The Cavendish Invitational is the largest money

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 somethi ...

tournament in the world. In 2012 it moved from Las Vegas to Monaco and from May to October. From 1975 to 2011, first in New York City and later in Las Vegas, it ran from Friday to Sunday on

Mother's Day Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the ...

weekend.

History and format

The Cavendish Invitational Pairs and its companion competitions are named for the

Cavendish Club The Cavendish Club was a prestigious contract bridge club founded in 1925 by Wilbur Whitehead in association with Gratz M. Scott and Edwin A. Wetzlar. Initially located at the Mayfair House (65th and Park Avenue) in New York City, it relocated se ...

of New York City, which was founded in 1925, months before

Harold S. Vanderbilt Harold Stirling Vanderbilt CBE (July 6, 1884 – July 4, 1970) was an American railroad executive, a champion yachtsman, an innovator and champion player of contract bridge, and a member of the Vanderbilt family. Early life He was born in Oakdale, ...

and others created the scoring system that defined "contract bridge". Some if its members were also among the most famous names in bridge, including Vanderbilt,

Ely Culbertson Elie Almon Culbertson (July 22, 1891 – December 27, 1955), known as Ely Culbertson, was an American contract bridge entrepreneur and personality dominant during the 1930s. He played a major role in the popularization of the new game and was wide ...

Charles Goren Charles Henry Goren (March 4, 1901 – April 3, 1991) was an American bridge player and writer who significantly developed and popularized the game. He was the leading American bridge personality in the 1950s and 1960s – or 1940s and 1950s, as " ...

Oswald Jacoby Oswald "Ozzie", "Jake" Jacoby (December 8, 1902 – June 27, 1984) was an American contract bridge player and author, considered one of the greatest bridge players of all time and a key innovator in the game, having helped popularize widely used bi ...

Howard Schenken Howard Schenken (September 28, 1903 – February 20, 1979) was an American bridge player, writer, and long-time syndicated bridge columnist. He was from New York City. He won three Bermuda Bowl titles, and set several North American records. Most r ...

Sam Stayman Sam, SAM or variants may refer to: Places * Sam, Benin * Sam, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso * Sam, Bourzanga, Burkina Faso * Sam, Kongoussi, Burkina Faso * Sam, Iran * Sam, Teton County, Idaho, United States, a populated place People and fictional c ...

Zia Mahmood Mir Zia Mahmood (born 7 January 1946) is a Pakistani-American professional bridge player. He is a World Bridge Federation and American Contract Bridge League Grand Life Master. As of April 2011 he was the 10th-ranked World Grand Master. Biograp ...

Bobby Levin Robert J. (Bobby) Levin (born November 19, 1957) is an American professional bridge player, from Aventura, Florida. He was the youngest winner of the Bermuda Bowl world championship for national teams from 1981 until 2015, when 19-year old Michal K ...

and

Steve Weinstein Steve Weinstein (born 1964) is an American professional bridge and poker player. He is known best as the youngest winner of the ACBL Life Master Pairs and the most frequent winner of the Cavendish Invitational Pairs, the world's leading conte ...

. It moved a few times from the Mayfair House to the Ambassador Hotel, thence to the

Ritz Tower The Ritz Tower is a luxury residential building at 465 Park Avenue on the corner of East 57th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It was built from 1925 to 1926 as an apartment hotel and was designed by Emery Roth and ...

Hotel and the Carlton House. The Club initiated its invitational pairs tournament on the second weekend in May 1975 and bridge columnist

Alan Truscott Alan Fraser Truscott (16 April 1925 – 4 September 2005) was a British-American bridge player, writer, and editor. He wrote the daily bridge column for ''The New York Times'' for 41 years, from 1964 to 2005, and served as Executive Editor for th ...

called it "the prestigious Cavendish Charity Invitation Pairs" when he covered its conclusion in ''The New York Times'' a few days later. Through 1991 the Club hosted the Invitational Pairs annually, alongside a companion invitational tournament for individuals from 1978 to 1981 and one for teams beginning 1983. At midnight on Friday, May 31, 1991, the Cavendish Club went out of business because of increasing rent, decreasing membership, and a lease that may have prohibited a move. The tournament continued to be held in New York City until 1997 when World Bridge Productions took over the Invitational Pairs tournament and moved operations to

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, an action which greatly increased the visibility and purse size for the event. The WBP added an Open Pairs event to broaden the field for more players. The Invitational Pairs is an auctioned event where the top pairs are acquired by the highest bidder at a black tie cocktail party a day before the event starts. The auction pool for the Pairs event has recently been running around a million dollars and has been as high as 1.5 million. Each pair must purchase a minimum 10% share in itself and may exercise its right to own as much as 40% of itself or more if permitted by the winner of the bid. At the conclusion of the tournament 95% of the auction pool is distributed in a scaled payout to the bid winners. Each pair plays three boards against all the other pairs with a time limit of 25 minutes per round. Up to 45 rounds are played to decide the winner.

Invitational Pairs

The Invitational Pairs or "the Cavendish" is the main event of the annual tournament.

is the winner seven times,

five, Fred Stewart and

Kit Woolsey Kit Woolsey (born Christopher Robin Woolsey in 1943) is an American bridge and backgammon player. He was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 2005. Personal life Woolsey was born in Washington, DC. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1964 ...

three times each. At least three women have finished second,

Jacqui Mitchell Jacquelyn M. "Jacqui" Mitchell (born 1936) Mitchell... is as utterly self disciplined at the table as she is away from it... She passes much of her time at the table doing embroidery as though determined to remain detached, but those who trifle w ...

in 1979 and

Judi Radin Judi Radin, née Friedenberg (born 1950), is a professional American bridge player from New York City. She played also as Judi Solodar. Sometime prior to the 2014 European and World meets (summer and October), Radin ranked 33rd among 73 Women Worl ...

–

Kathie Wei Katherine Wei-Sender (born 4 October 1930), born Yang Xiaoyan (), is a Chinese American contract bridge player. She won major tournaments primarily as Kathie Wei. Biography Born in Beijing in 1930, she went to the United States in 1949. She wa ...

in 1981.

Invitational Individual

In 1978 the Cavendish Club introduced a two-day singles contest which it called the "world individual championship"(1979). Regular partners Harold Lilie and David Berkowitz finished first and second in 1980(1980) and Berkowitz won the fourth and last rendition next year.

Invitational Teams

The John Roberts Teams is named for World Productions co-founder John Roberts. The field of eight (2011) is filled by invitation only but teams may register to be considered.(2011)

World Bridge Productions Open Pairs

First prize in the open pairs includes free entry to the next Invitational Pairs with options regarding the auction. There is an auction for the WBP pairs, minimum bid $1000.(2011)

Notes

References

External links

The Cavendish Invitational
subsite at Bridge Winners (2011) * {{WPCBIndex Contract bridge world competitions