The trail runs through games such as plafond and biritch, finally arriving at auction bridge and then contract.  The game as we know it today came into being when an American millionaire invented a new scoring table during a New Year cruise on the SS Norway, in 1927-8.  With only minor changes, we still use his scoring today.  Who was he?

2.  Some of the pundits of auction bridge, like Milton Work, made the transition to contract, and continued to play, teach and write about the new game.  One of the most prolific early auction/contract authors became notorious when he was found dying of a gunshot wound in his NY townhouse in 1920, a murder which has never been solved.  It was the subject of a Philo Vance mystery novel by S.S. van Dine: in fact The Benson Murder Case suggested a possible solution.  Who was the victim?

3. Ely Culbertson was the first great promoter of bridge: he founded a magazine (The Bridge World), a bidding system, conducted newspaper columns and radio shows, and wrote dozens of books.  The final pages of his first book were dictated in a cab on the way to catch a transatlantic liner, which was to take him to play a challenge match in the UK.  The book, the first description of his methods, went on to sell millions of copies, making it comfortably the all-time best-selling book on the game.  What was its title?

4. The bridge world was stunned in 1965 when Terence Reese and his partner Boris Schapiro were accused of using illegal finger signals at the world championships in Buenos Aires.  The case generated controversy for years, not least because they were exonerated (or at least the charges were declared ‘not proven’) after an enquiry by a non-bridge-playing judge in the UK.  Today it is generally accepted that they were indeed cheating.  What information did the partners convey to one another?

5. Which of the following is not a type of squeeze?

Clash squeeze

Entry squeeze

Hexagonal squeeze

Knockout squeeze

Mole squeeze

Smother squeeze

6.  Many celebrities have been keen bridge players, including more than one US President and First Lady.  One of the best-known was this comedian, who was still playing cards at his country club a few days before his death at a very advanced age. He was born Nathan Birnbaum; what was his stage name?

7.  Ely Culbertson’s successor as ‘Mr. Bridge’ was Charles Goren, who promulgated Point Count Bidding, an easier method than Culbertson’s system based on Honor Tricks.  Yet the Goren System was not invented by him: it owed much to Milton Work and Bryant McCampbell, but the final touch, the addition of distributional points, came from a Toronto actuary.  What was his name?

8.  One of Goren’s favourite bridge partners was perhaps the best woman player of all time.  When a kibitzer asked her one time what it was like to partner one of the world’s great players, she snapped, ‘I don’t know – why don’t you ask Charlie?’  Who was she?

9.  Far and away the liveliest and most readable history of contract bridge from its beginnings to the early 1950s was penned by Irishman Rex Mackey: The Walk of the Oysters. The title is a reference to a line in a literary work… from which of these authors?  For a bonus point: what does the line have to do with bridge?

Lewis Carroll

T.S. Eliot

James Joyce

William Shakespeare

G.B. Shaw

10. Ira Corn’s sponsorship of the Aces changed bridge forever, and ushered in the era of professional teams.  The makeup of the squad changed several times over the years.  Which of the following players was never a member of the Aces?

Fred Hamilton

Eddie Kantar

Mike Passell

Paul Soloway

Alan Sontag

John Swanson