CONTRACT BRIDGE, which, since 193o, has won a world wide popularity unequalled in the history of cards, is the fourth in a succession of card games of which the basic game is Whist. In Contract Bridge, two pairs of players, as partners, compete for tricks, as in Whist ; the cards of one player, known as the dummy, are exposed upon the table, as in Bridge-Whist, the second game of the series; and the four players bid for the right to name the trump suit, as in Auction Bridg the third game of the series. The distinctive feature of Contract Bridge is that a pair cannot score the tricks it wins toward making a game unless it previously has contracted to win those tricks.
A game is won and ended when a pair scores ioo points for tricks as contracted. For this purpose, the value of tricks is translated into points, varying with the suit named as trump. Each trick over six contracted for and won counts, if spades are trumps, 3o ; hearts, 3o ; diamonds, 20; clubs, so; notrumps, 4o for the first trick and 3o thereafter. The pair which first makes two games wins the rubber. If the opposing side has made a game, the rubber-winning pair scores a bonus of Soo points and, if the opposing side has not made a game, a bonus of 70o points. All bonuses and all points, other than trick points toward game, are scored as premiums. These premiums include the regular points for tricks won but not contracted for; undertrick penalties when opponents fail to fulfill their contract; bonuses for bidding and making a small slam (twelve tricks) or a grand slam (thirteen tricks) ; and ioo points for holding four trump honours in one hand, or 1 So points for holding, in one hand, five trump honours, or all four Aces, if there are no trumps.
When a pair has made a game it is "vulnerable" and undertrick penalties and slam bonuses are affected by vulnerability. A con tract may be doubled and redoubled, which doubles or quadruples the trick points toward game if the contract is fulfilled. When not doubled, each undertrick costs a penalty of so points not vulnerable and i oo points vulnerable. When doubled, the first undertrick counts ioo points not vulnerable and 200 points vul nerable, and subsequent undertricks 200 points not vulnerable and 30o points vulnerable. Not vulnerable, the small slam bonus is Soo points and the grand slam bonus i000 points; vulnerable, they are 75o and 150Q points respectively. Overtricks at a doubled contract count ioo each not vulnerable, 200 vulnerable. Redou bling doubles the value of doubled undertricks or overtricks.
Contract Bridge, as it is played today, originated in November, 1925, in a Bridge game on a steamship enroute from Los Angeles to Havana. Harold S. Vanderbilt, one of the participants in this game, is credited with introducing the game to New York clubs, in which it gradually supplanted Auction Bridge. The game of plafond, developed in France about 1922, as an evolution of Auc tion Bridge, already had introduced the condition that tricks must be contracted for in order to be scored toward game, but Mr. Vanderbilt added the vulnerability feature, the slam bonuses, and a new schedule of scoring which, with a few variations, remains in force today.
A greater measure of skill is required in Contract Bridge than in its predecessors. Whereas, in Auction Bridge, the object of calling (bidding) was solely to name the trump suit, players at Contract Bridge must determine how many tricks they can expect to win. To accomplish this, an interchange of accurate partner ship information is essential. Ely Culbertson of New York con ceived, for this purpose, the method of systematic bidding which now is in general use by Contract Bridge players. He introduced to Contract Bridge the Approach Principle, which holds that suit bids should be preferred to notrump bids and he originated the Forcing Principle, under which certain bids require partner to make some responding bid. His system of bidding is called the Culbertson or Approach-Forcing System.
Those who had been active in writing and teaching the game of Auction Bridge soon turned to Contract Bridge and developed or recommended various systems of bidding. Many of these made use of artificial conventions, with certain calls which indicated a certain number of high cards rather than willingness to play at the contract named. Mr. Vanderbilt's system, in which an opening bid of one club shows three "quick" tricks in Aces and Kings, remains the most popular of these systems. Most systems of bid ding have now disappeared and those which remain are so similar that, except for the few users of artificial conventions, good play ers throughout the world use the same methods. These, in basis, comprise the original Approach-Forcing system.
Contract Bridge was not generally adopted in Great Britain until 193o. The leading Whist and Bridge players in the London clubs objected to the use of systematic bids, and, even when they turned to Contract Bridge, their sentiment was against all "sys tems." Their playing methods, however, approximate those of all other good players, and they actually play a system without so terming it. The adoption of Contract Bridge in Great Britain was rapid after an American team, which included Mr. and Mrs. Cul bertson, Theodore A. Lightner and Waldemar von Zedtwitz, played a series of matches in London in 193o against teams made up of Lt.-Colonel Walter E. Buller, Mrs. Gordon Evers, Lieuten ant Cedric Kehoe and Dr. Nelson Wood-Hill, and two teams rep resenting Crockford's Club of London, one team being Colonel H. M. Beasley, Sir Guy Domville, George Morris and Captain K. Hogg, the other Miss Ethel Thomas, Mrs. Cavendish-Bentinck, F. Lyon and Ivor Birts. In 1933 Charles M. Schwab of New York offered a trophy for a World's Championship match, in which American and British teams competed in 1933 and The American team both years included Mr. and Mrs. Culbertson and Lightner, with Michael T. Gottlieb in 1933 and Albert More head in 1934. The 1933 British team was made up of Colonel Beasley, Domville, Morris, P. V. Tabbush, Graham Mathieson and Lady Doris Rhodes; the 1934 team, of R. Lederer, W. Rose, H. St. J. Ingram and S. Hughes, with Colonel G. G. J. Walshe and A. Frost as alternates. The American teams won all these matches, the three in 193o and the contests for the Schwab Trophy in and The first laws drafted for Contract Bridge were issued by the Knickerbocker Whist Club in New York, but were replaced a few months later in 1927 by a code promulgated by The Whist Club of New York. International interest in Contract Bridge made it desirable that there be an international code, and in 1932 the Portland Club of London, which had been making the laws for Great Britain and several European countries since it issued its first code in January 1929, cooperated with The Whist Club of New York and with the Commission Francaise du Bridge in the drafting of the first International Code. This was replaced, in March 1935, by the present International Code, which is followed in nearly every country in the world.
Contract Bridge tournaments are played in duplicate; the cards dealt to each player are kept separated so that other players may later have exactly the same cards, and the luck of the deal is eliminated. Duplicate tournaments are governed by laws which follow the International Code except for a few differences which are unavoidable because of the difference in playing procedure. The popularity of Contract Bridge has made it an industry which gives employment, directly or indirectly, to thousands. (E. CUL..)