Eric Victor Rodwell (born May 1, 1957) is an American professional

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 ...

player. He has won the

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 W ...

representing the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

five times and is one of ten players who have won the triple crown of bridge: the

, the World Open Pairs and the World Team Olympiad.

Personal life

Rodwell was born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for "Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

and his family moved to

West Lafayette, Indiana West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister ci ...

in 1965 where his father was a professor of biochemistry at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...

. He started playing bridge at the age of eleven by reading books and playing with his parents. Rodwell graduated from West Lafayette High School in 1974 and attended Purdue, graduating with a master's degree in finance in 1981. Rodwell is currently a full-time bridge professional and lives in Clearwater Beach,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

with his wife Donna; each has two children from previous marriages, his being twins Jeffrey and Sara (b. 1984).

Bridge career

For decades Rodwell has been in a regular partnership with Jeff Meckstroth, and "Meckwell", for their surnames, is one of the most successful pairs of all time. They are well known for playing an aggressive and very detailed system called RM Precision (for Rodwell-Meckstroth), of which Rodwell is the principal theorist and author. Although he first learned basic Precision at the age of 14, he didn't get serious about developing his own version until 1982 after he and Meckstroth were already winning. Most of RM Precision was developed subsequently in the early '80s with adaptations following more slowly thereafter.''The Bridge World'', Volume 83, Number 4, January 2012, pages 26-31. Interview conducted in the fall of 2009 As a bidding theorist, Rodwell has created several conventions and methods including the support double, conventional transfers in many situations, the pass-double inversion and the serious three notrump. Although the Unusual Major Jumps Over One Diamond Opening convention (UMJOODO) is often credited to him, he denies inventing it. Although he has not actively pursued masterpoints as a goal, he is one of the all-time top masterpoint holders in 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 t ...

, and won the ''Barry Crane Trophy'' for winning the most masterpoints in a year in 2004. Possibly his most remarkable achievement was at the ACBL's 2008 fall championships, where with four major events available to be contested, he won three (Open Board-A-Match Teams, Blue Ribbon Pairs, Reisinger Teams) and finished second in the fourth (Life Master Open Pairs). The three wins were with Jeff Meckstroth, and the second place with John Diamond. As of 2022, Rodwell is inactive in face to face bridge. North American Bridge Championships require all participants to be vaccinated against COVID19, and Rodwell has refused to be vaccinated.

Bridge accomplishments

Awards

* ACBL Player of the Year 2008 * Barry Crane Top 500 2004 * Mott-Smith Trophy 1980 * Fishbein Trophy 1991, 1999, 2004, 2007 * Herman Trophy 1982, 1985, 1998 * Goren Trophy 2008

Wins

(5) 1981, 1995, 2000, 2003, 2009 * World Open Team Olympiad (1) 1988 * World Open Pairs (1) 1986 *

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

(57) ** Vanderbilt (7) 1980, 1982, 1985, 2000, 2003, 2014, 2017 **

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 ...

(12) 1984, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2006, 2007 **

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 ( ...

(9) 1979, 1985, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009 **

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 ...

(12) 1990, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 ** Open Board-a-Match Teams (1) 2008 ** Men's Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1984 ** Jacoby Open Swiss Teams (5) 1994, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2009 ** North American Men's Swiss Teams (1) 1989 ** Blue Ribbon Pairs (3) 1982, 1985, 2008 ** Life Master Pairs (3) 1980, 1986, 1991 ** Life Master Men's Pairs (1) 1979 **

Open Pairs Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' (YF ...

(1) 1979 ** Open Pairs II (1) 1999 * United States Bridge Championships (13) ** Open Team Trials (13) 1980, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2017 * European Open Bridge Championships (1) ** Open Pairs (1) 2003 * Other notable wins: ** Cavendish Invitational Teams (3) 2000, 2003, 2008 ** Staten Bank World Top Invitational Pairs (1) 1988 ** Macallan Invitational Pairs (2) 1995, 1996 ** Cavendish Invitational Pairs (2) 2000, 2008

Runners-up

(2) 1997, 2005 * World Open Team Olympiad (1) 1992 *

(23) ** Vanderbilt (5) 1991, 1996, 2002, 2018, 2019 **

(5) 1979, 1985, 1990, 2011, 2012 **

(1) 1980 **

(3) 1994, 2003, 2005 ** Open Board-a-Match Teams (2) 1998, 1999 ** Jacoby Open Swiss Teams (1) 2005 ** Master Mixed Teams (1) 1983 ** Blue Ribbon Pairs (1) 1998 ** Life Master Pairs (1) 1983 ** Life Master Open Pairs (2) 1992, 2008 ** Life Master Men's Pairs (1) 1985 ** Roth Open Swiss Teams (2) 2015, 2018 * United States Bridge Championships (6) ** Open Team Trials (6) 1982, 1984, 1985, 1993, 1997, 2009 * Other notable 2nd places: ** Cavendish Invitational Teams (1) 2009 ** Cap Volmac World Top Invitational Pairs (1) 1994 ** Sunday Times–Macallan Invitational Pairs (1) 1993 ** Cavendish Invitational Pairs (3) 1984, 2006, 2009

Publications

* :* Revised edition, 1989, . :*

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in ...

edition, ''Le plaisir du bridge'',

Saint-Laurent, Québec Saint-Laurent () is a Montreal borough, borough of the city of Montreal, Canada, located in the northern part of the Island of Montreal, island. Although it is no longer an independent city, it is still commonly known as Ville Saint-Laurent (''Ci ...

: Éditions du Trécarré, 1988, , transl. Bernard Bourget (374 pp.) * ''Plaisir du bridge: cahier d'exercices'', Trécarré, 1989, (135 pp.) – translation of ''The Joy of Bridge companion'' (exercises)"Plaisir du bridge: cahier d'exercices"

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

. Retrieved 2014-05-15. * * *

References

External links

* *
Eric Rodwell
at Bridge Winners

(2001) * by

Mark Horton Mark Horton may refer to: * Mark Horton (archaeologist) (born 1956), British maritime and historical archaeologist, television presenter and writer * Mark Horton (bridge) (born 1950), British author, journalist and expert on bridge * Mary Ann Horto ...

(July 2011)
Biographical information
at the United States Bridge Federation * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodwell, Eric 1957 births American contract bridge players Bermuda Bowl players Contract bridge writers Krannert School of Management alumni People from West Lafayette, Indiana People from San Francisco Living people