Contract Bridge is an intellectual game, Duplicate Bridge is a game of skill
Saturday, 22 November 2008
ABM Ahsanullah
Doyen of journalists late Abdus Salam was a great enthusiast and an avid bridge player. He used to play bridge regularly. During his time, mostly Rubber Bridge was being played. Nonetheless, in the context of the game of Bridge, we miss him most for the values and interest he had shown towards this game. In those days, the game was a regular phenomenon of clubs, public university clubs, community centres in Dhaka, town clubs, services messes and private homes.
Then the Contract Bridge was not a popular phenomenon in our part of the world. Invention of Contract Bridge added a new dimension to the game of Bridge a long time ago. Founding father of modern Contract Bridge, Late William Vanderbilt invented it in 1926--- 82 years ago. Since then it took roots in most of the countries in the World; Northern Hemisphere, Latin America, South & North Africa, whole of Europe, Middle East, Far East, Australia, Indian Sub-continent except Bangladesh.
The writer has had the occasion of playing Bridge in the 37th Indian National Bridge Championship held in Chennai in 1995 where he also led a couple of teams as Manager; and he had also the opportunity of participating in West Bengal Annual Bridge Championship held in Netaji Indoor Stadium, Kolkata in 1996 and 1997. It was found amazing to see around 100 bridge teams from West Bengal alone. As compared, Bangladesh does not have, at the moment, more than 20 teams to participate in major tournaments held every year. In 1977, when the 1st National Bridge Championship was held, 46 teams had then participated in the championship. Azimpur Community Centre (ACC-Red) won the 1st National Championship. Incidentally, the writer was a player of the said team.
Bridge is an intellectual game. This is the single most game which has one million players registered with the World Bridge Federation. There are people, numbering a couple of millions in China alone, who play bridge around the world, there are millions of others of all ages and professions, who play Bridge.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognised bridge as a "sport". The World Bridge Federation holds several competitions e.g Worldwide Bridge, World Cup, Olympiad, Venice Cup and its eight zones also hold qualifying round tournaments.
Duplicate Bridge is a refined form of Contract Bridge. This version of the game is mostly played in tournaments. As usual, two teams play against each other but in two separate rooms--open room and closed room. Two teams split up their pairs--one pair occupy seats in the open room and the other pair in the closed room in different directions, e.g. North-South in open room and East-West in the closed room. The same 16 sets of cards split into eight deals each played by a pair in open room are transferred to the other room vice-versa to be played by the pair of the opposite team in the same sitting arrangement in the open room. Each deal has predetermined Vulnerability and non-Vulnerability, points, game bonus and penalty are specified. The system follows Knock-out, Robin League, Semi-Final and Final formats. The number of deals is specified for each stage of the game. The result is later computed and seen having played the same sets of cards. The result is known as International Match Point (IMP) and then IMP result is converted into Victory Points (VP). The team, who obtain higher the VP than their opponents, win the match or tournament. A tournament is played according to Format and the World Bridge Federation's approved rules and regulations. An illustration of Duplicate Bridge is given hereunder:
From the above illustration, Team "B" proved their prowess, defeated Team A in reaching a contract of 3 NT, and fulfilled the contract, of course on wrong defence. This sort of winning a deal is also called "swing". There are hundreds of variations in hand pattern where application of superior conventions, skillful bidding and hand play matter most.
It will be slightly provocative to say that people of average intelligence can also play good Bridge. Let there be a beginning how modest it may be. One can write a lot on the game of Contract Bridge; but let me stop here.
I have attempted to provide a little picture on Contract Bridge and Duplicate Bridge for reading pleasure of the valued readers on the eve of the Team Bridge Tournament of the Officers' Club, Dhaka from November 21 - 28, 2008. The programmes are as follows:
i) Registration of Team (Cut-off time): 4.00 pm on 21.11.2008
ii) Entry fee Tk.600/= per team
iii) Venue Officers' Club, Dhaka 26, Baily Road, Dhaka-1000.
iv) Prize giving ceremony 28.11.2008 at 4.45 pm
A Pair Bridge Tournament will be also held today (Saturday), a whole day programme. Entry of Pairs: 9.30 a.m. and Fee: Tk.300 per Pair.
All bridge players/teams from all over Bangladesh are welcome to participate in both the events.
(ABM Ahsanullah is a bridge player and the Chief Coordinator of the Team Bridge Tournament-2008, Officers' Club, Dhaka. Email: ahsan_agency@yahoo.com)
Doyen of journalists late Abdus Salam was a great enthusiast and an avid bridge player. He used to play bridge regularly. During his time, mostly Rubber Bridge was being played. Nonetheless, in the context of the game of Bridge, we miss him most for the values and interest he had shown towards this game. In those days, the game was a regular phenomenon of clubs, public university clubs, community centres in Dhaka, town clubs, services messes and private homes.
Then the Contract Bridge was not a popular phenomenon in our part of the world. Invention of Contract Bridge added a new dimension to the game of Bridge a long time ago. Founding father of modern Contract Bridge, Late William Vanderbilt invented it in 1926--- 82 years ago. Since then it took roots in most of the countries in the World; Northern Hemisphere, Latin America, South & North Africa, whole of Europe, Middle East, Far East, Australia, Indian Sub-continent except Bangladesh.
The writer has had the occasion of playing Bridge in the 37th Indian National Bridge Championship held in Chennai in 1995 where he also led a couple of teams as Manager; and he had also the opportunity of participating in West Bengal Annual Bridge Championship held in Netaji Indoor Stadium, Kolkata in 1996 and 1997. It was found amazing to see around 100 bridge teams from West Bengal alone. As compared, Bangladesh does not have, at the moment, more than 20 teams to participate in major tournaments held every year. In 1977, when the 1st National Bridge Championship was held, 46 teams had then participated in the championship. Azimpur Community Centre (ACC-Red) won the 1st National Championship. Incidentally, the writer was a player of the said team.
Bridge is an intellectual game. This is the single most game which has one million players registered with the World Bridge Federation. There are people, numbering a couple of millions in China alone, who play bridge around the world, there are millions of others of all ages and professions, who play Bridge.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognised bridge as a "sport". The World Bridge Federation holds several competitions e.g Worldwide Bridge, World Cup, Olympiad, Venice Cup and its eight zones also hold qualifying round tournaments.
Duplicate Bridge is a refined form of Contract Bridge. This version of the game is mostly played in tournaments. As usual, two teams play against each other but in two separate rooms--open room and closed room. Two teams split up their pairs--one pair occupy seats in the open room and the other pair in the closed room in different directions, e.g. North-South in open room and East-West in the closed room. The same 16 sets of cards split into eight deals each played by a pair in open room are transferred to the other room vice-versa to be played by the pair of the opposite team in the same sitting arrangement in the open room. Each deal has predetermined Vulnerability and non-Vulnerability, points, game bonus and penalty are specified. The system follows Knock-out, Robin League, Semi-Final and Final formats. The number of deals is specified for each stage of the game. The result is later computed and seen having played the same sets of cards. The result is known as International Match Point (IMP) and then IMP result is converted into Victory Points (VP). The team, who obtain higher the VP than their opponents, win the match or tournament. A tournament is played according to Format and the World Bridge Federation's approved rules and regulations. An illustration of Duplicate Bridge is given hereunder:
From the above illustration, Team "B" proved their prowess, defeated Team A in reaching a contract of 3 NT, and fulfilled the contract, of course on wrong defence. This sort of winning a deal is also called "swing". There are hundreds of variations in hand pattern where application of superior conventions, skillful bidding and hand play matter most.
It will be slightly provocative to say that people of average intelligence can also play good Bridge. Let there be a beginning how modest it may be. One can write a lot on the game of Contract Bridge; but let me stop here.
I have attempted to provide a little picture on Contract Bridge and Duplicate Bridge for reading pleasure of the valued readers on the eve of the Team Bridge Tournament of the Officers' Club, Dhaka from November 21 - 28, 2008. The programmes are as follows:
i) Registration of Team (Cut-off time): 4.00 pm on 21.11.2008
ii) Entry fee Tk.600/= per team
iii) Venue Officers' Club, Dhaka 26, Baily Road, Dhaka-1000.
iv) Prize giving ceremony 28.11.2008 at 4.45 pm
A Pair Bridge Tournament will be also held today (Saturday), a whole day programme. Entry of Pairs: 9.30 a.m. and Fee: Tk.300 per Pair.
All bridge players/teams from all over Bangladesh are welcome to participate in both the events.
(ABM Ahsanullah is a bridge player and the Chief Coordinator of the Team Bridge Tournament-2008, Officers' Club, Dhaka. Email: ahsan_agency@yahoo.com)