Pierre Albarran (18 May 1893 – 24 February 1960) was a

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...

and

contract bridge Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking game, trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two Team game, competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each othe ...

player and theorist, and a

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player. It has been reported that he was born in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

, and also in

Chaville Chaville () is a commune in the Hauts-de-Seine department and Île-de-France region of north-central France. It lies some from the centre of Paris in the south-western suburbs of the French capital. Geography Chaville is bordered by the follo ...

, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He died in Paris.

Bridge

At the bridge table Albarran played on the France open team that won the European IBL Championship in 1935 and on the slightly different team that traveled to New York City late that year for a match that may be considered the first world team championship. He subsequently represented France in more than 30 international bridge competitions and won 19 national titles. His contributions to

bidding system A bidding system in contract bridge is the set of agreements and understandings assigned to calls and sequences of calls used by a partnership, and includes a full description of the meaning of each treatment and convention. The purpose of bi ...

s include the

canapé A canapé () is a type of starter, a small, prepared, and often decorative food, consisting of a small piece of bread (sometimes toasted) or cracker, wrapped or topped with some savoury food, held in the fingers and often eaten in one bite. N ...

approach and the convention later called Roman two-suiters. Upon his death

Albert H. Morehead Albert Hodges Morehead, Jr. (August 7, 1909 – October 5, 1966) was a writer for ''The New York Times'', a bridge player, a lexicographer, and an author and editor of reference works. Early years Morehead was born in Flintstone, Taylor County, ...

observed that Albarran was almost unknown in America "but it is possible that M. Albarran's bidding theories influenced European bridge tactics more than the theories of any other authority in any other country." After France won the inaugural

World Team Olympiad The World Team Olympiad was a contract bridge meet organized by the World Bridge Federation every four years from 1960 to 2004. Its main events were world championships for national Glossary of contract bridge terms#teams, teams, always including o ...

three months later, Morehead wrote that an American visitor to a French bridge club would find one big difference in the bridge language, the canapé bidding advocated by Albarran and "adopted by millions of players throughout Europe".

Tennis

On the tennis court, he played for France in two

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

tournaments and won the bronze medal in doubles with

Max Décugis Maxime Omer Mathieu Decugis or Décugis (; 24 September 1882 – 6 September 1978) was a French tennis player. He won the French Championships eight times (a French club members-only tournament before 1925). He also won three Olympic medals at t ...

at the

1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (; ; ), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (; ; ) and commonly known as Antwerp 1920 (; Dutch language, Dutch and German language, German: ''Antwerpen 1920''), were an international multi-sport event held i ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

Publications

* ''Bridge, Nouvelle methode de nomination''. Les jeux bicolores. Le Canapé, 1946 * ''Cent donnes extraordinaires: Bridge'', 1953, co-author José Le Dentu * ''Comment Gagner Au Bridge'', 1959, co-author

Pierre Jaïs Pierre Jaïs (13 October 1913 – 24 June 1988) was a French bridge player and writer from Paris. He and his regular partner Roger Trézel were on the France team that won the inaugural World Team Olympiad in Turin, 1960, and they won the inaugura ...

* ''L'Encyclopédie du bridge moderne'', vol 1. 1957 and vol. 2 1968 * ''Le Bridge pour Tous'', 1949, co-author

Robert de Nexon The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, reno ...

, Publisher: A. Fayard, Paris, LC: 49052576 * ''Le Nouveau Bridge Pour Tous'', 1958, co-authors Robert de Nexon and José Le Dentu * ''Notre Methode de Bridge'', 1936, co-author Robert de Nexon * ''Nouveau Memento de Bridge en 100 Lecons: Encheres Naturelles'', 1976, co-author José Le Dentu, Publisher: A. Fayard, Paris, , LC: 77576798

References

External links

*
Profile at Sports Reference.com
* (including 8 "from old catalog") {{DEFAULTSORT:Albarran, Pierre 1893 births 1960 deaths Contract bridge writers French contract bridge players French male tennis players Olympic tennis players for France Olympic bronze medalists for France Tennis players at the 1920 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists for France in tennis Medalists at the 1920 Summer Olympics Place of birth missing 20th-century French sportsmen

Bridge

Tennis

Publications

References

Further reading

External links