On Feb 28, 11:51*am, samsloan wrote:
On Feb 28, 8:37 am, Hank Youngerman wrote:





It may interest the chess world to know that this sort of thing is
more-than-common in bridge.

Of the top 16 teams in the U.S. Championships (which are not limited
to U.S. players, and draw many of the strongest players in the world)
13 or 14 will consist of 3 to 5 hired professionals and one paying
sponsor. *Putting it in a a chess context, I would say the amateurs
vary in skill from around 1400 to 2400.

Indeed, 4 such sponsors have won the world team title (the team title
is considered the most prestegious in bridge) and another sponsor has
a silver and a bronze.

Of course, bridge is different in that:

a) Each player must play 1/2 of the time in US championships, 1/3 of
the time in world champsionships. *So with 4 playing at a time, any
player can in effect be as little as 1/12 of the team.
b) Bridge remains a game of probabilities. *It is not a game where one
little slip against a stronger opponent means inevitable defeat.
c) It is a partnership game. *While you can't coach your partner while
playing, you can play in such a way as to give away small amounts of
equity to give your partner easier decisions. *When playing with
weaker partners, the pros routinely do this.

Alas, though, bridge teams are invariably known by the name of the
captain (or the country if playing in a world championship where teams
are restricted to one or two entries per country). *They don't let us
get imaginative with names.

When I used to play in a partnership with Mike Lawrence (and it is
true, I really did play several times with Mike Lawrence as my
partner) I tried in every way I could to make him the declarer. In
addition, I warned him to try at all costs to avoid making me the
declarer, because, if I ever became the declarer, I would have no idea
what to do. Unless the hand was really simple, I would mess it up.

I also backed the game, so that if we lost I would pay all the losses.
(This was never a problem because we never lost.)

Our opponents were top level or nearly top level players too.
Remember, this was the Game Room at the University of California at
Berkeley. Some of the other bridge players hanging out in the game
room were Lou Stansby, Bob Hammand, Kyle Larsen and Bill Nudding. I
knew them all.

I also played in duplicate tournaments with Rich Laver and Earl Pruner
as my partners. Both of them are chess masters who were strong bridge
players too.

I could defend fairly well but I told my partners that under no
circumstances allow me to play the hand.

In one duplicate tournament our opponents called the director to
complain that I had made a bid designed to make my partner, Earl
Pruner, the declarer. Actually, it was just a mistake on my part. I
had miscounted the hand. Just an accident, but it looked bad.

I might as well tell you now that the Bridge Book I am about to
publish is by Kenneth Harkness. He was a famous chess personality and
a good writer who made his living as the bridge director on ocean
cruises. I am told that he was a strong bridge player too but I do not
know if he won any tournaments or titles.

Are you going to have someone edit it so that random things like
"bridge book" don't get capitalized? More seriously, how many copies
do you need to sell to make your nut on this thing? You have a
practically unknown author and _you_ don't have the kind of
information, titles won, for instance, that would make a blurb for the
book more appetizing.

Will in New Haven

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Sam Sloan- Hide quoted text -

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