Answer: Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif was born Michel Chalhoub in Alexandria, Egypt. He rose to fame when he was selected by director David Lean to play the critical role of Sharif Ali in "Lawrence of Arabia". After being nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and winning the Golden Globe, he followed up with another award-winning turn as the lead actor in "Doctor Zhivago". However, he was also very good at bridge, at one point ranking within the top 50 players in the world, and lending his name to a popular weekly bridge column. It's possible that he spent too much time playing bridge at the expense of his career. He is known to have said, "Acting may be my business, but bridge is my passion."
From Quiz: Famous People Who Play Bridge
Answer: Harold Vanderbilt
Harold Vanderbilt was born into the Vanderbilt millions, but managed to serve his country in World War I and have a profound impact on both yacht racing and bridge. For bridge, Vanderbilt revamped the rules of an earlier game, auction bridge, to reward precise bidding, which greatly elevated the skill component of the game. His revisions were so effective that they are now the unquestioned standard for bridge players around the world, which is quite remarkable considering how almost every other card game has many variants.
Vanderbilt donated a trophy, the Vanderbilt Cup, in perpetuity to the American Contract Bridge League, and winning the Vanderbilt is regarded as one of the greatest achievements any bridge player can claim.
From Quiz: Famous Bridge Players
Answer: India
The championships were held in Chennai, India, on the southeast coast of India. Chennai was formally known as Madras.
India naturally spans the western half of one time zone and the eastern half another. Rather than split into two time zones, they compromise and are at half past an hour when most of the world is on an even hour.
From Quiz: 2015 World Bridge Team Championships
Answer: The player to the declarer's left
In bridge, the side who makes the final bid becomes the offense while the other side is the defense. The offensive player who first named the suit of the final bid becomes the declarer and the defender to the left chooses a card from their hand as the opening lead. On average, this is generally considered the hardest and most important play of the entire hand.
The two of clubs is the first card led in the game hearts, not bridge.
From Quiz: You're the Leader, Partner
Answer: "One last match"
Rubber bridge is the most simple, social form of bridge. It is played by four people, two pairs, and it consists of at least two deals. A rubber - the basic unit of play corresponding to a "best of three" match - is finished when one of the pairs manages to score two full games. A game is scored when a pair declares (bids) and then successfully fulfills (makes) a contract worth at least 100 points.
When a pair scores its first game, meaning it is just one game away from the rubber win, the pair is then called "vulnerable", because the penalty for failing to fulfill contracts is doubled for them. This is a way for the other pair to try and catch up.
From Quiz: Common Bridge Expressions
Answer: Whist
The first book completely devoted to Whist was written by Edmund Hoyle in 1742.
From Quiz: Contract Bridge Through the Ages
Answer: Balanced with a narrow point range, such as 15-17
You should be prepared to play in one no-trump if partner passes, so your hand should be balanced and a little stronger than a suit opening.
From Quiz: Novice Bridge Questions
Answer: 2 Diamonds
This is one of the most useful and most common bridge conventions. It was designed by Oswald Jacoby, hence its name. It is useful because it allows the player with more strength to play the hand, thus concealing where the strength lies, and making it more difficult for the defenders to develop a successful line of play. There are transfers to all four suits, but the major suit transfers are the most common. Thank you Oswald!
From Quiz: Beginner/ Intermediate Bridge
Answer: Mohandas Gandhi
Gandhi is famous for his non-violent approach towards change, but he apparently enjoyed a rubber of bridge in his spare time. He apparently took up the game in his youth and reportedly said he first felt the hand of God upon him during a bridge game, when he felt one of the other players was making a pass at him. He also used bridge to teach the difference between karma (fate) and dharma (action): The hand you are dealt is your karma, but how well you play it is your dharma.
From Quiz: Famous People Who Play Bridge
Answer: Ely Culbertson
Ely Culbertson is probably the person who is most responsible for the game's popularity. He invented many ideas which are still used in bidding systems today, such as forcing bids, and he challenged many leading players to public matches to demonstrate his system's superiority. His fame was such that at one point, his match against Sidney Lenz was called "The Bridge Battle of the Century" and the "box score" of the match was covered every day on the front page of the New York Times. He won decisively, and millions of Americans started using his bidding system, which is the foundation of American bidding systems today.
With the beginning of World War II, he quit bridge to focus his considerable talents on promoting world peace.
From Quiz: Famous Bridge Players
Answer: Scoring bonus points which do not count towards completing games
On every rubber score sheet there is a horizontal line. The base value of every contract bid and made by a pair is written on the score sheet "below the line" and it counts toward completing games (and eventually the rubber). Any other points, e.g. overtricks (simple, doubled or redoubled), part score, game and slam bonuses, undertricks, etc. are considered bonus points and are written separately ("above the line").
The rubber is completed whenever one pair completes two games, but that does not necessarily mean that this pair won the rubber! If the other pair has won many bonus points (above the line), the paradox could happen that one pair scored two games, yet the other pair won the rubber (the match).
From Quiz: Common Bridge Expressions
Answer: 19th
Whilst there remains dispute as to whether the game was first played in India or Egypt, and whether the substance of the game drew most heavily from Whist, Plafond (France) or Biritch (Russia)- it is known that the game was first played in London and New York for the first time in the 1890s.
From Quiz: Contract Bridge Through the Ages
Answer: Asks partner to bid a major suit if he has four or more cards in it
Some players use 2 clubs and 2 diamonds for Stayman, the latter being a game force.
From Quiz: Novice Bridge Questions
Answer: 2 Diamonds
This is another very popular bridge convention. Its designer is a man named George Rapée. George Rapée's partner Samuel Stayman wrote about it and popularized it, hence the Stayman name became attached.
From Quiz: Beginner/ Intermediate Bridge
Answer: Bill Gates
Of Microsoft, of course. Sometimes he partners up with Warren Buffett. On one occasion, he and Buffett flew their regular partners in for a 24-hour bridge-playing marathon aboard a train. It was this partnership that led to a 'Wall Street Journal' headline proclaiming 'Bridge Is Cool!' In his first tournament, in Anaheim, CA in 2000, Gates partnered up with Sharon Osberg (he was supposed to play with Buffett, who couldn't make it due to illness.) Although their play was lackluster, they certainly attracted media attention!
From Quiz: Famous Bridge Players
Answer: Oswald Jacoby
Oswald Jacoby was probably one of the most talented game players to have ever lived. Not only was he a world champion at bridge, but he was also a world champion of backgammon, and expert in gin and poker. He was on the losing team of the "Bridge Battle of the Century" but he was regarded as the best player in the match, quitting halfway through when his partner couldn't understand his bids and plays. Unlike most bridge champions, he played at a high level well into his 70s and 80s -- his final championship came in 1984 when he was 82, a few months before his death.
Outside of bridge, he served America in World War II and the Korean War as a cryptanalyst. His calculation skills were so great he could multiply 3- and 4-digit numbers in his head. He also became the youngest person ever to be accredited as an actuary by the Society of Actuaries, at age 21.
From Quiz: Famous Bridge Players
Answer: 22
22 teams from eight zones across the world qualified for the tournament. Each zone was allocated a number of teams based on the number of bridge players in the zone with India qualifying automatically as the host (and not counting as one of the Asia/Middle East zone's teams). The North American zone allocated two of its three entries in each event to the United States, so there were 21 different countries in each event but 22 teams.
The tournament started out with a complete round robin in each event with three matches a day for seven days. The top eight teams after the round robin qualified for the knockout stage of the tournament.
From Quiz: 2015 World Bridge Team Championships
Answer: Play a card in the same suit as the lead
One of the cardinal rules in bridge is that you must play a card in the same suit as the one that was led if you have one. If you don't have a card in that suit you can play any card including a trump. When each hand plays a card it is called a trick. The highest trump played (with aces high) wins the trick. If no trumps are played then the highest card in the suit led wins. Thus if a spade is led, you have no spades, and hearts are trump, you can play the two of hearts to beat the aces of spades your opponent played!
From Quiz: You're the Leader, Partner
Answer: The player is notifying the opponents that his partner's last bid has a conventional meaning
Bridge is a game of "complete disclosure", which means that there can be no secret agreements between partners about their methods of bidding or play. Thus, whenever a player makes a conventional bid (a bid with a non-natural meaning) his partner says "Alert!". If the opponents wish, they can subsequently ask the alerter about the meaning of his partner's bid, and the alerter is obliged to describe the convention accurately and completely.
From Quiz: Common Bridge Expressions
Answer: Harold S Vanderbilt
Harold Vanderbilt felt that insufficient bonuses were given to players who contracted to make a high level of tricks (hence the name contract bridge as opposed to Auction Bridge as it was then called). Whilst on a cruise in 1925, he devised a new set of bonuses and method of bidding that with some changes is still in use today.
From Quiz: Contract Bridge Through the Ages
Answer: George Rapee
Rapee was Stayman's customary partner and invented the convention; however, Stayman popularized it and wrote numerous articles, hence the name.
From Quiz: Novice Bridge Questions
Answer: Quantitative
This bid tells the opener that if they have the top end of an NT opener, then bid 6NT. The reason it is not ace-asking is because the 4NT bid was over NT, therefore it became a quantitative bid. If South wanted to have asked for aces, he would have bid 4 Clubs (Gerber) over his partner's opening 1NT bid. Happy Slamming!
From Quiz: Beginner/ Intermediate Bridge
Answer: Martina Navratilova
She wrote the introduction to Audrey Grant's 'The Club Series-Introduction to Bridge'. She's also teamed up with Billie Jean King in an email course designed to help teach bridge to newcomers.
From Quiz: Famous Bridge Players
Answer: two
From Quiz: Bridge - the Game
Answer: Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova is seen as one of the greatest players in tennis history. She was one of the few women players to have won every Grand Slam singles, doubles, and mixed doubles tournament. She was born in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) but applied for political asylum and ultimately citizenship in the USA when she found its communist government too oppressive. In her spare time, she greatly enjoys playing bridge, saying: "No matter where I go, I can always make new friends at the bridge table."
Curiously, the term "grand slam" first originated in bridge, and not sport. It was then adopted by baseball in the 1930s when an announcer linked the concept of scoring the maximum amount on offense to a 4-run home run. As baseball became more popular, other sports such as tennis and golf also adopted the term.
From Quiz: Famous People Who Play Bridge
Answer: Charles Goren
Charles Goren learned the game in college in order to attempt to impress a girl. After failing miserably, he worked hard at improving his game and became one of the greatest players in history. He became one of the most influential bridge players in the history of the game due to his popularization of the Work point count, which is now the world standard for evaluating a bridge hand. He was also a prolific author and promoter, televising bridge matches in a series called "Championship Bridge". Goren's fame was such that if he ruled on a bridge matter, it was no longer "According to Hoyle" but "According to Goren".
From Quiz: Famous Bridge Players
Answer: The player who won the previous trick
The winner of each trick leads to the next. The declarer has to lead from the hand that won the previous trick. Thus if the trick was won in dummy, dummy is the leader to the next trick while if the declarer wins in his hand, he plays the first card to the next trick from that hand.
There are advantages and disadvantages to being the leader. Besides the obvious advantage that it means your side won the last trick, the leader gets to choose which suit to lead. However, since the other side gets to play last to the next trick, they have the advantage of knowing which card is the cheapest they can win the trick with (if any) and thus save their higher cards for later.
From Quiz: You're the Leader, Partner
Answer: When you have 8 cards in a suit, finesse for the Queen. When you have 9 cards in a suit, play Ace and King hoping to drop the Queen
This is one of the first maxims a beginner learns in bridge. It has to do with the best percentage play to avoid losing a trick to a Queen in a suit.
From Quiz: Common Bridge Expressions
Answer: Culbertson's Blue Book
Ely Culbertson, though not a great player himself, managed to convince the public via his salesmanship, that he was the world's leading authority on the game. Many of the ideas he espoused were those of his wife Josephine (who was a great player) or other professionals he hired to play on his team.
From Quiz: Contract Bridge Through the Ages
Answer: Prevent auditory clues from affecting the bidding
Bidding boxes have become standard in many clubs and most tournaments.
From Quiz: Novice Bridge Questions
Answer: 6+
The player should have about 5-11 points, including at least one honour in the bid suit, and an outside ace is welcome, if not a necessity. This kind of bid is called preemptive. It helps to shut out the opposing team, who may have reasonable points, by starting the bidding at a higher level. How disruptive!
From Quiz: Beginner/ Intermediate Bridge
Answer: spades and hearts
From Quiz: Bridge - the Game
Answer: Dwight Eisenhower
The leader of the Allied armies in the European theater of World War II, Dwight Eisenhower was a huge fan of using bridge as a way to blow off steam. At one point, he was reported to have played bridge 6 nights a week for 5 straight months. He was a notoriously natural bidder: the only artificial bid he deigned to use was the Blackwood 4NT convention to ask for aces.
The wrong answers are also US Presidents who were generals, but all lived before contract bridge was invented in 1925.
From Quiz: Famous People Who Play Bridge
Answer: Helen Sobel Smith
Helen Sobel learned the game on the set of the Marx Brothers movie "Animal Crackers", where she was a chorus girl. She quickly became one of the best players in the game, partnering Charles Goren and winning over 30 national championships.
When a spectator watching her and Mr. Goren asked her how it felt to play with a great player, she replied "I don't know. Ask him." Most neutral observers agreed that of the two, she was the better player. Unfortunately, she died at the relatively young age of 59 from cancer.
From Quiz: Famous Bridge Players
Answer: Three Spades
Partner's 2NT bid shows a hand with five spades and the values to invite game. You are, therefore, asked to assess your hand in two ways: firstly, do you prefer spades or no trump and, secondly, do you have enough for game or should you settle for playing a partscore?
The answer to the first question is clear -- with 3-card support for partner's major and a ruffing value (in hearts), you should certainly prefer to play the hand in spades. The second question is how high to bid: your hand could not be much more minimum for the initial opening 1NT. Once partner has failed to insist on game, you have no reason to think of bidding one. Bid Three Spades and expect partner to table dummy in that contract.
Of the alternatives, you would jump to Four Spades with this sort of hand AND extra values (ie the maximum half of the range for your original 1NT opening). Switch the majors on the hand in the question and you would then have a minimum hand with no spade fit, so you should pass 2NT. Without a spade fit but with extra values, you should accept partner's game invitation by raising to 3NT.
From Quiz: 10 Bridge Conventions You Should Know
Answer: Either defender
Either defender is allowed to accept the lead from the wrong hand but they are not allowed to consult each other. If one wants to accept the lead and the other does not, the defender who is next to play if the lead is accepted has precedence. As a matter of fact, she can just accept by playing a card, regardless of her partner's opinion. Note that there is no penalty to declarer for playing from the wrong hand except for this additional option the defenders have (to force him to play out of the hand they want first).
From Quiz: You're the Leader, Partner
Answer: The third player in the order of a trick should play his highest card in the suit being played
Yet another beginners' bridge maxim. It has to do with defender play. When it's your turn to follow suit in a trick and you are the third to play, try your highest card in the suit. Most of the times this is a winning strategy, although there are quite a few exceptions (aren't there in all maxims?).
From Quiz: Common Bridge Expressions
Answer: Dwight Eisenhower
Eisenhower used to play with experts nearly every Saturday night, and attended national tournaments whenever possible.
From Quiz: Contract Bridge Through the Ages
Answer: The dealer
"I dealt and I bid ____________" is frequently heard.
From Quiz: Novice Bridge Questions