Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-07

in every kind OF bridge circle
~ and in all parts of the world.
No longer do we hear people ask whether
contract has come to stay. Instead we
hear them ask whether it will eventually
kill auction-some going so far as to
ask merely how long it will take for auc-
ton to be dead. A sane answer would
be that it probably never will kill auc-
ton any more than bridge has killed
whist. Auction is too good game to
be killed by anything, and years hence
there will surely be an enthusiastic
minority still preferring it to the newer
game.
Auction still possesses many more dew
otees than contract, but not in expert
circles. The better players who have
tried contract are almost unanimous in
preferring it as much better game, and
the great rank and file of average and
below average players now are turning
to it in large numbers.
Many auction devotees, including an
occasional first-rate player, have kept
aloof from contract because of a mis-
conception of the game. 1T was in
vented to promote the gambling in
stinct," says one of these. Going ON, he
opines that auction includes all the log
ical rules of legitimate bidding, so why
should they be violated for the sake of
enhancing the gambling spirit? The
success of the gambling depends on un-
deserved luck"
Fact is that contract minimizeS the
luck element and puts a premium on
for clxil 0Iox,iN
bidding skill for partnership to arrive
at final bid which is the full limit of
the number of tricks possible with par
ticular hand than merely to find the best
general declaration without regard to
the number of tricks bid. Contract
chastiSes numerically those wild bidders
who in auction used to make call in
the hope that partner had something
worthwhile in his hand.
Contract also emphasizes the impor-
lance of good play. When the contract
is high--as high as can be made by per-
feet pIay-the declarer has to deliver the
goods or accept penalty. Conversely.
the defense has chance to profit sub
stantially by extra good resistance, If 1T
can take one more trick than natural
amount indicated by its holdings. Prac-
tically every hand in contract, if bid
properly and played properly by both
sides, offers a close battle In case the
luck of the play breaks even, whereas
many auction hands of great power are
bid so low that there is no excitement
at all in the play; it is mere question
of how far past its goal the stronger
side can go.
As to the ethics of unnatural artificial
bids used by so many contract players
to assist a partnership to arrive at the
best final declaration-that is still an
other subject. But as test of skill-in
play as well as in bidding-and as an
eliminator of unSound chance taking,
contract far overShadowS auction. In
stead of catering to the gambling in
Stinct the new game goes a long way
toward wiping it out and forcing a
player to be sound in his application of
the laws of averages and probabilities.
1t is for that reason that the cham
pionShip tournaments are accentuating
contract more and more as a true test
of skill. In nearly all of them now the
contract title events far outnumber those
at auction. That will be the case this
very week when the second annual Sum-
mer tournament of the American Bridge
League is held at Asbury Park, N. j. The
only national title event at auction will
be the mixed-team- OF four contest for
combinations Of men and women to de-
termine possession of the Shepard Bar
clay trophy, now held by a team of Chi
cagoans. In contract there will be three
events of national scope.