MindZine - Bridge

Subtitled Cheating Scandals in Bridge, this book has 127 pages, but the pages are a third larger than the UK's standard size. It consists of a collection of essays, or should one say detective stories, which appeared initially as magazine articles written by Cathy Chua, who has played both chess and bridge for Australia. Even the difficulties regarding publication of the book make an interesting story, as told in the Preface. It was eventually published in November 1998, but only after four years of struggle, which the author chronicles year by year. For example, in 1995 "various mainstream publishers over the past year decline to publish it, not with the standard polite rejection slip, but with reactions stooping to emotional, personal vitriol." Strong stuff!

The first cheating story is about Willard S. Karn, member of the bridge foursome formed by Hal Sims in 1931 to challenge Culbertson's supremacy. They became known as the 'Four Horsemen' because they rode rough-shod over other teams in the early 1930s. Chua's case is that the success of the 'Four Horsemen' presented a threat to Ely Culbertson and his bridge empire, so Culbertson targeted Karn, even employing a card detective, Mickey MacDonald. As a consequence, an accusation was made against Karn of cheating while playing rubber bridge at Crockford's, after which the accused player disappeared from the tournament bridge scene - but the story goes on.

Both Culbertson and MacDonald stood to gain from Karn's downfall. Chua points out that Culbertson's influence "is an ongoing difficulty when dealing with the history of the 1930s. Every account of bridge in the 1930s in America relies heavily on Culbertson's writing. That all Culbertson's writing was first and foremost propaganda has been disregarded." While, in Mickey MacDonald, "we have a man who calls himself the only card detective in the world, admitting that his occupation is dependant upon his continuing to expose cheats." Equally strong stuff!

Philosophical aspects of bridge are sprinkled among the stories (which include the Buenos Aires affair in 1965, with Chua coming down on the side of the accused - see excerpt in the October 1999 Bridge Plus). Bridge is being compared to chess as a warring game, although Chua suggests that modern bridge players in general tend to try too much for disciplined accuracy. The exception is those who "play a colourful, exciting style": when such players make an outrageously successful gambit, they might well be accused of cheating.

Chua's uncompromising approach can strike a discordant note, as Bob Rowlands highlighted in June 1998 when he wrote to the editor of a magazine which published a Chua article involving Alfred Sheinwold's accusations against the Italians. Rowlands asked: "Would this article have been published if Sheinwold had been alive?" I could tell you more, but that would be cheating! My final thought, however, is how good it is to see a bridge book about personalities in the game, especially one which is as original and thought-provoking.