The trophy is awarded for the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams national bridge championship held at the spring
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 the ...
(ACBL)
North American Bridge Championship (NABC), its oldest continuing event.
The Vanderbilt is a team event, typically lasting seven days with each day being a knock-out round consisting of two sessions of 32 boards. The event is open and seeded.
History
The history of the prestigious contest began in 1928 when the inventor of modern
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 ...
,
Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, put the trophy bearing his name into play. The winners list is a who's who of bridge – including Vanderbilt himself, a winner in 1932 and 1940.
Winners receive replicas of the trophy, a practice initiated by Vanderbilt from the first running, and perpetuated under the terms of his will by a $100,000 trust fund that the ACBL administers. ACBL Headquarters in Horn Lake, Mississippi, displays replicas donated by the families of Caroline Taylor, who won the Vanderbilt in 1928, and
Helen Sobel Smith, a Vanderbilt winner in 1944 and 1945 as Helen Sobel.
The Vanderbilt was contested annually in New York, as a separate championship, until it became part of the ACBL spring North American Bridge Championships in 1958.
Winners
Four Vanderbilt Trophy champions have successfully defended the title without change in personnel (intact), on five occasions: 1938, 1945, 1956–57, and 1976. The triple winners from 1955 to 1957 were
B. Jay Becker,
John R. Crawford,
George Rapée,
Howard Schenken,
Sidney Silodor, of whom Becker and Silodor were the 1944–45 winners with
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 and widely known as "Mr. Bri ...
and
Helen Sobel.
See also
*
Reisinger Board-a-Match Teams
*
Spingold Knockout Teams
References
Sources
* List of previous winners, Pages 6, 7.
* 2009 winners, Page 1.
Vanderbilt Knockout Teams winners ACBL. Retrieved September 7, 2024.
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North American Bridge Championships