Evening Star Newspaper, January 31, 1932, Page 91

TRE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JANUARY 31, 1932 - & Tue BrIDGE FFORUM An Old, Old Story ho can we get to play tonight? We've phoned and phoned in vain; e Jacksons are out and the Browns away And the Johnsons have a pain, d the Greens have invited company And tke Wilsons have a date, d it seems that we're doomed to idleness, That the cards are stacked by fate. . But there goes the phone, I'll answer it; Bill Jones? Oh, yes, hello! ou say that our phone’s been busy since An hour or mare ago? ou think that you folks would like some bridge? I'll see what the wife will say; hy yes, though we hadn't intended to, We'll both be glad to play. LAYERS who have had a few tastes ol duplicate tournament bridge almost invariably prefer it to any other form of the game. It furnishes many de- sirable features in addition to the mere minimizing of the luck element. Per= aps the most appealing is the opportunity affords to make compariscns with others fter the hands are played, to find out how hey treated the same cards. Besides being njoyvable, this constitutes some of the most aluable instruction possible, for it is “the case ethod” whereby definite proof is given of the rinciple involved. In the evolution Bf the game all over the lountry the coming up of duplicate is the most iportant present manifestation Contract is Iready entrenched as the style of play, rather han auction, and lends itself admirably to uplicate arrangements. Each duplicate board, ontaining a hand, bas markings to show arbi- rarily who is vulnerable, if any one, and the coring is slightly different from rubber play, jith 300 premium allowed for game in hand ot vulnerable and 500 vulnerable. Otherwise he scoring 1is substantially the same as in ubbers. Probably not as many as 10 per cent of the ontract players of the country have ever blayed in a duplicate tournament. It is strongly ecommended, however, to all groups of suffi- jent numbers to furnish three or more tables bf play. One striking case of advancement of the me, especially in the grade of bridge played, s the Advertising Club of New York. Two sea- ons ago the big weekly tournament there was bntirely auction, on the basis of progressive bairs. In the next season a contract section vas tried, with almost as many entrants as in he auction. The second half of that season here were few entries for the auction section, any more playing contract. In the first half bf this season there were no auction entries, bvery one playing progressive pairs at contract. Then the tournament was switched to dupl- ate contract for the second half of the current keason. There was to be a progressive patr ection, but nobody entered. So now the whole bunch is playing the most modern form of bridge, duplicate contract, and getting better bnd better day by day in every way. An Eternal System Ray H. Eisenlord of Erie, Pa.. has been famed hmong his bridge friends in the Middlewest for nsisting, both through auction and in contract, hat the best system is his own, which is to ‘make my original bids sound. and guess them he rest of the way.” Hoving followed closely the L« nz-Culbertson Lfiair, he writes: “I have reached the con= lusion that my system was used by both sides. b therefore claim to be the originator of the kystem they actually use.” He finds one fault with them, in that they were not dependable in the first part of the kvotem —making the original bids sound. Mr. Eisenlorfl recommends his system to all, Iblavers of no ability and of great skill, as easy o learn. He says it should be called “the niversal system.” I/ hat Price, Yarboroughs 2 Mrs. Leslie H. Coloney is having a lot of lfun keeping track of the “yarboroughs” she olds—those hands so weak, containing nothing higher than a 9, that a certain Lord Yar- horough used to bet 1,000 to 1 against their being dealt. Mathematically, they are sup- bosed to come to a player not quite once in h 800 deals, so he was really a piker in laying hose close odds. Mrs. Coloney got such & and some weeks ago, and has kept track of eals since then, watching for the next one. lSo far she has recorded 697 deals without me in it. Her weakest during that stretch was a hand with three tens and one with & ng jack No All-Trump Disca rds Albert H. Lederer wonders about the rules lfor the new all-trump declaration. When it is the contract, and a declarer has the three top honors in a suit, with just a singleton in ldummy, can he discard on the second round, or-would that discard constitute trumping the trick? It would constitute trumping the trick, for all suits except the one led are trumps. Glad to Comp/_v Mrs. Norman N. Newman, partner of Comdr. Winfield Liggett, jr., on the team of four which won the national contract champion- ship of the American Bridge League, writes the following: “I wish you would publish my pro- test against a false statement which has been printed, saying that Comdr. Liggett and I used the approach-forcing system, with the one-over-one. We actually used the official The Duplicate Form of Tournament Is Groz- ing in Popularity Everywhere—A Group of Questions and Anszers. BY SHEPARD BARCLAY system, with the two-club forcing bid and the one-over-one variation.” That was the first time that the official system, then not three months old, had ever been used in the national championship team- of-four tournament, and therefore constitutes a 100 per cent record to date for the method in such an event. A Close Question In a recent discussion of a hand passed by every approach-forcing bidder in a dupli- cate game, after partner's original dealer one spade bid, vulnerable, it should have been pointed out that the hand was about on the Shall the World Disarm? Continued from Third Page must find means of adapting ourselves to it if what we ourselves propose is agreed to. In either event, an immense amount of work remains to b: done in every country. It should be inspired by a keen desire to succeed, in the knowledge that failure will be nothing less than disastrous. After what has been done by the Preparatory Committee, each country should bring forward definité figures, and success will depend on the adjustment of these figures, which evidently will have to be negotiated beforehand. SETSUJO SAWADA, Chief Japanese Delcgate to the League of Nations. I AM a firm believer in the possibility of the world disarming one day, but it will not be an easy thing to accomplish. The process will have to be a very gradual one because no disarmament will be possible unless certain conditions, which so far do not exist, are brought to prevail in the world. The attitude of Japan in this question has always been favorable to the idea. Seven years ago we suggested it, and we have never ceased advocating the measure. We believe disarma- ment possible because once any idea grows and develops as this idea has done so far, it is bound sooner or later to be realized. Every- where disarmament has been hailed as the panaces for all our troubles, and many are the earnest men who are working to achleve this aim. When naval disarmament was suggested some years ago, many people declared that the idea was impossible. “You will never bring about even a partial disarming of the big fleets of the world,” we were told, and yet see what has already been done. At Washington and at London we made undoubted progress, and the chief navies of the world as a result of these conferences have begun to cut down their strength according to scale. I think the same success can be reached with regard to the armies and air forces of the great powers, and that is why I look for- ward with confidence to the big Conference on Disarmament in February. We must not, however. allow ourselves to be too optimistic. The problem of disarma- ment where armies and air forces are con- cerned is far more complicated than it looks. Por it hinges on the problem of guarantees and security. You cannot expect a country that is surrounded by powerful enemies to dis- arm if her security is not guaranteed her in some way or other. And so our problem will never be solved if we do not guarantee the se- curity that nations need, and quite reasonably s0, through the League or some other medium. There is, for instance, the question of Ger- many and France. Germany theoretically dis- armed, but is stiil showing a distinct political reaction against peace ever since Hitler and his party have begun to win support in the country. France, conscious of that menace and exposed more than any other country to the attack of her oM enemy, asks for guarantees before dis- arming. Germany is hardly helping the cause which we have at heart by the increasing sup- port which her people are giving to the Ger- man National Socialists. Disarmament as an ideal is a very fine one, but it implies a great advance in certain qual- ities that up to now humanity has somewhat lacked. If all the world agreed to disarm to- morrow, would it follow that every nation would carry out its pledge as contemplated? What would happen if one nation did not really disarm? Would not all the rest of the world be at its mercy? . Disarmament, even when obtained in theory, will \ consequently only be possible if certain precautions are taken by the League of Nations to guard against the possibility of any one country taking advantage of the situa- tion. How can this be done? The most prac- tical one would be to create an international army or armies to keep the peace whenever any nation threatened to break it. We have as yet not reached the moment when man can be depended upon to keep the law if there is no police force to enforce it. Similarly, I think some kind of army will have to be kept at Geneva or somé other central point to see that no country takes advantage of the general disarmament to at- tack its defenseless neighbors. We might, too, have an international navy, as Admiral Lacaze once suggested. PAUL PAINLEVE, Former Prime Minister, War Minister and Air Minister of France. 11 [\ISARM, disarm immediately without fear of consequences and peace will follow,” plead certain partisans of disarmament, in- voking the example of the United States of America. But it is impossible not to see the viclous circle that would result from the thesis of complete and immediate disarmament. To warn any country still nursing imperialistic aims that no resistance will be offered even to its worst machinations is hardly likely to in- duce it to ?ve up warfare loyally and for al- ways. War between two civilized nations with all the resources of modern science and Iindustry has now become %0 ruinous and absurd that reason alone might succeed in preventing its recurrence. But to trust to this alone would mean that the transition period which must precede a really peac®ul Europe will be much longer and full of dangerous “intercurrents.™ And these risks will prevent any immediate and material reductions of armaments, since otherwise a disarmed or Iill-armed country could hardly hope to protect itself against at- tack. Parallel Pipes “Human” THE vox humana pipes in a pipe organ differ from the regular pipes in that two complete sets are required in order to produce the sound which simulates the human voice. These pipes are arranged in pairs side by side. One is a trifie over pitch and one a trifle under. The vibration of the two at the same time gives the rounder, fuller note of the human voice rather than the clear, sharp tone of the reg- ular pipes. border-line between a one no-trump bid and a pass. This was the hand: &A2 YQIT5 ¢9832 1048 Ely Culbertson says he himself, having a good partner, would bid one no trump on it, but that it is so close that if the 9 of hearts were the 6 instead, he would pass it. Mrs. Elizabeth B. Banfield, a national champion and user of that method, would make the bid, but wouldn’t teach it. The hand would be passed by William J. Huske, prominent as a player and writer on the system. They would con- sider it just too weak for a “shaded” bid of no trump. 07 Abolishing Honors In the first 100 hands of the Culbertson vs. Lenz match there were only three times that honors were counted. Scoring them has always been objected to by many as being a premium awarded for pure luck. Since in contract they occur so seldem, they can now be objected to on the ground of unimportance. The statistics of any game of considerable length are likely to inveigh against the ab- surdity of having such an unnatural factor in the game, which is suppgsed to be a test of cskill Women Emulate the Men St. Louis is furnishing a pretty good answer to the question of whether the new ‘“official” system of bidding is practical for winning bridge. It gives a much better answer than did the marathon match in New York, for play is at duplicate instead of just random deals. Now that Mrs. Guy Forcier and Mrs. Don Henry have won the women's pair championship of the city using the system, as did the men’s pair champions, Edgar V. Maher and Lester C. Vogel, many St. Louls players are flocking to the new method. A Law a Week South bid one heart, West doubled, North passed, East bid ene spade and immediately said: “Oh, you d@ubdled, didn't you, pariner? Then I bid two spades?” What does the law provide in this case? The player who had doubled may be barred from any further participation in the con- tracting, for he has received unauthorized information about his partner's hand; he knows his partner could have bid one spade even if the double had not been made. The law covers the case in these words: “If, before or during the contracting, a player gives any unauthorized information concerning his hand, his partner may be barred from further participation in the contracting.” South bid one spade, West one diamond and North promptly one heart. How is this case covered by the law? Experts’M istakes South played this deal at five diamonds, doubled by West. How in the world can the latter, though a star, misplay his hand so that the contract is made? & None VKQo642 ¢ 1064 MKJIB4 AAQU103 AG54 ::7 : ¥J10858 = 872 NA10952 & &QT HK9872 ¥ None $KQJ953 63 The ace of spades was ruffed in dummy, then a small heart trumped in closed hand. A small spade, ruffed, put dummy in again for a second lead of hearts to be ruffed, the ace dropping. Another spade ruff put dummy in position to lead his heart king, declarer dis- carding a club. Here'’s where West made his fatal play. Not wishing to waste his singleton ace of trumps without catching a frump with it, he thoughtlessly discarded a club. The beans were now spilled. When the heart queen followed for South’s second club discard, West decided to trump it. His club ace now was ruffed, the next three tricks were diamonds from South. The twelfth was won by the spade king and the thirteenth fell to West's spade queen. In the finals of a national championship. North bid a second hand spade on this deal, East passed, South two diamonds, West passed, North three spades, East four clubs and South doubled. East now believes in Santa Claus because his adversaries enabled him to make his contact. How, oh, how could they do it? 4AQJBE2 WATE4 ¢ Qs MA NORTH 41098 [ ™ vQJ hJI9BTEN BOUTH a4 vo3l ¢J109874 SHEWS