foo, on Jun 18 2007, 03:41 PM, said:
mikeh, on Jun 18 2007, 12:54 PM, said:
foo, on Jun 18 2007, 02:53 AM, said:
Historical note:
SJS were invented as a way to deal with psyches by Opener. The point of an SJS back then was to say "You're busted. I know you're busted. Nonetheless We very likely have a Game. Start telling me what I need to know."
After public opinion pretty much killed off controlled psyches (and most psyches in general), the SJS evolved into a slam exploration tool with very specific characteristics.
You may be correct, but, if so, my collection of old bridge books is sadly lacking. I will have to dig out some of the older books, but my recollection of what the majority of early writers recommended was that the jump takeout was needed to establish a force. Psychics were a part of the game, and became extremely popular in the late 30's amongst a handful of tournament players and some big-name rubber players... I have some wonderful historical writings on psychic bidding back then. But the SJS predated the popularity of psychic bidding. My suspicion, based on the leading systems books of the day, is that the vast majority of bridge players (relatively few of whom were tournament players) knew next to nothing about psyches. They learned SJS as a way to reach game or slam.
This one, like many other potentially important facts regarding Bridge (example: go find documentation as to what Expert Standard is for instance- you can't.), is not in any books I know of.
Go look at some =old= high level tournament records. Or go gab a while with any of the remaining high level players old enough to actually remember this stuff.
Said lack of popular documentation is one of the reasons I try to teach this stuff as widely as possible. Lest "the Guildmaster died before passing on <foo>" effect of the Middle Ages occur in places within Bridge as well.
Unfortunately, it already has in some topics of Bridge lore
Foo, you are not the Guildmaster
Neither am I.
And there are NO current players who remember the origins of the game, as best as I know. The game developed in the late 1920's, so a young player of 25 or so would now be well past 100. I am not saying that there is no one left alive who actually played bridge in the late 1920's, but I am saying that none of the then-dominant experts remain alive.
Roth was probably the closest we had to that era, and he just passed away. But his heyday was the late 1940s into the 1960s.
As for the ability to recall or reconstruct the standard methods of the day, the truth is that you can, in any large city, probably find several relevant books in any good used book store... and, if not, go on ebay.
I collect old books on the game of bridge and its precursors....whist, Royal Auction Bridge, Auction Bridge and just plain old 'Bridge'. One of my favourites is The Bridge Manual by John Doe, 1902.
As for contract, there were a number of professional Auction players and teachers when Contract came along and several of them quickly set up as teachers of the new game. Thus we have books by Work (the inventor of the 4321 count) and Foster (the inventor of the Foster Echo and the discoverer, while a professional whist player in the 1880s of the Rule of 11), to name just two who published on Contract in the late 1920s... several years before Culbertson published the Blue Book.
Others published their own books, and a group of pros got together under the name of The Bridge Headquarters to publish the so-called 'Official System'... they were really pissed off at Culbertson and were trying, unsuccessfully, to dethrone him.
All of their methods appear antiquated to us, and the fact that they all used honour tricks as the primary evaluation method makes reading the books difficult.
But it is possible to track the changes in standard treatment, including the struggle over conversion to high card point count, not only in later books but also in the BW... a bastion of Culbertson thinking into the late 1940s, but in which the editors occasionally encouraged articles by promoters of point count, such as Fred Karpin.
A true student of the history of the game can actually find out a tremendous amount about it... including, as I wrote earlier, that the SJS was NOT invented to cater to psychic bidding. Yes, it later became a tool for that, but remember that psychic bidding NEVER became a significant part of most expert's arsenal. Look at Goren, for example. Look at the record of the Lenz-Culbertson challenge: Lenz fired the young Oswald Jacoby precisely because Oswald was to fond of psyching. Most experts in those days did not psyche much and they all used SJS.
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari
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