The All-Time Bridge Greats (6)

Charles Goren

Charles Goren (1901-1991) was born in Philadelphia and earned a Masters degree in Law at McGill University. It was while a student that he learned to play bridge. A lifelong bachelor, bridge soon became the great love of his life.

Goren's first book, Winning Bridge Made Easy, was published in 1936 and in the same year he ceased his legal work and turned to bridge full time. From the late thirties onward, as Culbertson gave less time to bridge, so Goren gradually took over his mantle as the world's leading bridge authority and was known to millions as 'Mr. Bridge'. He wrote many books on the game and they were immensely popular with the masses who also attended his lectures and holidayed on Goren's bridge cruises.

Goren's recommended bidding methods were based on Milton Work's point count system (ace=4, king=3, queen=2, jack=1) and appealed much more to the average player than Culbertson's honor tricks. Soon Goren's methods swept all other systems before them and became known as Standard American. It is estimated that his books sold more than ten million copies in total and some are still selling today.

As well as books, Goren had a syndicated bridge column with a huge circulation and his TV series, 'Championship Bridge with Charles Goren', which ran from 1959 to 1964, was hailed as the first really successful bridge program on television.

As a player, Charles was a member of the winning American team in the inaugural Bermuda Bowl in 1950 and represented his country on several other occasions. He won 34 national titles, many in partnership with Helen Sobel, and won the McKenney Trophy for masterpoint wins eight times, enabling him to lead the overall ACBL masterpoint rankings from 1944 to 1962.

Goren was named an ACBL Honorary Member in 1959 and was one of the first three players elected to the Hall of Fame four years later. He also spent many years as a member of the ACBL Laws Commission.

For a player of Goren's capabilities, it is a case of 'the difficult we do straight away; the impossible merely takes a little longer'. Try your hand at this 6© contract. West leads ©J but shows out on the second round. When you draw the last trump and cash the top diamonds West turns up with the bare eight. Can you see any chance?

	ª Q 10 4 © 7 4 2 ¨ J 7 3 2 § K Q 8
	ª A K 2 © A K Q 9 8 6 ¨ A K 6 5 § -

The only place you can park your losing diamonds is on the clubs, but with only one dummy entry you cannot both establish a club trick and then cash it. Or can you?

On seeing that he had two unavoidable diamond losers, Charles cashed ªA, then led ª2 and finessed dummy's ten! When that won he led §K and threw his ªK on it. Holding nothing but black cards, West had no choice but to put dummy in with one of the black queens and now both diamonds went away. This was the full deal:

	ª Q 10 4 © 7 4 2 ¨ J 7 3 2 § K Q 8
ª J 8 7 6 5 © J ¨ 8 § A 10 9 7 3 2		ª 9 3 © 10 5 3 ¨ Q 10 9 4 § J 6 5 4
	ª A K 2 © A K Q 9 8 6 ¨ A K 6 5 § -

That play deserved to earn Goren a big swing but for once justice was taking a nap. At the other table South overbid to 7© and the lead was the §A! Far from gaining a swing, Goren's team lost 13 IMPs on the board.