The Little Major is a

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually someth ...

bidding system A bidding system in contract bridge is the set of Glossary of contract bridge terms#agreement, agreements and understandings assigned to Glossary of contract bridge terms#call, calls and sequences of calls used by a Glossary of contract bridge te ...

devised primarily by

Terence Reese John Terence Reese (28 August 1913 – 29 January 1996) was a British bridge player and writer, regarded as one of the finest of all time in both fields. He was born in Epsom, Surrey, England to middle-class parents, and was educated at Bradf ...

Origins

The concept for "the Little Major" was born late in 1962 while Reese was en route to a tournament in the Canary Islands with Boris Schapiro. First with Schapiro and then with

Jeremy Flint Jeremy M. Flint (30 August 1928 – 15 November 1989) was an English contract bridge writer and one of the world's leading professional players. He was also a horse racing enthusiast. Flint was born in Leeds but lived in London. Life and bridge ...

, Reese created the bidding system as "an Awful Warning of what might happen if every country playing international championships were to arrive with its own wholly artificial system". That project was soon overtaken by events and the system "was found in itself to be extremely interesting". SBN 7091 0003 5 Reese promulgated three general principles: #Aggressive openings on all hands that are ill-equipped for competition. All such defenceless hands are opened 1 or higher. #Early definition of range and type. Opening suit bids from 1 to 2 are precise as to range and pattern. #Extension of bidding vocabulary through use of relay bids and two-way bids. As the system evolved, it was awarded an 'A' licence by the English Bridge Union (EBU) which meant that it could be played in certain restricted events. It was first used in 1963 in international competition by Schapiro and Reese at the 23rd European Team Championships in

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the Rhine, the border with Fra ...

, Germany. That created a great deal of interest. Flint and Reese used the Little Major in the 1964/65 world team championship at

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Features

The meanings of opening bids are as follows: :1 = four or more hearts, might include a longer minor. Might be three hearts with a long minor (or both minors with 16+ high card points (HCP). A 1 response is a relay. :1 = four or more spades, might have a longer minor or a 17-19 notrump hand. Can be three spades with a long minor or both minors with 16+ HCP. A 1 response is a relay. :1 = NT hand of 20+ points, an Acol two-bid or stronger, or a weakish balanced or semi-balanced hand of approximately 3 to 6 HCP. :1 = 12-15 points, 5-4 or better in the minors. :1NT = 14-16 balanced. :2, 2 = 12-15 with a fair suit, unbalanced one suiter. :2, 2 = five or more of the suit bid and four or more of a minor. 16 to 20 HCP :2NT = Either a weak minor suit pre-empt or a strong distributional minor two-suiter. :3, 3 = Strong, mainly minor-suit hand, 15-18, usually 6-4 or 7-3. :3 up to 4 as in Acol. The Little Major was described in ''Bridge Magazine'' on two occasions, the last in the August 1969 issue.

Abandonment

The Little Major was abandoned entirely when its two-year EBU 'A' license was withdrawn "on the grounds that not enough players were playing the system". The entry for the Little Major in the 1971 edition of the ''Official Encyclopedia of Bridge'' had already noted that it was "now obsolete".

References

{{WPCBIndex Bridge systems