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Belladonna Coup
The Belladonna coup is the play of a low card away from an accompanying high card, giving the opponents the impossible choice between setting up a winner for declarer and abandoning an attack on another suit. The provenance of the following spectacular hand, which illustrates the Belladonna coup, is uncertain. A similar layout, with the same key play, is discussed by Victor Mollo.Mollo, Victor. The Bridge Immortals. Hart, 1968. Both sources attribute the coup to Giorgio Belladonna, for many years a cornerstone of the Italian Blue Team. (Belladonna later said that he could not recall having made the key play.) It is said that Belladonna played it as described in a European Community championship in Belgium during the 1980s. But it is also said that Paul Lukacs, the game's pre-eminent composer of single-dummy problems, composed it away from the table. Against South's 4, West leads a small trump to East's 10 and South's J. South has several ways to play for ten tricks, which incl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Mollo
Victor Mollo (17 September 1909 – 24 September 1987) was a British contract bridge player, journalist and author. He is best known for his "Menagerie" series of bridge books, which consist of fable-like stories of caricatured people with animal names and mannerisms playing the game. Biography Mollo was born in St. Petersburg into a wealthy Russian-Jewish family. The October Revolution happened when he was eight and his family fled Russia, travelling by a purchased train, with forged Red Cross papers, crossing into Finland, then Stockholm, Paris and finally London. Mollo attended Cordwalles School but neglected his studies and devoted himself to bridge. As an editor in the European service of the British Broadcasting Corporation, he began to write books and articles on the game. After retirement in 1969, Mollo started to write even more extensively, and he wrote up to his death in 1987. He wrote 30 books and hundreds of articles. He was also active in developing bridge cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giorgio Belladonna
Giorgio Belladonna (7 June 1923 – 12 May 1995) was an Italian bridge player, one of the greatest of all time. He won 16 world championship titles with the Blue Team, playing with Walter Avarelli from 1956 to 1969 and later with Benito Garozzo. A leading theoretician, he was the principal inventor of the Roman Club bidding system, from 1956, and with Benito Garozzo after 1969 created Super Precision, a complex strong club based method. He was known as much for his mercurial temperament as for the brilliance of his card play; see, for example, Belladonna coup. Belladonna died of lung cancer, according to his daughter, on 12 May 1995 in Rome. He was survived by his wife Maria Antonietta, one daughter, one son, and four grandchildren. Alan Truscott described him as "a cheerful extrovert" and "normally unflappable at the table". He had been "a potential soccer star, but World War II interrupted that career path". He worked in the Social Security Administration until 1970. Bridge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Team (bridge)
The Blue Team (Italian: "''Squadra azzurra''") represented Italy in international contract bridge tournaments, winning sixteen world titles from 1957 through 1975. From 1964 to 1969 and during a 1972 comeback, the team comprised three regular pairs: Walter Avarelli– Giorgio Belladonna, Pietro Forquet– Benito Garozzo, and Massimo D'Alelio– Camillo Pabis Ticci. Eugenio Chiaradia and Guglielmo Siniscalco played in early years; Dano De Falco, Arturo Franco, and Vito Pittalà in late years. The spiritual father, long-time coach, and non-playing captain through 1966 was Carl'Alberto Perroux. History In 1951 Italy won its first European championship (Open teams) and lost to the United States for the second Bermuda Bowl, on home ground in Naples. Chiaradia, Forquet, and Siniscalco were members of that six-man team. Soon afterward Captain Perroux undertook long-term preparations to win those events, the only major international championships at the time. United States teams were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Lukacs
Paul Lukacs (born Lukács Pàl; ; 23 April 1918 – 1982) ''Palestine, Illegal Immigration from German-Occupied Europe, 1938-1945 (USHMM)'' was a Hungarian-Israeli mathematician, analyst and composer of problems in the "play of the hand" at contract bridge. Some consider him "the best bridge player ever away from the table", as defined by Victor Mollo. He specialized in single dummy problems. Lukacs was born in Rimavská Sobota, Austria-Hungary (now Slovakia) in 1918, the son of Friedrich Lukács and Katrine Grünwald. He later moved to Budapest and was part of a boom of brilliant bridge players in Central Europe. His Austrian ''Wunderteam'' won four European titles in six years from 1932–37. But the Jewish Lukacs was forced to flee Europe in 1939 to escape Nazism, immigrating to Palestine. He was first placed in a detention camp for illegal immigration, but managed to stay despite an order of deportation. However, he then struggled to find bridge players worthy of his cali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Safety Play
Safety play in contract bridge is a generic name for plays in which declarer maximizes the chances for fulfilling the contract (or achieving a certain score) by ignoring a chance for a higher score. Declarer uses safety plays to cope with potentially unfavorable layouts of the opponent's cards. In so doing, declarer attempts to ensure the contract even in worst-case scenarios, by giving up the possibility of overtricks. Safety plays adapt declarer's strategy to the scoring system. In IMP-scoring tournaments and rubber bridge, the primary scoring reward comes from fulfilling the contract and overtricks are of little marginal value. Therefore, safety plays are an important part of declarer technique at quantitative scoring. In matchpoint games, which use comparative scoring, overtricks are very important. Therefore, although safety plays have a certain role at matchpoints, they are normally avoided if the odds for making the contract are good and overtricks are likely. Definit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avoidance Play
In contract bridge, avoidance play is a play technique whereby declarer prevents a particular defender from winning the trick, so as to eschew a dangerous lead from that hand. The dangerous hand is usually the one who is able to finesse through declarer's honors, to give a ruff to the partner or to cash one or more established winners. Avoidance play can be regarded as one type of safety play. Example South plays 4 and West leads K (indicating the ace), East playing the 3 (signalling the odd number of hearts and discouraging the continuation). West continues with a club, increasing the probability of defensive ruff in that suit. The declarer has plenty of tricks, but is missing the trump queen and two top hearts; giving up the third heart early would probably mean losing the contract. Since A is almost certainly with West, if East gets the trump queen, he could finesse declarer's Q. Thus, the declarer must not allow East to get the trick, and so must play a trump first and finess ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morton's Fork Coup
Morton's fork is a coup in contract bridge that forces an opponent to choose between #letting declarer establish extra tricks in the suit led; or #losing the opportunity to win any trick in the suit led. It takes its name from the expression Morton's fork. Examples Basic From the auction, West must own both the A and the A. After winning the Q lead with the A, lead a low heart to the Queen. Then lead a low diamond. *If West takes his ace, South takes the remaining four diamond tricks. South makes 3NT with 2 spade, 3 heart and 4 diamond tricks. *If West ducks, South wins with the K and leads clubs knocking out the ace. South makes 3NT with 2 spade, 3 heart, 1 diamond and 3 club tricks. More complex South receives the lead of the J against his contract of 6. It appears that South has both a heart and a club loser. Although South can establish another winner in diamonds, just one discard on a diamond honor does not help. There are two ways that the contract can be made. So ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |