William S. Root (December 12, 1923 – March 18, 2002) was an American professional

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

player, teacher, and writer. He was from

Boca Raton, Florida Boca Raton ( ; ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 97,422 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and it ranked as the 23rd-largest city in Florida in 2022. Many people with a Boca Raton Address, ...

. Root was inducted into the

ACBL Hall of Fame This list is a compilation of contract bridge players, writers, administrators and personalities who have been recognized for their skills, achievements or contributions to the game as identified by various specific sources. People recognized by ...

in 1997. The

American Contract Bridge League The American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) is a governing body for contract bridge in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda. It is the largest such organization in North America having the stated mission "to promote, grow and sustain the ...

observed in his citation, "Root was perhaps the best known bridge teacher in the world – and has probably taught the game to more people than anyone in history."

Life

Root was born in New York City and raised in

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. He died at age 79 in

Jettison play

One of the most famous hands in his books is a seven notrump contract requiring a very advanced jettison play. High cards often get in the declarer's way, that is they block the effective play of the hand. A solution to these blocking problems is to throw away high cards. This unblocking coup is known as the ''jettison play''. Win the opening lead of J with the ace, dropping the king of spades. Cash the queen of spades, and jettison the ace of hearts from hand. Now cash the top hearts in dummy and jettison the top three clubs from hand! You can now run the clubs to discard diamond losers. This line of play has the advantage of trying out the club suit before seeing if the diamonds run. Due to this particular hand layout, the diamonds don't run because of the 4-0 split, while the clubs run because of the singleton 10. If the clubs did not split favorably, declarer could still try to run the diamonds using dummy's 3 to get back into declarer's hand.

Bridge accomplishments

Honors

* ACBL Hall of Fame, 1997"Induction by Year"
. ''Hall of Fame''. ACBL. Retrieved 2014-12-20.

Wins

North American Bridge Championships North American Bridge Championships (NABC) are three annual contract bridge, bridge tournaments sponsored by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). The "Spring", "Summer", and "Fall" NABCs are usually scheduled in March, July, and November fo ...

(14) ** Vanderbilt (4) 1968, 1983, 1986, 1995 **

Spingold The Spingold national bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Spingold is a knock-out team event that attracts the top contract bridge players in the world. T ...

(3) 1961, 1966, 1967 **

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

(now Reisinger) (1) 1957 **

Reisinger The Reisinger national bridge championship is held at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Reisinger is a board-a-match event. History The event is contested for the Reisinger Trophy ( ...

(5) 1967, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1990 ** Men's Pairs (1) 1953

Runners-up

Bermuda Bowl The Bermuda Bowl is a biennial contract bridge world championship for national . It is contested every odd-numbered year under the auspices of the World Bridge Federation (WBF), alongside the Venice Cup (women), the d'Orsi Senior Bowl and the Wu ...

(1) 1967 * World Open Team Olympiad (1) 1968 *

(9) **

(3) 1963, 1974, 1978 **

(1) 1966 **

Grand National Teams The Grand National Teams (GNT) North American bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Grand National Teams is a team knockout event. The event is broken into ...

(1) 1992 ** Men's Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1963 ** North American Men's Swiss Teams (1) 1984 ** Life Master Pairs (1) 1995 ** Open Pairs (1) 1966 * United States Bridge Championships (4) ** Open Team Trials (3) 1984, 1987, 1992 ** Open Pair Trials (1) 1967

Books

Prentice-Hall Prentice Hall was a major American educational publisher. It published print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market. It was an independent company throughout the bulk of the twentieth century. In its last few years it ...

(Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), ; Frederick Muller (London). Both 154 pp. * ——— (1972)

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

''New Contract Bridge Outlines on Standard Bidding''.

Crown Publishers The Crown Publishing Group is a subsidiary of Penguin Random House that publishes across several fiction and non-fiction categories. Originally founded in 1933 as a remaindered books wholesaler called Outlet Book Company, the firm expanded into ...

(New York). 64 pages. * 96 pp. * Crown, ; Three Rivers Press (New York), ; (1992) CrownTrade Paperbacks, . All 244 pp. * Crown, (hardcover), (softcover); 1995, Three Rivers, . 216 pp. * 309 pp. * 410 pp. * 281 pp.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Root, William 1923 births 2002 deaths American contract bridge players Bermuda Bowl players American contract bridge writers People from Boca Raton, Florida