THE CARD TEST

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 140, 11 December 1930, Page 15

THE CARD TEST

DUPLICATE BRIDGE

HOW IT IS PLAYED

ELIMINATING LUCK

The bridge tournament at Almacks Club—in which Britain waa defeated— between four English and four American players was not in any sense what it has been called, "an international test match," for the simple reason that the English team has been selected by one man, Colonel Walter Buller, who is himself a member of the team, says a, writer on the "Sydney Sun. 55 ; It can make no claim to recognition as the best team Britain can put into the field, or perhaps I should say round a card table. No conclusion about the relative standards of play in England and ■>America therefore can 'be drawn from the result. But thero.'.is' plenty of interest in the. tournament apart from this. Bridge competitions' are something of a craze in America; and interelub, inter-State, and national championship matches are a regular feature of the year's sporting engagements. Indeed, the American team taking part in the tournament — Mr. and Mrs. Ely Culbertson, Mr. Theodore I/ightner, and Baroa yon Zedwitz —were the ■winners of ■ the national' championships, and may therefore claini to be the best team to represent theirl country. But bridge competitions are unknown in England, .because "Dupli-: cate" Bridge, the only system which makes competitive play possible, has notbeen tried, and the past' tournament1 was a great departure. It may well create a taste for duplicate. If it does, real international contests will be possible, and the next tournament may be a genuine "test match" between, the four best English, and the four best American players of the year. AMERICAN INVENTION. ]?or those who know only the rubber game played in clubs, and wish to follow, the details of the tournament, the following particulars about the duplicate game may be useful. Duplicate is an, American invention.1 played under; the laws of the Knickerbocker Whist1 Club of New York, which are adopted by the American Whist League. The underlying, principle is that each deal is played'in duplicate at as many tables as there are players for, but in order to avoid the time and trouble involved in sorting out a number of packs into the same sets of hands, the ' packs are dealt simultaneously at each table, the hands kept separate- during the. play, and then exchanged for the packs from the other tables in such order as to ensure that each table plays every set of hands. So much for the duplicate part of the game. Now for the competitive feature. In duplicate matches for teams of four, the arrangement for tho tournament at Almacks, the four players of each team are divided into two pairs, and each play as partners at the two tables but sitting opposite ways of j the table. Thus if one pair sit T-Z at their table, the other pair of the same team sit A-B at the other table. This is to ensure that, when a pack has been played at one table and is passed to the other in a regulation container which keeps the four hands separate, and indicates the hand which has the initial bid, the player who gets the hand with the initial bid at the second table is an opponent of the player who held it at tho first. COMPLICATIONS. The accepted laws of the game are followed as far as possible, but as rubbers are impossible the scoring has been changed. Scores are fixed on a plus and minus system, with a bonus for game. When, as in the tournament wo are considering, contract bridge is played in duplicate, vulnerability introduces a. further complication, but the Knickerbocker Club has overcome it by an arbitrary rule determining which pairs shall be vulnerable, and when. A little thought about the complications of this system will reveal the

curious fact that the pair of a team sitting at one table are not in fact paying against the opponents at the same table, hut against the pair of the adverse team sitting at the other table, and playing the same hands. The whole object of duplicate is to eliminate luck from the game and determine the relative skill of two teams. It certainly does this, for the four players of each team have played at one table or the other each of the four hands of every pack dealt, and if they finish a long series of deals with a higher score the conclusion is that they are a better team than their opponents. But plain duplicate does not determine pair rivalries. It does not determine, for instance, whether the pair of a team sitting A-B at one tablo are better or worse than the pair of the adverse team sitting A-B at the other table, for one pair may have stronger opponents than the other. The only way to determine pair rivalries is by progressive duplicate, in which partners progress from one table to another, niueli after the manner of progressive whist,-but on a system which ensures that they do not meet the same pack of cards twice. .. A SUGGESTION. I said at the beginning of this article that the English team cannot claim recognition as the best team which this countiy can produce. In saying that I intended no reflection upon the playeis, Mr Wood Hill Ml. Kehoe, Mrs. Eveib, and Colonel Walter Bullei. They aie no doubt as good a team as eau be selected m the circumstances At piesent it is quite impossible foi any person oi anybodj to name the best playei oi the four best m the country, tor badge is entnely a pnvate pastime and facilities for eompanson are nonexistent. But if the principal card clubs -\vould organise club duplicate matches, Butain oi Austialia nngSit pioceed to mteiclub fixtures jjid county tournaments until the\ got a national eh vmpionship nxtme ; \ selection committee would then hjaie some data to act' upon, in choosing/the team to meet the pick of overseas players. Such a development would 'enor> mousiy increase the popularity 'of bridge in this country, and we hepe to see: it. ' • .■ ■